An Organized Linen Closet (and Keeping It That Way!)

Now that our weather has finally turned for the better (pretty sure for good now), I'm itching to get outside to start cleaning out the flower beds and get planting! Gardening is another passion of mine and seeing the buds forming on everything is so exciting. I'm ready to get some color back to our exterior! 

But I'm on a mission inside the house too -- and I'm determined to finish up before I allow myself to start outside. I need to self impose deadlines on myself like that or it will never get finished. I'm a HUGE procrastinator. 

I'm going through our home bits at a time, using the Konmari method I told you about here. I've been implementing it for the past eight months or so and it's working. Our house is more organized than ever and it stays cleaner with minimal effort. I really thought our house would never feel like this but it's happening, slow but sure.

My latest project was all of the toiletries. Our master linen closet holds most of them for the house and because of the way I've organized it over the years, it wasn't a total disaster to start. I use bins to organize everything and that works for us for the most part. Over the past year or so it was harder to find exactly what we needed because someone was tossing random items in bins. I'm totally throwing my husband under the bus here if you can't tell. I never do that but the man does not pay attention to labels. I try to explain to him that they are his friend, but he doesn't agree. 

In his defense, the labels I had on them were small and some had fallen off. But still. I've discovered as we get older we are going in two different directions as far as stuff in the house -- I find I need and want less and less and he feels the need to stock up more and more. 

My husband gives me free reign with the design decisions in this house so this is a minor thing in my eyes. But I will keep fighting the good fight. It's my fight but so be it. So. My first goal was to go through everything we had. This photo is the epitome of "it gets worse before it gets better": 

I find that to be true pretty much 100 percent of the time when it comes to purging and organizing. This is the moment when I have to walk away for a little bit and take a break because I get overwhelmed. I come back refreshed and ready to go. 

I went through every bit of the items we had in there -- down to little bottles of nail polish that I don't use anymore. I consolidated what I could -- have you ever noticed how big the packaging is for so many items? I hate wasted space so I did things like take the random bandaids out of boxes and put them all together in a Ziploc bag. 

I've always kept extra lotions and items because of a mentality I've had all my adult life -- hating to waste items. I'm realizing that letting items sit forever without using them is just as wasteful. Now, if I don't like the scent or don't love it in general, it goes in a donation pile. It's been a really long process and taken a big change of the way I look at things to get to that point. 

I had three bags on hand as I sorted through everything -- recycle, donate and trash. When I was done with this closet (I also did the bathroom vanity), I had a bag of trash and half a bag of recycling. The donated bag will go to Goodwill and the extra toiletries will go to a local women's shelter. (Call around to see if places near you will take items that aren't brand new -- chance are they will.)

My goal was to make the separation of the items easier for both of us (but mainly for my adorable husband who I love dearly). I went BIGGER this time, and I'm crossing my fingers that this will work. I cut down some scrap wood that we had, sprayed it with chalkboard paint and then labeled them: 

I drilled holes into each side and then attached them to the fronts of the bins with twine.

I think this will work SO much better: 

My absolute favorite bins are these Sterilite versions: 

I use these exclusively in all of our closets and under cabinets. They are super sturdy, easy to grab, hold a ton and are really easy to clean. 

Want to know the best parts?? I got rid of TWO smaller bins and we now have an empty shelf. We've never had an empty shelf!: 

I showed my husband that we don't need to buy body wash or deodorant or lotion for like five years. I've said it before and I'll say it again -- you spend less when your items are organized. I've found over the years that we purchase more of something simply because we can't find it. But now we're stocked up in case there's a national deodorant shortage so there's that.

My one regret when we built this house was that I didn't have lights added in the closets. Seriously every time I open one I curse the fact that I didn't make that happen. I've added a few battery operated lights in them and this closet has these Insta Bulbs: 

I have two in this closet and I like them. The reviews aren't great online but I think they let off pretty good light. They do drain the battery quickly if you leave them on but I never have them on for more than a few seconds. I prefer a light sensitive version that turns on when you open the door, but for an inexpensive fix these work great: 

By the way -- I used to roll our towels and I really think it is great for a smaller space. You can really fit a lot in, but on a larger shelf like this they tend to roll open and it drives me crazy. I stick with folding for that reason. :)

I'm so happy to have this spot done! Now I'm moving on to cleaning supplies. It really doesn't get more exciting does it? I mean, I know you want to come to my house today. Do you have any helpful linen closet tips? Feel free to share!

My Tricks for an Organized Coat Closet

Hello there! Man, we are all on the struggle bus today. It's always such a shock to the system to head back to normal life after the lazy days of break. It seriously pains me to get up on these days. (I'm a late owl so it's always a struggle anyway.)

This weekend I focused on getting the house back in order, at least somewhat. Funny how we weren't even here most of last week but somehow when we return with suitcases every room seems to explode with stuff. I'm still working my way through categories of our home, using the Konmari method I told you about here. 

Since it looks like we'll finally have some consistent spring weather this week, I decided to tackle the coat closet next. I've shared this little space a few times over the years -- it's one of my hardest working spots in the house. It's funny because we have a lot of storage in this house, but not a lot of closet storage -- at least those that hold things other than clothes. :) I used one of our linen closets to create my son's book nook years ago so we now have one linen closet, a coat closet and a little space in the utility closet to store the day to day necessities. 

Like I said, this one works hard for us. I started by clearing everything out of it: 

This photo makes me laugh -- I still can't believe all of this fits in there. I'll show you how in a minute. :) 

The issue we've had is on the floor -- the winter boots usually get tossed down there and get jumbled into a big mess. Because I'm a bagger, the floor is my spot for those bags (notice only one that was down there this time! I'm getting better!) 

I have always kept the vacuum in this closet so that takes up floors space as well. So I put together a quick fix for the boots that helped tremendously: 

I grabbed two pieces of scrap wood (together the shelf is about 11 inches deep) and installed it with scraps of wood as brackets underneath. I attached those to studs where available (this is only holding shoes so it doesn't need to be crazy strong) and then placed the boards on top. 

HUGE help people! Usually the simplest solution is best: 

Because I had some extra space down there I brought up the carpet cleaner from the basement so it's easily accessible. I was able to move a few things around in our utility closet and place the vacuum in there -- I'm so stinking excited to have that thing out of here! Only took me 12 years to figure out a better spot for it. :) 

I went through all of the items in the closet -- we got rid of four coats/jackets and numerous hats, scarves and pairs of gloves. This cubby is one of my favorite organizational tools: 

This is the one I use. It allows me to store so much little stuff in this closet and they are easily accessible -- it's so nice in the winter to just grab a pair of gloves for the Bub when he's running out to the bus. I have each section labeled -- there's a row for each of us, one for winter stuff in general and then one for summer items. I keep extra sunscreen and bug spray in those. 

I have always kept small umbrellas and ponchos in here too, but I dawned on me that we only use those when traveling. I put larger umbrellas in the back of the closet and in our cars, but the smaller ones we only use when we travel to NYC. The ponchos are only used on Disney trips, so both of those items went up to the guest room dresser with the rest of our travel gear. It makes so much more sense to store them there.

In the winter our scarves hang on the top two hooks, but now the beach/pool bag takes their place for easy access: 

My son's bookbag hangs on the lower hook every day. Those are actually drapery hooks and they work great to hold tons of stuff! (See more about that here.) While I was at it, I washed all of our coats and winter gear too. 

Oh and yeah…I ran out of time when I painted that door forever ago and never did the inside. Ha! It's been like that for a long time now, who knows when I'll get to the inside: 

If you'd like to know how to make a similar mossy letter, check out this post. I found that cutie when cleaning out the basement a couple weeks ago and it's still in great shape! 

It's so nice to have this spot organized and cleaned up. I've come a long way in a couple years -- this closet used to be my dumping ground and it's not been nearly as bad lately. I pack a lot of storage into this little space! I'm just happy we won't need those coats again for a very long time! :) 

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