ASSESS YOUR STORAGE
Determine how many shelves are in your linen cupboard and what should be in there. You may find that tea towels are best stored in a kitchen drawer, and blankets in each bedroom cupboard. It’s also important to plan how many sheets and towels you need. Most households have far too many per person, which just takes up valuable space.
DECLUTTER: EMPTY AND SORT
Empty your linen cupboard and make three piles: keep, throw, and donate. Sort through all your items and be brutally honest. Anything that doesn’t match, is too old, not your style, or perhaps doesn’t properly fit the bed, should be either discarded or donated (depending on its condition).
CLEAN
Since you’ve emptied your linen cupboard, now’s the opportune time to give it a complete wipedown to get rid of dust and signify a fresh start and an organised cupboard! You may also wish to lay down drawer liners, which keep things clean and even provide a nice fresh scent.
ORGANISE
The next step is crucial to a functional and neat linen cupboard. It’s time to organise exactly where things will go. An effective way to do this is to split them into categories: sheets, blankets, towels, bath mats, napkins, and whatever else you may be storing. Once this is done, you can then split these into summer and winter categories if relevant for the chosen linen.
Consider keeping things you use most often, such as towels, at body height, and those that are rarely in use (such as heavy winter blankets in the summer) up the top and out of the way. Sheets sets are easy to mix up and are often the root cause of cupboard chaos, so storing them inside a pillowcase is a great way to keep them together. You can even go the extra mile and attach labels so you know what size each set is or for which room it’s used.
EVALUATE
Once your cupboard is neatly organised you’ll need to use it for a little while to determine how well it’s suited for your household. Don’t be afraid to change things up if they’re not working, and ensure you remain vigilant about refolding items and keeping your system in place.
Once you’ve organised your cupboard and managed to maintain some kind of order, you’ll definitely feel much more free and satisfied. An organised home is a happy home, and the linen cupboard is one of the hardest storage spaces to master. So enjoy that fresh, clean, organised space and keep it that way!