It's only my second week of paring back and I already feel GREAT! Our home seems so much lighter. I can now easily see my wardrobe, subsequently minimizing the daily deliberation of what to wear. This past week I took the purging one step further by addressing our linen closet. I've learned a ton by doing so, and I'm ready to share...
Our linen closet's adjacency to our master bedroom punched-up my reaction to the entire purging process. It's centrally located on the second floor: to its right is a bathroom and to its left is the second floor's smallest bedroom. Frequently walking by those cute double doors (pictured above), I'm reminded of my project to Live with Less and feel inspired.
Project Recap: During Living with Less, Week 2: Clothes and Coat Closets, I pared-down my clothing from three bedroom closets to just the one in our master bedroom. Success, I declare!
Lessons Learned: Living with Less, Week 3
- Assess: Remove everything from the closet and place it on your bed or table. Separate items by category: bath towels; hand towels; washcloths; sheets; blankets. Compare what you have and determine what is unnecessary.
- Paring Back: In contrast to the experience I had with my wardrobe, I realized there wasn't anything to remove from our linen closet; if this is your conclusion as well, it's okay. On the other hand, if you find unnecessary linens and towels, be ruthless! Remember: keep only those items that are essential, valued and beautiful.
- Organizing: Instead of paring back, I simply needed to better organize by neatly grouping similar items and folding my fitted sheets.
- Multi-Purpose Storage: Having a place to store cleaning products on the second floor was very important to me, and after organizing the shelves, I realized it was possible. I carved out a space at the bottom of the closet, making the supplies conveniently accessible.
Questions? Comments? Are you following along or thinking about doing so? Let us know!
(Image: Landis Carey)
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I grew up using one bath towel a week as well. I use one bath towel and a one hair turban every week. You are clean after you get out of the shower after all, if not, you don't know how to shower properly....
@Trish1980 - great idea to fold the entire bed linen set together. I don't know how many times I've had to dig to find the matching flat sheet & pillowcases! :)
@Trish1980:
Love the idea of physically packing items together! I just organized them, by placing them together, but your idea makes much more sense!
We only use one bath towel/two washcloths each week, as well. And I change them on laundry day, unless I do laundry midweek for some reason!
Thanks for the tip...I will include it in next week's recap!
Best,
Landis
I am in the process of doing this, and I cannot believe how good it feels to get rid of some stuff. I actually just washed all my old towels this morning to give to my mother, since they are still in great shape. They match her bathroom, not mine, so there was no need to me to keep them after I bought new ones. We also only use one, sometimes two, towels each a week, so when I bought new ones I only bought 6 instead of the 8 I had before. That way I still have some for guests and emergencies.
You can also donate old towels to your local humane society for bedding for the animals.
I really enjoy reading the lwl-posts!
Sheets.. I kinda do the same thing, but I place everything in one pillowcase, that way I only have to packages in my closet and don't have to dig through everything. And if it's nice and warm outside I save myself folding sheets by washing them first thing on saturday morning, hanging them out to dry (no problem here) and puting them back onto the bed later that day. Same for towels (which we keep on GRUNDAHL-racks in the bathroom.. but anyway).
Oh.. no, we don't have a dryer and I don't want one.
The tradition of folding linens in threes is very old (I just read the book!). Much neater than any other way, and I see you do it!
I solved the digging for the full set of sheets problem by paring back to three sets of sheets (one on the bed, one in the under-bed storage, one in the laundry) from the same line, in complimentary neutrals. That way even if I decide to mix and match, it's OK.
The only flaw is that the line has now been discontinued (of course), so I am hoping these sheets last for a while!
How often are the cleaning supplies used, rarely? That's my guess because they're in a hard to reach spot on the floor.
Check out the pix I posted along with some simple math to help you fold clothes like a machine.
My suggestions... put the cleaning supplies in containers and move them to the middle shelves. Put some of the less frequently used linens in containers and drop them to the floor.
With a little more work, it'll look great!
Done! Since moving to JA, we have donated lots of linens to families in the country where the temps can hit the 40s during the winter months. I had the same quilt in the post and donated that set to a family that was recently flooded out of their home....feels good to give.
I really wish I HAD a linnen closet...
Yeah, I'd love a linen closet! Speaking of stacking things together, at my parents' tiny little lake cottage, they put whole sets of sheets inside a pillowcase because they store linens in narrow Elfa drawer units inside their tiny closets---even easier to grab that way than when folded together.
I too "packet" the set of sheets/cases into one of the pillowcases, but I store the extra packet in an extra drawer in the room they'll be used in. I only have two sets of sheets per bed - one on the bed, one ready to go or in the laundry.
I like the idea of "packeting" the towels, too. I may try that. I also fold my towels in half and thirds. They are compact and stack so well that way.