Linen Closet Organization

Linen closets.  They can be a thorn in your side or a super useful space.  Mine has been the former  because I have not organized it properly at all.  It's a really great space that is original to the house.  It's located downstairs in the main hallway leading to the original 2 bedrooms (now they are the kid's bedrooms).  

Enough about the problem.  Onto the solution!

The biggest thing I have learned with organizing is that you really have to spend time thinking through the space/area and determine what you want the outcome to be.  In this case, I wanted the outcome to be a functional, usable space for kid's and guest linens.  The bottom drawers will be used for household supplies (lightbulbs, indoor toolkit, batteries, sewing kit).  

The before pictures.  Would it be possible to cram anything else in here?  SERIOUSLY!

I cleaned out all the items and made 3 piles:

1. Give away/donate
2. Put back in
3. Put somewhere else

Since we were snowed in or rather I didn't want to venture out in the snow, I did this on a $0 budget.  I found the storage baskets, scrapbook paper, and stackable storage items around the house.

Linen Closet contents:

• kid's sheets and mattress pads
• yucky towels (i.e. everything but nice towels)
• guest linens 
• extra blankets
• toilet paper

Top drawer

Bottom drawer

That, my friends, is a total transformation of this space!  It went from a crammed, unusable space to a lovely, organized and functional space.  My husband's favorite part were the drawers.  Organizing all of that chaos even speaks to a man's heart:) 

Next project: upstairs linen closet space...