Organizing the Linen Closet

own our hallway to our bedrooms and my bathroom, there’s a 3-door dead end. It’s like one of those mazes – pick a door, which door will lead you to the – linen closet, coat closet, or the bathroom. It’s like its own little hallway. I don’t mind it because, STORAGE.

This little spot I put my shelf-liner touch on it immediately upon moving in our house 8 years ago – this was the first thing I added shelf-liner to and the start of my obsession. I found a pretty blue and white floral shelf liner from the 99 cents store and they have stayed put so well.

I added baskets a few years later and I discovered more baskets at the 99 cents store (listed at $2.99). In the past year this has become our linen, bathroom supply, and some blogging stuff closet (different than my closet in my home office). Nothing glamorous in fact picking a photo for a blog post cover sometimes kills me, but sometimes I have to let that go and just be like, it is what it is!

It’s not always about the pretty, it’s about the inspirational and tips, am I right?

We installed a light in this hallway thank goodness because it was so dark! The only light we used to have was actually the hallway light across the way which didn’t work. I am all for hiring an electrician to bring light to where you need!

The soft baskets are from Target (blue and white, solid white) and the harder plastic baskets are from the 99 cents store. The white metal bin clips are of course The Container Store – you should be used to seeing these all over my house by now. They come in white, black and gold. I print off the labels on cover stock and cut them.

My Beauty Backup basket has baggies in them (from Japanese dollar store called Daiso so they are cute) for eyes, lips, skincare, etc. I used to toss them all in the basket but I never knew what I actually had so I organized them. I have a permanently runny nose so Kleenex is always on hand, and I put the travel tissues in a larger plastic bag. The Giveaways basket is like overflow from blogging gifts, or gifts I have purchased and picked up and need to keep until that person’s birthday. I also put hostess gifts, emergency gifts, etc. in this basket.

When I pop in the 99 cents store I always look for these white basket with handles, they come in several colors.

Benjamin also has his own backup for bathroom so I gave him his own basket. He also wanted emergency food, I don’t now how I feel about this emergency food thing, but we’ve compromised over the years. So he has a few in this closet. The basket to the right has toilet cleaning wands, those kind of not so fun bathroom stuff, unglamorous stuff that the both of us need access to. These white baskets are from Target.

I found the pink plastic bins from the 99 cents store as well. They are called shoe boxes which crack me up because I don’t know what shoes can fit in there maybe kids shoes and flip flops. I decided to move items out of my bathroom drawers into these little guys – remembering that if I don’t need it in the next week or access it weekly, it can go into the linen closet or any storage area.

The Dymo labelmaker is my best friend, you can use any font you that is loaded on your computer but I just stick to a basic font.

I also keep store brand reusable bags like you see to the far left because I work on campaigns that require branded bags. I don’t want plastic bags in my shots if I can avoid it, but I also don’t want to be running around town every time I land a campaign with a certain store so I keep them there and don’t use them. There are also bath items that I don’t use but keep them for staged images for brands – because you need props!

So not a styled closet, but it does have a color scheme of white and blue and has been a good place for organization and storing blogging items, linens, and seasonal bedding and extra pillows! I hope this inspires you to do a little clean up around your home.

Resources:

• Label maker: Dymo
• White metal bin labels: The Container Store
• Soft baskets: Target
• Y Plastic bins: Target
• White plastic bins with handles: 99 Cents Store
• Pink bins: 99 Cents Store
• Shelf liner: 99 Cents Store

Diana Elizabeth used to call herself an organized hoarder. Sometimes when she’s organizing and putting other things in more container or baggies she questions herself. She has recently decided if she hasn’t used it in a year, it goes. If it doesn’t make her feel fabulous and is more “meh” then it goes.