Linen Closet Organization + Makeover Reveal

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I’m so excited for today’s post! Getting my linen closet organized has been a long time coming – much like many of the spaces in my home. But I finally pulled myself together and tackled purging and organizing! Excited to share my linen closet organization / makeover with you today.

Deep inside, I am an aspiring minimalist.  Photos of zero clutter in spaces make me giddy. I can only dream about what living in a space like that would be like, knowing that realistically, it will probably never be a reality for me.  But perhaps I can get close!

I’ve always believed that if your surroundings are peaceful, and everything is in its rightful place, life will be easier and your mind can focus on other priorities. 

Aside from my strange obsession for well-constructed cardboard boxes and amazing vintage furniture that needs a little bit of love, I am not really a hoarder.  But, admittedly over the years, I have accumulated lots of stuff that I can do without. So, I am on a mission to go through my home room by room and elevate each space to godly beauty and organization.  

Today, we are starting with the linen closet.  Do minimalists have linen closets?  Let’s go with yes.

I wish I had a BEFORE photo. I really thought I took one, but I’ve looked everywhere and can’t find it. Perhaps I deleted it out of embarrassment or trying to repress how truly disorganized I was.

Just take my word for it when I tell you it was a hot mess!  And this is after I already got rid of a LOT of extra blankets, sheets and pillows. While a lot of the disaster is simply from my laziness of folding fitted sheets (oh the horror of folding fitted sheets!!), I was certain I could edit more than I already had.

How to Start Organizing Your Linen Closet

Before we get to my AFTER, here’s a process I recommend to get your own linen closet in order:

Declutter and Purge

Before even thinking about your linen closet organization, you MUST remove everything from the closet and get ruthless about what to keep and what not to. While everything “fit” into my linen closet, I was just shocked at how much useless junk and tattered old linens I stuffed in there over the years. In addition to what’s currently in your linen closet, I suggest that you go around the house and round up ALL other linens so you have a clear idea of all your items.

Get rid of anything that is:

• tattered, threadbare or worn
• stained or faded
• anything with a funky odour
• mismatched and not part of a full set
• not part of your colour scheme

I redeployed most of these items as stuffing for our moroccan leather poufs.

Donate or sell good quality linens that don’t match your selected colour scheme. Now, I know you’re thinking this is crazy and a little too OCD, but a word on this…I think clutter is both physical AND visual. It might seem a little painful to get rid of linens that are in really good quality, but the point here is to be neat, minimal and organized! Some linens are just not going to make the cut, and that’s the reality of life.

Organize Like with Like and Fold and Stack

After decluttering, I ended up with these items that would need to be stored in the closet:

• 6 bath towels (for 2 adults and 2 babies)
• 6 hand towels (for 3 bathrooms with 4 vanities)
• 12 baby washcloths (could have probably gotten rid of these because they aren’t really used)
• 2 kids’ hooded robes (could have also gotten rid of these because the kids use regular bath towels, but they’re cute)
• 2 coverlets (ok, so I know I told you to be ruthless, and I was! But I did end up keeping these because they are nice and I have grand plans to dress up my bed nicer)
• 3 extra standard size pillows (Lincoln uses the fourth one)
• 1 extra king size sheet set
• 2 waterproof mattress protectors (1 king size, 1 crib size)
• 1 extra crib sheet
• 6 fleece throw blankets in grey/white/black colour scheme

Now that everything is cut down to just the essentials, fold everything into neat little squares like Marie Kondo does and stack by category.

Update the Interior of the Linen Closet

For maximum linen closet organization, this part is really important. It is not 100% necessary, but I highly recommend it. If you want things to function to their best ability, smart and minor tweaks need to be made.

My linen closet came with those standard Closet Maid white wire shelves every homebuilder puts in. BOO! These shelves are terrible! I ripped these out and installed smooth white shelves that make it easy to slide baskets and blankets on.

My linen closet had double bi-fold doors. I am not a fan of bi-fold closet doors because when opened, they take up real estate from the closet opening, limiting my reach. These doors were removed and replaced with french double doors. LOVE! We made this upgrade on all the closets throughout the house and it’s one of the best things we ever did!

After a new coat of paint on the interior, we were done with our updates. These updates were simple, quick and impactful!

Plan Everything Out with Smart Storage Solutions

Only AFTER you have done the above steps should you start planning how everything is going to fit back into the closet. My plan for my linen closet organization looks like this:

In general, frequently used items should be stored near the bottom. For example, store your washcloths and bath towels on low easy reach shelves, and extra pillows and duvets on top shelves.

After you map out where everything will live, start making note about what baskets, bins and trays you will need to keep everything neat. Sheet sets should be kept in baskets or boxes so they don’t fall over and get disheveled easily.

We love our throw blankets, use them often and kept quite a few. So I wanted a storage solution that could keep them all neat and provide easy access. Queue the large blanket basket!

I knew I wanted to keep dedicated cleaning supplies for the upper level of our house somewhere, so into the linen closet they go. We also keep the garment steamer in here because I have nowhere else to put it.

If you get to a point where things are not fitting, it’s time to reconsider the items you decided to keep. Get back into that purge mentality! Ask yourself if you REALLY need the items. Try to keep only frequently used linens. If you really can’t get rid of anything further, then think about a different spot in the house for some – laundry room? bedroom closets and drawers? bathroom vanities?

Revisit Periodically

There is no such thing as one and done with organization. Make sure to revisit your linen closet periodically to assess if things are starting to accumulate, or become disorganized again. If they are, get into that ruthless mindset again and start editing!

My Linen Closet Makeover Reveal

Without further ado, here is the full AFTER of my linen closet!

My favourite store in the world (aka Homesense) had woven hyacinth storage baskets on sale at the beginning of January.  This is when Homesense always has new home organization stuff available so if you’re in the market for baskets and bins, that’s the time to go.

I saw this set of wire storage baskets that I really liked and picked them up from Amazon. They hold our extra rolls of toilet paper and these great grey-white Turkish Hammam hand towels. 

I also picked up these hand towels from Amazon.  They replace the white hand towels I’ve had for many years.  I had so many of these white towels, some were still unused! Most likely I followed some wedding registry guide somewhere when deciding how many to buy.

Other amazing Amazon finds: these Turkish cotton jumbo bath sheets.  My husband is kind of a giant.  So he LOVES the size of these towels.  After using these, I am now also in love and will never go back to regular size bath towels. I took the leap and donated all our regular size towels.

I’m happy to say that I can now open my linen closet, take in how pleasing it is to my eyes, and get what I need from it without digging through mountains of balled up fitted sheets.  I feel like Martha Stewart, and that gives me so much joy. Not to mention being able to have that feeling of a weight lifted off my shoulders!

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Let me know in the comments below how you guys manage your linen closet organization needs. What items do you keep in there? What tips and tricks do you use for organizing it? I’m always on the lookout for more life hacks!