Very nice. My closets look nothing like that.

Swoon, in my newest apartment I have a linen drawer...

I cleaned out mine and it feels great. stacking sheets end up so messy looking so boxes are a big help.

This is timely for me as I'm trying to figure out how to organize my linen closet. You'd think you could just fold towels and sheets and put them away, but not so. Somehow, over time, they rebel and before you know it, your piles are all askew. I like some of the basket ideas featured in this article.

The secret to organization appears to be to have lots of room and not a lot of stuff.

Great job. Here's a tip:

Rotate your stacks of linens 90-degrees so only one fold of each item is on the edge of the shelf. That makes it easier to grab just one towel, etc. You don't have to stop and think -- Do I need one fold, or two, or three? Your stacks will stay neater, the shelves will look neater and you'll save yourself a little time.

This goes for any stacked item. For instance, it's easiest to access a paper napkin if the single fold edge is outward.

I love the idea of the rails on the inside door. Our linen closet is what we call a 'hot press' with the hot water tank stored there with slatted shelves above it. Hanging towels on the inside of the door would help them dry, what with the extra heat in there.

I live in a studio with limited space for linens and one of the best organizing tips I read and still use is for bed sheets: fold all pieces but one pillowcase of a set and put them inside the left out pillowcase. It makes it super easy to keep bed sheets organized and accessible.

The only way I can keep my linen closet looking halfway neat is to forbid my husband from putting any linens away. He thinks it's okay to just cram things in wherever they will fit and then spend 10 minutes digging around for a towel under the sheets.

I'd love to hear more about how you converted the dead-end closet. I live on the second floor of a house split into two apartments. My front door opens to what was the front hall, with stairs up on one side. I've hung curtains to carve out some space, but would love to hear about other temporary (ie. renter) solutions.

We did the same when we first moved into our condo (zero linen storage... why do builders do this?!?). The only spot available was a shallow, narrow corner in the hallway between our bedroom and guest bath. No enough room to build a proper closet, so we installed white IKEA kitchen shelves that were designed to go on the end of their base cabinets as open storage.

Happily, they were just the right size and shape and no modifications were needed; one outside corner was cut off at an angle, so there was no danger of anyone injuring themselves on a sharp corner when entering/exiting the bedroom. And since it is open storage for all the world to see, yes I do keep everything folded neat and tidy just like the pictures. I have no choice. ;)

seriously. who only has one quilt?!

You know what's in my linen closet? My clothes, shoes & a couple of purses. Because our bedroom closet is small & only my husband's clothes can fit in there. So we keep extra sets of sheets under each of the beds. Same with extra blankets. Towels stay in the bathroom.

In a cousins house, they have a linen ROOM. Yes. A room. It's larger than my bedroom. And it has beautiful built in closets/ drawers to keep everything. It's beyond lovely. When they bought the old house it was in bad shape, so they restored everything. Their linen room is my favorite in the house.

Wow, I was just wondering where I should keep my spare coral!

Thank you MONZ. That's a really great tip on storing sheets.
Another plus is having roll out trays for those deep line closets. Especiall for the very bottom shelf.

Hey, if anyone has any ideas for marking on the sheets, so its visible when folded/stored, what the size of the sheet is, I'm listening!

I have twins, doubles, and queens. I never know what the heck I'm pulling out... and I just don't have enough space to do three different stacks of sheets... Yeah, I know, the solution probably lies is just being more damn organized, but I'm wondering if there's a lazy-woman's/man's approach out there.

As they say: First world problems, right?

Really nice. Agree with Terry, the key to a nice looking anything is to get rid of the visual and actual clutter. We are remodeling our mudroom right now which used to have a coat closet that wasn't very functional, so we moved the laundry appliances in there (they used to be in the mudroom itself). We are planning on building mudroom storage for coats, etc, and then struggle with the amount of *STUFF* we had to store. So my new solution is to move all of the out of season/rarely used items somewhere else and keep only the items that are used on a daily basis in the mudroom. I know this is not a "new" idea, but it's new to us and hopefully it will work.

Magoo, why not store the sheets under the mattress of the bed to which they belong? You'll always get the right size AND you'll free up closet space.

Why is there a lit candle in pic #5? Organized closets are great... Candles are great... But no.

Yeah, I gave up on trying to keep linens in a closet. They always end up disorganized, and if you never mastered the art of folding fitted sheets no matter how many times you watched the Martha Stewart video, then it just looks like rubbish. Nowadays, I keep all my clothes in my closet (hanging or in bins on the shelves) and use the dresser for storing linens.

The key to keeping sheets and towels organized (mostly) for me is to keep then on narrow height shelves. If the stack is not very tall, it doesn't fall over. For a rental, I bought on old wardrobe that just fit the space I had for it. The space wasn't as deep as modern wardrobes made for clothes hangers are, so I found an antique one that was less deep than the modern ones. It was made to be be taken apart, so moving it is not as hard as a piece that is made to be moved in one piece.

I then found shelving to put inside by carefully measuring the space and finding a shelving unit set-up that just fit inside, using all the space inside. I bought a lot of shelves with the shelf supports, so I could put them fairly close together. I put them inside the wardrobe (the back unscrewed so that I could pop the shelving unit inside once I put it together) and had a linen closet.

@Magoo1, what about marking clothes pins with the sheet size and tagging sets that way? Store the set inside the pillow case and clip the pillow case with the pin.

What saves more space: stacking towels or rolling towels? I hate the look and feel of a rolled towel. Do people do it to save space or because they like the look?

one thing I've found fits perfectly in my relatively deep linen closet is wine boxes. marking boxes with different size sheets seems like it would be the best way.

I have to keep my towels etc, in a small piece of furniture with oddly-shaped cubbies. I can fit enough for 2 weeks if I roll, only 1 if I fold, because there is not room for 2 stacks in the openings. If you really hate rolled, have you tried folding in different configurations? You might be able to make stuff fit that way,

My linen closet was a fright! Overflowing w heaps of toiletries, shelves were too wide, deep & tall. Completely non-functioning. Always bought too much toothpaste, but routinely ran out of dental floss. This wknd, purchased several 'multi-function separator XL' from Container Store, $7/ea. http://www.containerstore.com/shop/office/fileStorage/portable?productId=10022942&N=74545&Ns=p_sort_default%7C0

Had my pre-schooler organize the heap of toiletries in to labeled bins (dental, kids, hair, travel, etc). Now, grab what I need in an instant. Can also see at a glance when I am running low on dental floss. It's glorious & my husband cannot stop raving about it! You know you've done good when you sneak a peek at your organization project every time you walk past it.

I have to add to my earlier post: all my towels and linens/duvets are white, except for some beach towels and tablecloths, which I keep in long, narrow wicker baskets. Keeping everything the same color eliminates visual clutter, too. (After years of having multi-colors, I finally embraced all white -- a mussed, unmade bed still somehow looks neat if it's all white, ahah.)

Good tip!

I'm going to try this as I have way too many sheet sets and not enough room to store them (neatly). I always end up looking for a missing pillow case!

You could stack the sheets in letter trays and mark the letter trays instead.

fold the sheet set & then store each set in one of it's pillow cases. that way nothing goes missing & everything stays together.

that said, while i am an avid reader of YHL, i call B.S. on their linen closet pictured here. it's just a bunch of pretty boxes, nothing looks particularly useful. it looks nicely styled, but not for real life.

Oh if only I had the patience to organise my linen closet! Green with envy, but blue with all my laziness....

@Magoo - my grandmother always just labeled the edge of the shelf with "Queen, Full, Twin" etc. and then stacked the appropriate size sheets (in their pillowcases, super neatly) above the right label.

My current solution for linen storage: Sheets in bundles in an under-bed box, blankets on the top shelf of my wardrobe, and towels on a shelf over the bathroom door. I live in a tiny british house that has not a single closet, so we have to get creative up in hurr.

Looks similar t mine. :D It makes me so happy to see an organised closet. You have no idea. Lol!

I have to get into the closet but I ve been avoiding it. The pictures are encouraging

Katlian, me too! It is SO ANNOYING to organise the linen closet and then have someone shove things in wherever - I even labelled all the shelves so he'd know where to put thing, but even that didn't help!

If you have room to store a huge piece of coral, I don't think storage is a problem for you.

As far as the fold versus roll goes - I roll mine. It is easier to grab one without taking the whole pile and the pile doesn't fall over. The worst that happens in the kids' linen closet is that one of the towels rolls into another slot. (And occasionally comes slightly unrolled.)

We have a lot of beach towels (we live in Florida so we are often at the beach or pool year round) and they are rolled and placed into large baskets at the bottom of the closet. That way we can just pull out the basket, grab a few, and go.

1900 sq. foot home, 0 linen closets....how did we not notice this when purchasing?

I love the baskets with the yarn labels so much!

I am going all-white with sheets and towels too. They match everything, I can bleach them if they need it, and I can mix sets.

I also agree with the idea that you place linens in the cupboard with a single fold facing outwards. This looks so much neater. And personally I find we only need one set on the beds/in the bathroom and one spare set. Visitors can use the spare. Saves heaps of room.

We keep spare toiletries in the bathroom (no more than one spare of most things) and spare toilet paper on a shelf in the toilet.

Sometimes even putting in a custom closet does not work.I designed and installed many all over NJ,NY AND PA,And I came to a conclusion that sometimes people have to let go of some things.Custom closets definitely gives more space,looks beautiful and increase the value of your home.