I planned on attacking the linen closet on Day 15, but decided to put it off for another day. The task seemed too daunting. It’s not terribly unorganized, but I’m not sure how to best utilize the large, deep shelves and drawers. I’ve included a picture of it at the bottom of this post. I would love to hear your suggestions.
Once I have a plan, tackling it will be easy. The hardest moment of each day this month has been starting. That’s it. Starting. And I know starting is the hard part for many of you, too, from the conversations we have had in the comments. (I love the all the chatting this month, by the way.) I’m here to tell you what you already know: you can do it, and once you do you’ll feel like you can conquer anything.
I’m not sure why that is, but I suspect it is because we reevaluate and reject long held constructs of consumption, possession, and adulthood when we clear out a tangled space of our own creation. It’s a good feeling to appraise your life (via one messy closet) and make a conscious effort to live in harmony with your ideals. Of course, that euphoria all goes to pot when you slice your heel on a lego and your son can’t find his shoes for school, but Rome wasn’t built in day.
Instead of the confounding linen closet, I decided to tackle two small drawers in the kitchen. They may be tiny, but they held the dubious honor of Most Messy, and I really thought I would be at it for the better part of an afternoon. They took an hour, and that includes the time I spent at Target buying more contact paper. Again, I am amazed at how out of tune I was with my own home. My problem is not an overabundance of useless items. If anything, my problem is an overabundance of space. I have enough drawers and cupboards and cabinets and closets that I have been able to toss spatulas about like confetti. With no real, pressing need to organize…I didn’t. To acknowledge I have been a poor steward of that which I am blessed to have is disappointing, especially since this is the opposite of how I was raised, but at least now I know. Time to suck it up, take my medicine, and do better moving forward.
After an hour, I had a small lunch bag and one drawer organizer ready to donate. Everything else, when placed neatly, easily fit between the two drawers. I believe the technical phrase for this kind of project is piece of cake.
My only true challenge was finding a way to store my small collection of cookie cutters. While at Target, I browsed the home organization aisle and found a small plastic tray I could easily tuck in a corner of the drawer. It was ugly, but what I had in mind– until I saw the price. $6 for a small, unattractive piece of plastic. It’s not that I am cheap, truly. In fact, I probably would have tossed that bin in my cart without a second thought any other month of the year. This month, however, the succession of home improvement projects I am tackling, along with the confines of the quote (useful, beautiful) has made me a more thoughtful consumer. $6 for something I didn’t even like seemed like $6 too much. I was hoping to find an elegant solution at home, but I was okay with cookie cutters floating around the drawer, too.
The second I put down the ugly plastic bin and turned toward the Halloween costumes (Mikey, mummy; Nico, Ninja Turtle) I remembered an empty wood box that once housed a glass Christmas ornament I received as a gift years ago. I saw it the other day in the garage while I was corralling all the wrapping paper. I didn’t even debate tossing it out, and now I’m glad I didn’t. It holds every last cookie cutter. I guess good things really do come to those who wait.
New here? For the next 31 days Im living according to the famous William Morris quote. You can learn more about the project here.
Here is the linen closet. What do you think? I was going to hang organizers on the door interiors to store medicines and guest toiletries, but I think I may have enough space on the shelves to make that unnecessary. Don’t worry, I’ll address the missing door pull.
That fact that you are donating a drawer organizer on day 15 speaks volumes. Cool.
Not sure about the linen closet. The only thing I can think of is treating it as if it were not deep. If you have the luxury of not needing the entire space. I don’t know. My mind is muddled. I spent most of yesterday going through my clothes and jewelry and I am still not done. When my husband walked into the bedroom yesterday he stood there for a moment and then proceeded to simulate a dropping and then exploding bomb. Hopefully it will look more peaceful by this evening.
Perhaps one draw for each bed/sheet type or persons bed? My linen closet is more a regular closet turned sideways (plus it is over a set of stairs. We added wire shelves the long ways. I keep the towels on the shortest shelf and sheets on the two above that and blankets on the top shelf. extra boxes of tissues sit on the floors and nicely scented soaps are scattered on the shelves.
I see what you mean about the problem not being the amount of space, but your stewardship of it. That’s my problem. I’ve always figured if I had a drawer deep enough for things to float around and I didn’t mind fishing through to find what I needed every time, what’s wrong with that? I do have my share of useless items that get pushed to the side every time so I guess I should start with getting rid of those things.
I always knew where everything was in my kitchen, but I was amazed at how quickly I cooked dinner this week! I guess all those seconds used on pushing aside useless items really adds up.
It is okay to have empty drawers!
I would probably stack towels on the lowest shelf, sheets above. Like colors and sizes together. I keep our washclothes folded in a bin that can be pulled out, which helps keep them from being lost in the back of a shelf.
In the drawers: quilts and blankets (one or two each), kid games, holiday decorations.
Good luck!!
For me, I’d rather have empty shelves. Drawers seem so much easier to organize. I may just store toilet paper and towels on the shelves and leave the drawers for linens.
I’m glad you mentioned having an abundance of space. We have the same unusual blessing in our 1948 home, with nice size closets and a huge 1/2 unfinished basement. Yesterday I had the inspiration to move our DVD collection from one area in the basement to some unused cupboards right by the computer (which is connected to our TV, so that’s where we’d actually use them) and my husband agreed to get rid of 47!!!! I’ve never sold on eBay, so we’ll see what happens, but I was thinking of you, and really, really happy to be able to get rid of some “stuff.”
It’s a mixed bag with older homes. Some have zero storage, and others have storage coming out the wazoo. I’m glad I’m in the wazoo camp.
I am enjoying your posts immensely! I have similar challenges with possessions and it helps so much to see your photos and read about your positive and cheerful solutions. I have a big, deep closet like yours too, although without the drawers. What works best for me for small things like first aid supplies or light bulbs are baskets. They keep like items together, so things don’t get lost in the back where I can’t reach them easily. I like being able to pull the basket (or of course you could use any sort of bin, from cardboard through wire) out and have everything together to choose what I need. And I have labeled them so I can grab what I need quickly. Good luck, and keep having fun!
Thanks, Pati! :)
I’ve really been enjoying your series!
I recently did my linen closet, which is just a regular closet with shelves. I started with getting rid of everything we don’t need. The old towels I was saving just in case we needed more than 10 bath towels at once went bye bye as well as extra sheets, pillow cases etc. that didn’t go with a set. I also sent all the flat sheets to my sewing room because we stopped using them on our beds. Now we just use a fitted sheet with a nicely duveted down comforter to keep us warm. This makes making beds a wonderful thing, as opposed to the big pain in the rear it used to be.
Then I piled all the extra blankets on the top shelf because we hardly ever need those. We have one extra fitted sheet and pillow case(s) for each bed in the house so the next shelf was given three labels for master, guest and girls’ sheets and the sheets were placed accordingly. We have two different colors of towel sets for the two bathrooms so the next shelf was given labels for master and girls’/guest towels and towels/handtowels/washcloths were placed accordingly. Then I put all the lightbulbs in a big plastic bin and gave it a lovely label in front as well as a cheat sheet on the lid describing the necessary wattage for each light fixture in the house by room (i.e. entry- 100, lving room – 50/100/150, etc.). The lightbulb bin shelf also got two small shoebox size bins – one for batteries and one for misc. stuff. There are also a few other things in there, some on shelves and some in bins.
This efficiently organized and labeled linen closet has enabled my husband to acquire sheets, towels and lightbulbs quickly without having to pester me for information about what exactly he’s looking for and where exactly to find it.
I guess this might be a bit long and tedious, especially for a first comment, but I hope it at least gets your idea wheels turning!
I’ve been debating losing our top sheets for years. The only reason I haven’t is because it gets so hot where we live. I like to sleep with something on me, and sometimes all I can stand is a sheet! Of course, the other reason is because it feels like I’m breaking some sort of rule by not having a top sheet. Lame. Actually, I don’t think they use them at all in Europe.
Yup, top sheets aren’t used here. At least not in Germany.
I too have a deep linen cupboard which has shelves. I have the towels and bedding we use ‘everyday’ stacked at the front and the lesser used items – guest towels/sheets, swimming towels – stacked in behind. This works quite well and I have figured out the best way to fold everything to maximise the space. Good Luck!
I found this idea from Martha on Pinterest: http://www.marthastewart.com/273392/add-brackets-for-neat-stacks?czone=home/organizing/organized-home/easy-organizers
Of course if its really deep you’ll either have to look for larger ones, or something else. But it might work for the things in the back (like mentioned above, putting swimming towels or things you don’t use as often) so they don’t shift around. If you look on her lowest shelf in the picture she has a basket with items in it, that might work as well. Our main closet is pretty deep and I do double up towels.
Good luck! We’re in a tiny house so I have to do this often and am feeling the itch to work on some more areas, your comments and thoughts are sticking with me as I go around the house and look at areas I need to make work better.
Oh, I love that! Too bad my shelves are so deep. I’ll have to file that idea for somewhere else in the house because it’s really pretty.
Inspired by you, the junk drawer is a think of the past. Silly thing is that I was avoiding it for years, but it only took 30 minutes to deal with. 50% trash, 25% stuff that belonged elsewhere, 25% that oranized nicely once all the other crap was gone. Next stop, make up drawer. Should be easy as I always wear virtually the same stuff everyday. Do you ever think it’s weird that you’re A type and creative?
WOW! That linen closet just gave me a flashback to my grandparents’ house. I’ve only ever seen one like that in their home before.
Anyway, we have deep shelves (no drawers) in our linen closet, and I corral medicines and first aid supplies in bins on the shelves (one bin for adult meds, one for kid meds, one for first aid). I have the towels two stacks deep on the shelves, larger towels in back, kitchen towels/hand towels/wash clothes in front of them. It works out pretty well. The linen closet is the one area of our house that IS well-organized.
I broke my promise and missed a day of commenting! I have an excuse: over-night babysitting my 11 month old twin nieces and 2.5 year old nephew (according to Wikipedia, collectively called “niblings.”) In my normally child free home. Parenthood is not for the faint of heart!
I’ve actually been feeling quite convicted about my stewardship of our home recently. This weekend, in and around the babysittibg chaos, we managed to get it cleaner than its been in months. I think its fair to say that keeping your posts in mind had been both a blessing and an encouragement!
But seriously, niblings?? What an.awful word. :)