The year is just flying by and we’re almost at the half-way point of the 52-Week Decluttering Challenge. Can you believe it? Last week’s laundry room decluttering was quite a marathon for me. This week, I decided to tackle something a little easier. In week 23, it’s time for some linen closet decluttering.
When we think of clutter, the first thing that jumps to mind is what we see when we look around our homes. It’s one of the reasons many decluttering experts recommend starting with those areas. But clutter goes beyond what’s visible. Just moving things around and stuffing them in drawers and closets doesn’t make them go away. When we do that, we’re not really decluttering because we’ll still have to deal with what’s in those closets and drawers one day. The linen closet is one of those “out of sight, out of mind” areas for many of us.
Like the medicine cabinet, the linen closet is an area I hadn’t paid much attention to in the past. Will I find as many surprises here? Let’s get decluttering and find out!
What is the 52-Week Decluttering Challenge?
In this year-long journey, we’re tackling one task at a time with the goal of cleaning up and organizing our homes. If you’ve just joined us, no worries. You can jump right in with this week’s challenge. Just check out the first two posts in the series to download your free checklists.
You can get easy access to all previous weekly posts on the main Decluttering page.
Week 23 – Linen closet decluttering
Last fall, I did a first round of linen closet decluttering as part of the 31-Day Declutter Challenge. Before that, I don’t think I’d ever completely emptied out my linen closet. I learned a lot from that exercise, and I’ll share those learnings with you today.
This week’s decluttering and organizing tips
Before we get to what I got rid of, here are my tips and learnings from week 23.
How many sheets and towels do you really need?
As you take inventory of the contents of your linen closet, think about how many of each item you need. Then, keep only those items and get rid of the rest.
Let’s think about sheets. Realistically, most people need only 2 sets of sheets for each bed in your home. Last year, in my first round of linen closet decluttering, I counted 9 sets of single bed sheets. We have only one single bed in our house. At one time, we had 2 single beds. When we got rid of the second bed, we never got rid of the sheets. My daughter loves her fleece sheets in winter, so I kept 4 sets of sheets – 2 for winter, 2 for summer.
Similarly, I recently saw a discussion thread in a Facebook decluttering group about the “right” number of towels you need to have per person. The biggest thing I learned from that discussion is there are lots of different views on whether towels should be used more than once before washing. For today, I’ll set aside the debate on the amount of water that’s wasted washing towels that have been used only once. But reading that thread did make me think about how many towels we really need.
In our house, we have 2 bath towels per person – one to use, and a spare for when one’s in the wash. We also keep a couple of extra sets of towels for guests and, we have a few sets of hand towels because I change them more frequently. That seems to be enough that I can avoid constantly doing laundry. Then, in addition to our everyday towels, we have beach towels, and I have several decorative Christmas towels.
Once you’ve decided how many items you need, you can decide which items to keep and which you can safely get rid of.
Keep things where they are used
Our linen closet is mostly sheets, towels and blankets. We keep kitchen towels and dishcloths in a drawer in the kitchen. One of my organizing philosophies is to store things close to where they will be used. I don’t want to run upstairs to get a dishcloth or tea towel every time I need a clean one.
Put commonly-used items at eye level
There’s not much to organize in the linen closet but, the one change I did make, was to put out-of-season and less-frequently-used seasonal items on the top and bottom shelves. That left the shelves with sheets and towels – the things I used the most – at eye level within easy reach.
What I got rid of
So, despite having got rid of a lot of items from my linen closet last fall, I was still able to clear out 15 items. Here’s what I got rid of this week.
- 1 cuddle blanket
- 1 old pillow
- 3 lace doilies
- 4 pillow shams
- 3 towels
- 2 washcloths
- 1 cloth napkin
So that’s week 23 done. Here’s the before and after picture of my linen closet. It’s a little less full and a lot more organized.
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What are your thoughts on the right number of sheets and towels we need? Tell us below.
I keep 2 sets of sheets for each bed and 1 bath towel per person. This arrangement works well for my family. I keep the extra sheet set in the room it belongs. After our towels are washed, they return to their hook in our bathroom. This has allowed me to turn our linen closet into a game closet. 😁
That is awesome that you’ve been able to repurpose your linen closet. Games are way more fun than sheets and towels! 😂 I was amazed last year when I realized I had 9 sets of twin bed sheets. That was an easy decision.