A big project I tackled yesterday was organizing our linen closet! I wanted to show you guys this large wardrobe that I am using as a linen closet. One kind of long term project we are working on is getting rid of some of the closets in our home and turning them into more livable spaces instead. Basically, we have more closets than we could ever need & when I have a closet I stuff it full of things instead of organizing it. (P.S. Yes I totally have a Monica closet or two). In our upstairs hallway closets line the entire hall, so my goal is to get rid of some of those closets and turn that space into something else! I know that may sound odd to want to get rid of closets, but imagine an upstairs with four bedrooms turned into an upstairs with two bedrooms & the rest is just closets. We want more bedrooms and less storage. Here is my first step to doing that by making this cabinet a linen closet in our bedroom…
This cabinet is an antique linen press from the 1800s made from pine! They used to use linen presses as a cabinet to store linens & I love that we are bringing that back into our 1800s farmhouse as well! Here I am storing pillow covers, throw pillows, sheets, quilts, and basically all of our bed linens. One feature I really love about this piece is that all of the shelves on the top slide out. I can store multiple layers of items on each of these shelves and slide it out to easily get to whatever is in the back! The bottom drawers have linens and clothes in them.
5 Tips For Linen Closet Storage
- Empty out your linen closet or linen cabinet. Sort all the items in groups: Donate, Trash, Keep. Then sort your Keep items in like piles like bed sheets, pillow shams, pillows, & more. Tip: Dust/Clean the shelves before putting all the items back in.
- Store similar items together on the shelves (all pillow shams together, flat sheets together, king pillow covers together, etc). It will help keep you organized and make it easier to find what you are looking for!
- Fold things so that you can see each item without having to search through it. I stacked the pillow covers so that I could see the different options I have available!
- Drawers or storage baskets are great for the items that don’t fold as well and could make your closet appear messy. Add baskets/bins on shelves as needed for loose, small, or messier items. Tip: Measure your shelf width and height before going out to find baskets.
- Make it smell good! Honestly I Love the smell of a natural linen closet with the laundered linens & wood combination creating it’s own natural fragrance. A few scent tips if you want more: A basket or bowl of soaps is not only great storage but offers amazing scent, an open candle, essential oils dabbed on linens, satchels of dried lavender & of course not putting any lines in the closet that are sour or smell bad. Put a box of baking soda in the closet if you want smells to be absorbed just like you do in your fridge.
I love that it is really organized and that now I can have a good inventory of all of the bed linens we have! I still have to finish sorting through our linens and make sure I have everything we want to keep stored in here. But I have made SO much progress! I hope that this post inspires you to get started on that organization project/storage closet that you’ve been putting off … I’m so much happier now that I made some progress here. Thank you so much for stopping by the blog today and every day.