How to Design a Linen Closet
According to ShopSmart magazine, 18 percent of women are embarrassed by their closets. And linen closets, especially, seem to be a catchall for items not even remotely related to bedding and towels like cleaning supplies, mops, ironing accessories and more depending on what room you have it in. Let's look at some ideas for taming closet overflow and ways to save money while doing it too. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Inventory
- Paper and pencil
- Scissors
- Vinyl contact paper, wallpaper or fabric
- Adhesive spray glue (optional) or fabric glue
- Sticky paper labels
- Magic marker
- Hooks
- Wire or plastic-coated shelf dividers and under-shelf wire baskets
- Various storage containers
- Shoeboxes
- Plastic boxes
- Linen boxes
- Plastic linens bags
- Trays
- Baskets
- Metal tins
- Plastic wastebaskets
- Hanging closet rod or swing out rod
- Lazy Susan
- Space bags
- Ladder
- Screws (optional)
- Electric drill (optional)
Instructions
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Divide and Conquer
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Inventory and separate everything you want to put into your linen closet. Put the towels in one area, bedding, blankets, quilts, toiletries, whatever---separate it into same or like piles.
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Figure out how to divide up the space in a general way: make a quick sketch. You will probably want bedsheets and things you use often to go at eye level. Winter items or seasonal items will most likely reside at the top shelf or in the back of items. Look over what you have and how often you use it, delegate space roughly on paper.
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Make and gather what you can before you spend hundreds of dollars on expensive closet supplies. For example, free shoeboxes look great when covered with wallpaper, contact paper or fabric. Find an assortment of boxes and doll them up, then lay them out with your inventory.
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Collect storage items from around the house, such as baskets, hooks, metal tins, plastic containers or waste cans.
Buy items like metal or plastic-coated wire shelf dividers. Add in one hanging rod and space bags. -
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Clean shelves. Let dry thoroughly and completely.
Allocate your space. Affix under-mount wire baskets to shelves that have a lot of space between them. Look for other ways to divide up the space with wire shelf dividers and set them up. -
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Begin to lay out and fold items for disbursal. To keep bedsheets together, fold them small and stick them inside the matching pillowcase. A wonderful way to store towels is by rolling them because you can stack the rolls. Same with toilet paper, remove from its packaging and stack the rolls.
Put large blankets, quilts or little-used items in space bags and store in the back of the closet. -
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Put medicines and toiletries into covered shoeboxes or lined baskets. If going with boxes, put a sticky label on the front and mark it with its contents. Group cleaning supplies together in a plastic bucket or place bottles and sprays on a Lazy Susan for easy retrieval.
Stick small items such as hair accessories, candles, sewing kits or other like odds and ends into metal tins; many come free as packaging for candy, popcorn or other purchases. Put small linens like placemats or napkins into those free zippered plastic bags you get when you buy linens and pillowcases. -
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Survey the scene as you apportion space. Install hooks for sports bags filled with beach towels or hang purses or totes loaded with cans of hair spray and tall bottles.
Fold heirloom and antique linens in sheets of unbuffered acid-free paper and put them in a cedar box if possible. If you use these items (and you should) install a hanging rod and store things like tablecloths folded flat and stacked over the rod with acid-free tissue paper between sets. -
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Use trays or acrylic office supply trays for smaller items or medicine bottles laid down and with the label face-up.
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Tips & Warnings
To cover boxes with fabric, cut fabric to a manageable size, use adhesive spray on the box, and then smooth fabric on with hands; corners wrap like a present.
If you want items to be returned to the same place, tag shelves with sticky labels.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit Clipart.com
