Day 16: Streamlining Towels, Bedding and Other Linens

I love a comfy, well-made bed, with a cushy mattress pad, soft sheets and a big down comforter. I also adore getting out of a nice hot shower and wrapping up in large, fluffy bath towels. Household linens are some of my favorite things, and a neat, streamlined linen closet can extend the life of expensive bedding, towels and other home linens. When properly cleaned, folded and stored, linens are protected and ready for use. Here are some tips for decluttering and organizing your bedding, towels and other linens.

Sheets and Bed Linens

• If you spend a third of your life in bed, you might as well have nice bed linen. Sort through all your bedding, and get rid of anything torn, faded or threadbare, and unload anything that doesn't fit the bed sizes you currently have. There is no "right number" of sheet sets to keep, but a good guideline is two sets per bed. 
• If you have kids that have the same bed size (I have two boys both in twin beds), consider having them share bedding. Buy sheets that can be mixed and matched, so you don't have to worry about matching up sheet sets.
• Store bedding either in a central location (if you have a nice-sized linen closet), or store it near the bed it's used for. Sheets for the master king-size bed are stored in our room, the boys' twin sheets are stored together in one of their closets, and the queen-size guest room sheets are stored in the guest room. Storing linens with their respective beds saves you from having to sort through sheets of different sizes.
• Sheets sets can be folded neatly and stored inside one of the pillowcases to make it easy to keep sets together. If you mix and match sets, fold sheets neatly and keep fitted sheets together, flat sheets together and pillowcases together. 
• Clean and fold extra blankets, comforters and duvet covers, and store them with sheets for easy bed-making.

Towels

• Sort through all your towels, and get rid of anything torn, faded or threadbare. Divide towels by size so you can see how many bath towels, hand towels and washcloths you have. There is no "right number" of towels to keep, but a good guideline is two sets per person, plus an extra set or two if you have guests regularly. 
• Towels can be used more than once if you hang them to dry thoroughly between uses. You're clean when you used it, right? An easy way to keep track of towels is to assign each person their own color. 
• If possible, store towels in the bathroom they're used in. Master bath towels in the master bath or closet, kids' towels in the kids' bathroom, and guest towels in a cabinet in the guest bathroom. Or, if you have a nice-sized linen closet, you can store all the towels together. Depending on how much space you have, towels can be folded into squares or rolled to save space. 
• Store beach towels separately from bath towels. I keep mine in a drawer under my dryer in the laundry room (and they're easy to get to in case of a "water emergency!")
• If you have pets, keep one or two old towels around for pet emergencies, for baths and for wiping muddy paws. 

Other Linens

• If you use tablecloths, try to pare down to just two or three. Store them on hangers in an extra closet, or on an over-the-door towel rack in the pantry or linen closet, as near to the table as you can. 
• We use cloth napkins instead of paper napkins. Try folding them into rectangles and storing them in a basket on or by the table. Since we use cloth napkins daily, our napkins don't match, but it's not as obvious since they're stored in a fabric-lined basket.
• Rags and cleaning cloths can be corralled in a basket near the cleaning supplies. 
• Sort through dish towels and dishcloths, and discard any that are stained and raggedy. About five years ago, I invested in 10 coordinating dish towels, and they're still going strong. Since they're all the same, they fold and stack nicely, and they take up very little space in a kitchen cabinet.
• When discussing simplifying laundry days, I recommended washing towels and sheets separately from clothing. However, when it comes to dish towels, cloth napkins and cleaning cloths, I toss them in with regular laundry and clothing all the time. We use natural and green cleaners, so they don't have any weird chemicals on them, and it's easy to keep up with them since they take up very little space in a load of laundry. 
• What do you do with all the old linens you're discarding? Items still in good, usable condition are always needed at missions and shelters. Threadbare and worn items can still be very helpful to animal shelters and vet clinics. Or, if you have a pet of your own, consider filling their bedding with your discarded linens.

This post is part of the Fresh Start Series, 31 days of tips and tricks to simplify in the new year.