Our linen closet was definitely one of those places in our home that I avoided because the chaos drove me crazy. I just shoved stuff in when I had to.
Here is a progress shot after I half-heartedly tried to organize it a little while ago:
The two biggest improvements for this closet were adding a fifth shelf and a new overhead light. My fabulous husband made both of them for me :).
Here is a picture of the new light:
I'm going to write a whole post about how we transformed our hall way ceiling, but I wanted to include this picture to emphasize how adding light into your home can make a huge impact. Before, this portion of the hallway had no light. I couldn't even see what was going on in the linen closet; which did not help the chaos within. Now that I can actually see what is going on in the linen closet, I can see what we have in there.
The second biggest change was the addition of another shelf:
Before, for whatever reason, the shelves had stopped belly-button height. This left a lot of wasted space at the bottom, especially because the space is so narrow I was unable to find some sort of storage system to fit.
When starting an organization project, I like looking through Pinterest for inspiration. Seeing pictures of what others have done not only inspires me, but it also helps me visualize the outcome. Here is my favorite example of a linen closet:
See how this linen closet has a similar shape to mine? It also includes many of the same items. Both of these are important when finding inspiration for an organizational project. Fortunately, I did not need any space in my closet for toiletries, so I had a little extra space to work with.
My first step was to empty the closet and sort everything into piles.
I know it looks crazy, but it made sense to me.
I then cropped all of my shelf liners to size.
See how they flop over the side of the shelf in the picture above? When we moved in I was so busy unpacking I just threw them in there. Now that I had everything off the shelves I just felt like it made the whole space look sloppy.
Next, I had the hubs add hooks to the back of the door.
My inspiration photo used rods, but our closet does not have enough space between the door and the shelves to allow for rods, so I decided hooks would work just as well. I picked these up from Target last weekend. I think they were under $5.
Simple and cheap. That's the way I roll.
When I was looking at all of my piles of things to put back in the closet I realized that we did not need to keep everything I had in there. For instance- do I really need to keep my college dorm room bedding with matching pillow that I don't even like any more? Or my childhood bedding that has been used to shreds? After purging I ended up with 2 garbage bags full to donate. I was so excited I loaded up my car and drove to the closest Goodwill drop off that minute.
Once I put everything back, there was a lot more breathing room. Here is the after shot:
Sorry I can't get the whole thing in one picture- our hallway is a little narrow.
Several things- firstly, adding hooks to the door was amazing. It's like getting a whole extra shelf. Never underestimate the impact of adding storage to the back of doors. Secondly, I love labels. I used Martha Stewart for Avery self adhesive book plates.
It's so wonderful having things labeled. When showing my husband the space after I was done, he walked up and said, "Great! Here are our blankets." No more him having to asking me where everything is in the house!
I'm so excited to have this done! Now I can reach for a towel without pillows tumbling down on top of me!
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