Assessing Other Closets in Your Home

Besides our clothes closets, we have many other closets in our home. Here are some tips for handling organization in the other closets of the house.

• Linen closets
• Clean out the closet completely and wipe down the shelves.
• Throw away sheets/sheet sets that are dirty beyond repair or missing important elements of a set.
• Organize items on the shelf logically on a shelf together – keep like items on the same shelf.
• Store sheet sets in the closet with the fitted sheet, flat sheet and one pillowcase all in the other pillowcase. This way, when you pull out one of these stuffed pillowcases out of the closet, you know you are getting the whole set all at once.
• Match all the towels that go together – bath towels, hand towels, washcloths, etc.
• Divide your linens by room: master bedroom, kids room, baby’s room, guest room, hallway bathroom, and so on. Then sort your linens by color.
• Throw away non-sentimental, old blankets, quilts, towels, etc. that have not been used in the past year.
• Keep dining room linens, such as tablecloths and coordinating napkins, in a cabinet or drawer in the dining room or kitchen.
• Remove everything from the linen closet that is not used to make the bed or bathroom – what belongs here includes sheets, pillowcases, towels, blankets, etc.
• A general guideline is keep only 3 sheet sets bed – one that’s on the bed, one that’s in the laundry, and one that’s in the closet. You can have more or less if you want, but that is a general rule of thumb.
• Keep the items that you use most frequently most easily accessible – at eye level in the front.
• If there’s extra room in the closet, feel free to store linen sprays, first aid kits, luggage, other paper products, etc. in this closet.
• Guest room closets
• If your guest room is doing double duty as another purpose as well (like the home office), make sure the closet accommodates all uses of the room.
• Keep all items a guest may need in one large, clear plastic box, clearly labeled “Guest Items.” In this way, your guest is less likely to start rummaging through the closet looking for things he needs.
• Store extra office supplies in this closet, like a box of refill staples, extra printer paper, etc.
• If space allows, store other rarely used items in this closet, like some of that seasonal décor that comes out once a year.
• Utility closets
• Common elements of this closet include cleaning products, light bulbs, cables, brooms, bags, hardware, etc.
• Hang brooms and mops on the wall. Keep all the cleaning supplies – brooms, cleaning products, scrubs, brushes, soaps – all together, so cleaning a job is a cinch.
• Store light bulbs together in a safe spot in a box on a higher shelf.
• Label all your cables and put them all in a bin, so that the cable you want is quickly and easily accessible.
• Coat closets
• These closets are typically located near the entryway and used to store outerwear and all-weather gear.
• Use baskets on a top shelf to store scarves, hats, gloves. Alternatively, you could use a set of drawers on wheels to store these items. Make sure you have a shoe rack to store the shoes that you will store in this space.
• Near the coat closet is a great place to have a bench or some sort of seat to facilitate taking shoes on and off by the door.
• If you are fortunate enough to have a dedicated mudroom, organize it by creating little cubbies or shelves for each member of the family to store some personal stuff, like bags, books, keys, etc.
• A high shelf in the coat closet could also store some rarely-used seasonal items as well, such as the Thanksgiving-themed salad bowl or the Halloween –themed punch bowl.

To view the rest of the posts in the Home Organization Series, please click here.

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