GingerBabyMama: Linen Closet Loveliness

I challenged myself this week to get back into Spring Cleaning Mode. After my 100 Item Purge Weekend Challenge, I felt so good letting go of excess clutter, that I knew I would be able to do it again.

I still haven't finished the toy room/computer room project, it is "in-progress" and will hopefully be finished next week.

To get back into the organizing swing, I tried to take on our linen closet. Back when I first started clearing the clutter, I managed to purge FIVE trash bags full of bedding for beds we no longer owned, and tablecloths that were horrendous! We had the closet nicely sorted and it stayed that way for a while, but like most things in life, the chaos crept back in and the closet was once again in need of some help.

I didn't want to spend any money on this project, so I just rummaged around in my cupboards and found some dollar store plastic containers, then I hit up my scrapbooking supplies to find ways to make my project pretty!

The closet holds our bed linens, towels, tablecloths, and my gift collection - when I find a good deal on something, I usually buy four of five of an item and save them for the inevitable upcoming birthday party/baby shower. I know that sort of goes against the ideal for a recovering hoarder to buy up a whole bunch of stuff, but what can you do?

I started by completely emptying out the closet and sorting like items together: kids bedding, king bedding, table cloths, regular and holiday towels, etc. As you can see, we have a LOT of towels. Way too many for a family of four. But I couldn't purge all of them. I don't do the laundry (that's the laundry fairy, aka the Hubs) so if we run out of towels, we don't get more until he does the laundry!

I also found a great way to store the extra twin sized duvet and cover that we keep for the kids rooms.

I folded the duvet as tight as I could and put the duvet and its cover into the pillowcase that matched! I know Martha Stewart normally folds her sheet sets and stores them nicely and flat in the pillowcases, but this worked for me! Since we don't use this set of bedding too often, I stored it plus the extra pillows and random fleecy blankets for picnics and parties on the top of the closet.

I refolded all of the towels into threes, to fit more onto each shelf (and to make them prettier!) and I containerized the items that don't get regular use - the tablecloths, holiday towels and kids' beds extra sheets.

Then I got my craft on and pulled out some chipboard journalling tags, punched a hole in the tops and hung them from the containers with some pretty ribbon from my craft supplies.

At the end of the purge and organizing, I had quite a respectable donate pile, filled with 10-15 towels, five bed pillows (seriously,who has five EXTRA bed pillows?!) an extra comforter and sheet set that the kids don't use any more.

I also had a TON of extra space! I think I'm going to put my extra cake and cupcake carriers and display items in the remaining space in the closet.