30 Day Organize athon 08

30-Day Organize-athon | Day 8: Organize Your Linen Closet

30-Day Organize-athon 08

Welcome to the 30-Day Organize-athon!

In today’s 5 minutes we’re going to express-organize your bed linen, towels, and table linen.

Think: clarity, freedom, and order. Let’s start.

Day 8: Organize Your Bed Linen, Towels, & Table Linen

Step 1: Get a large bag (you may need to buy more bags soon!) and open up your linen shelves. Moving quickly from top left to bottom right, toss out any:

  • Sheets and pillowcases that are old, stained or tatty
  • Towels that are old, stained or tatty
  • Tablecloths that are old, stained or tatty
  • Napery that is old, stained or tatty
  • Blankets that are old, stained or tatty
  • Quilts that are old, stained or tatty
  • Bed linen, table linen and towels that are surplus to your general needs (allow for guests and keep a couple of old towels for spills and leaks).

Step 2: If something is really lovely, and can be rejuvenated by laundering or dry cleaning, and you’re certain you’re happy to make the effort, then put it into a separate bag. It’s unlikely anything else will be donation-worthy, except perhaps excess table linen that’s in good condition.

Step 3: Pop your bag(s) into the trash and/or take to the car for dry cleaning/donation.

Step 4: Do a quick re-order of your linen closet to make better use of the newly liberated space.

And you’re done!

Got an Extra 5 Minutes?

  1. Check your pillows – do you need to update them? If so, add pillows to your shopping list.
  2. Organize your linens with the main fold facing out, toward you. It looks much nicer this way. Smile
  3. If you have an attractive table, consider dispensing with tablecloths altogether in favor of placemats. You’ll save on storage space and laundry.

Now don’t you just want to admire your beautiful linen closet?

The 30-Day Organize-athon Mantra

Move fast. Don’t overthink. Let it go!

Start the 5-minute timer now.

Leave Your Comment Below…

Please leave a comment below to say you’ve completed today’s task.

See you tomorrow!

[Image by aussiegall]

227 thoughts on “30-Day Organize-athon | Day 8: Organize Your Linen Closet

  1. Sarah says:

    I keep two sets of sheets. They get changed on the weekends just before laundry. Hubby and I each have a towel that we use all week and wash on weekends (hey, we’re clean when we use them, right?) and a few extras for cleanup or whatever. Not much to do with this 🙂

  2. Stacey says:

    Day 8, done. I actually did this on the same day that we were supposed to organize the bathroom tolietries. 🙂

  3. M.E. says:

    excellent! Complete this one end of the month (read one of your 30 minutes a day tasks that prompted me to get this done!

  4. Kimberly Cole says:

    Wow, this was really easy for me. I keep clothes folded on the shelves in my linen closet. Towels live rolled up neatly in a basket in my bathroom. And as for linens? Well, I’ve got two sets for my bed and two sets for my son. The extra sheets live under the mattress so when it’s time to change the bedding I can just pull them out and they’re nice and pressed. Extra blankets live in the blanket chest at the foot of my bed. I did toss a couple of blankets that my son has managed to make less than desireable and plan to donate them to the local animal shelter. For those of you who don’t know, homeless doggys and kittys need blankets, too.

  5. PSO says:

    This one was MUCH easier than yesterday! I was on top of all our linens and just managed to give away 2 old pillows that my friend will use the filling for her project. Thanks for keeping me organized!

  6. Marla says:

    Love the idea os storing the sheet sets inside the corresponding pillowcase. I also used a sharpie and marked the tag on each set with the size. Found a spot for ‘slop’ towels that we use for spills and pets, too.

  7. Nancy says:

    Done.

    Upstairs linens are fine but the kitchen linen drawers were crammed. Stained dish towels, cloth napkins we don’t use anymore, aprons, old baby bibs and the like. It was scary!

    But now I have extra space. So I guess I should reconsider using one of the drawers for something else. I love opening the silverware drawer now (got a new caddy to replace the one dumped earlier this week).

  8. jjon says:

    This wasn’t hard for me as I just have one spare set for each member of my family and two for guests. And I fold with the main fold facing out 🙂

  9. Debra Stanley says:

    Hi
    For me this is a hard one as we dont have a dedicated linen cupboard
    I killed that long ago
    What we do is for each set of linen that belongs to the bed i fold the sheets and put that in the corresponding pillow case and then put it in the room it belongs in
    A nice neat package that can be grabbed at any time day or night
    Depending on the bed type it either goes in a under bed storage container or in the blanket box for that room that way all the lined for the bed is in one neat spot

    We have a certain colour towels each and a few spares for visitors
    The rest have either been chucked or placed under the laundry sink for the floor
    We very seldomly use table cloths so they are neatly stacked in what used to be the linen cupboard but is now the games cupboard along with spare curtains

    All i needed to do was tidy our rolled towels in the bathroom unit

    Luv Deb

  10. Luca S. says:

    And while all the others sleep in the States, here in Italy all my things are done! Wow, I’m taking a good habit. Every time I see anything out of place I spend some seconds to tidy it up. Will we all become super-organized? 🙂

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