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One of the first projects I wanted to tackle while learning how to live simply was organizing my very small linen closet. I specifically chose this project first because I knew it would be relatively easy. It was one of the few things I had somewhat organized when we moved in a couple of months ago. I’m going to share with you a few of my tips for how to organize a linen closet.

How To Organize a Linen Closet

When we moved into our new home, I was pleasantly surprised to find large walk in closets in all of the bedrooms and ample storage space in the bathrooms. We were also blessed with a linen closet with several shelves and a large space at the bottom. While I would not consider this a large linen closet, it is larger than other linen closets we have had in past houses.

I think everyone has a different idea of what they should store in their linen closet. If you have no space in your bathroom, you may use your linen closet to store hand towels and bath towels. If you lack space in your bedrooms, you may use your linen closet to store extra flat sheets, fitted sheets, and pillow cases.

One trick for making bedding take up less space is to store the flat sheet and fitted sheet neatly inside a matching pillow case. When you have to change bedding, you’ll have the entire sheet set in one neat package!

Since I have place to store bed linens and an extra sheet set in bedrooms, I use my linen closet to store extra medicines, cleaning products, household items such as light bulbs, toilet paper, and paper towels, plus beach towels in my linen closet.

Here’s a look at the before picture of my linen closet. It was a disaster.

Here’s how I organize everything:

Pull out all of the items in your linen closet and purge. Get rid of anything you no longer use or need.
Sort and categorize items. This is where you can begin deciding if there are more appropriate places to keep smaller items. For example, can a sleeping bag go in a bedroom closet?
Round up your bins and baskets. These are a great way to keep items from falling out and all over the place. In this particular makeover, I used bins and baskets I already had.
Organize your items in bins and neatly put them back in the closet.

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Items to Help You Organize the Linen Closet of Your Dreams

Of course, you can get really fancy with your linen closet organization. One way to make your linen closet look more appealing is to use shelf liner. Shelf liners can give your linen closet personality and protect the shelves.

When I’m organizing a space I love to use storage containers. My favorite storage containers for closets are these collapsible storage bins. They are great for keeping small items corralled. I also use a lot of plastic shoe boxes with lids and other small bins and baskets.

Linen Closet Organization Ideas

So let’s talk about what I keep in the linen closet and how I organize it. I’m going to walk you through the simple steps of how I’ve separated items and keep them in my linen closet.

1. In the floor space at the bottom of my linen closet, I keep most of our bulky items. Here you’ll find large bottles of cleaner that I don’t necessarily use very often, toilet paper, and paper towels.

2. The next shelf up holds extra baby wipes and diapers. I think this would also be a good place for extra blankets if my family didn’t use all of the blankets we own.

3. The next shelf holds a variety of items. I have one bin full of products for our pets which include flea meds, nail clippers, and anything else pet related. I have another small basket that includes indoor plant food and some little furniture moving pads for easy access.

I have also included all of our beach towels on this shelf and I plan to get one more bin to hold anything water related such as sunscreen or aloe for sunburns. I have found keeping all of the items you need for a particular job or activity in the same spot really saves a lot of time!

One little tip: when placing linens on a shelf turn them so the neatly folded edge is facing out. It gives a much neater appearance!

4. I keep the items I take out of the linen closet the most at eye level. Here I have many of my extra cleaning supplies, as well as some all-purpose cleaners I grab when I’m cleaning the main area of the house. I also have a bin just to hold cleaning rags, and another to hold miscellaneous vacuum parts.

5. The shelf just above that holds our extra medicines, supplements, and first aid kits. I keep our vaporizer in this space, a little rice filled stuffed animal that can be heated in the microwave, and several shoebox containers that are separated by medicine type.

So, you’ll find a bin with stuff for stomach issues, another bin for stuff to help with pain/fever/colds, a bin just for kids medicines and a thermometer, another bin that holds our nebulizer.

6. The very top shelf of my linen closet holds items I need to use on a less frequent basis. I keep lightbulbs, batteries, and empty boxes of some of our electronics on this shelf. The reason I keep empty boxes is so they can be repacked when we move.

Rethinking the Organized Linen Closet

You may be wondering where I keep things like my ironing board, towels, extra sets of sheets, etc. I am a big proponent of keeping specific items in the rooms where they will be used. I have found this to be the best way to be able to easily access everything I need instead of having to hunt it down.

We have a laundry room in this house, so I bought this ironing board organizer to hang over the door in there.

I keep a cleaning caddy with often used cleaners in each bathroom and one in the kitchen. Bath towels are kept in bathrooms, bedding is kept in bedroom closets, etc. It makes so much more sense to just keep items where they will be used.

That said, I use my linen closet for overflow items. Extra cleaning supplies, extra paper towels and toilet paper, etc.

I have decided to hang a hook on the inside of the linen closet door to hang my Aldi bags. In previous homes, I used a shoe organizer on the linen closet door to sort out and organize cleaning supplies.

How To Create an Orderly Linen Closet

I think the one thing that makes a big difference in how orderly your linen closet is are coordinating storage bins. A variety of storage bins that organize and hold items, yet keep them hidden give a linen closet great visual appeal. You could even use a label maker to label all of the bins so you don’t have to look in each one when you need to grab an item!

As previously mentioned, this organized linen closet was created with storage bins and items I already own, so it cost me nothing. I do think I’ll add some more coordinating bins, though.

One other thing that will help you create an orderly linen closet is neatly folding linens. You really don’t want a big pile of linens laying in your closet. They’ll get wrinkled and possibly dirty. Use your imagination and give your linen closet a great makeover!