ORGANIZED LINEN CLOSET: THE MAKE OVER REVEAL!

I am so excited to share our organized linen closet reveal with you today! It is probably the most gratifying before and after I’ve ever tackled. Well, when it comes to organizing that is.

Last year, when I revealed our kitchen pantry makeover, I felt the exact same way. I still love it to this day! It cost very little and functions perfectly for us.

What I love about today’s reveal, is that it’s incredibly functional and so beautiful you are going to love this too, I promise. I’m thrilled with the results and can’t wait for you to see.

I shared my plans for this linen closet organization as well as a few other current projects last week, it’s all in this post I also organized my kitchen drawers, what a difference it makes!

Today is all about our beautiful, clean, bright and airy, organized linen closet. Come and take a look.

*Affiliate links are provided throughout, or at the bottom of this post. Please see my full disclosure policy here.

OUR ORGANIZED LINEN CLOSET MAKEOVER REVEAL!

Here’s a little peek into our newly organized linen closet. I knew I wanted as many baskets as I could fit into this shallow space, that was both functional and beautiful. 

Some are tucked deep into the sides of the closet and couldn’t be photographed. 

I could have easily just folded extra items and tucked them in, but I really wanted everything to be housed in its own storage basket. Easy to grab when needed and everything contained. Keep reading to see some before shots and the gargantuan mess that I pulled out of here and purged.

We have a very narrow, dark hallway, with no natural light whatsoever, so it was very important to me to bring a light, airy and open feeling to this space.

We recently updated all of our doors handles throughout our home, and we added some beautiful matching glass knobs on these doors as well. 

All of our new hardware, including our front door, is from Emtek – they are exquisite! 

You can see how narrow this space is, and luckily, our linen closet is nice and wide. Unfortunately, it’s very shallow, so it can be tricky to store things here. Clever storage and careful editing were a must for this linen closet.

LINEN CLOSET – LET’S SEE THE “BEFORE”!

Do you remember this from last week?! Not so pretty is it? 

It wasn’t painted, and it was chockfull of mismatched sheets and stray towels. 

Not to mention the years-old toiletries…

I took everything out of the closet, including the shelving so I could give it a fresh, bright coat of paint, and also be able to see what I actually had in here. I can’t believe the difference the white paint makes. It’s amazing, really. Those brown, MDF shelf brackets or shelf dividers added so much visual noise.

Now that I had a fresh clean palette to work with, I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. I also gave the doors a few paint touch-ups as well, they really needed it!  

This color is Cracked Pepper by Behr and is used on all of our interior doors throughout our home.

Below are the complete contents of our linen closet. It truly amazes me how much stuff we had ‘stuffed’ in there.

Literally. There was so much surplus – sets of sheets, hand towels, old shampoo bottles, expired medicine, you name it.

So many items I haven’t actually seen in a few years, or even longer…items I figured we’d use eventually, or that I kept ‘just in case’ I needed it for something.

That’s a perfect recipe for accumulating a whole lot of clutter.
What I learned, most importantly, is there is absolutely no need to hold onto things like this!

I must have had six sets of twin sheets I’ll never use again. Here you can see everything I compiled to either donate or throw away (that wouldn’t be of use to anyone).

There was so much unnecessary clutter in that closet that was taking up valuable space, and giving me stress every time I opened the door – and I had actually cleaned it out a few years ago!

LINEN CLOSET – THE FINAL REVEAL!

What I love the most about this organized linen closet, is that everything I kept has it’s placed and is beautifully stored.

Baskets have become my best friend and the different styles I found work so well together.

I knew I wanted a clean and crisp look, but not completely monochromatic… it needed warmth as well. A grey, white and natural color palette is what I settled on to create the look.

I’m sharing a lot of photos below, I hope you love this as much as I do!

I needed the top shelf and floor to hold the biggest and bulkiest items:

• Extra sets of bedding
• Sheets
• Toilet paper
• Bath mats
• Tissue boxes
• Towels and more

So I set out to find the biggest baskets this closet could handle. At 11″ deep, it was a challenge, but I was able to find some that fit perfectly at a local retailer (I’m linking similar ones to shop further down!).

I used fabric baskets on the top shelf for our extra bedding, and the lined wicker baskets on the floor for toilet paper, tissue boxes, towels, and bath mats.

The second shelf holds all of our medicine (this closet serves double duty since our bathrooms have very limited storage), extra toiletries, bandages, heating pads, and all of those beautifully packaged drug store items that add to that visual noise I was talking about. 

I decided to use these very handy natural woven baskets to conceal all of it. They’re tall enough to hide bottles of peroxide and such, deep enough so you don’t see the contents, and within reach, so everything is very easy to find. 

Our kids are teenagers so there’s no need for labels or keeping things within reach (or out of reach) for small hands.

More towels and washcloths are stored in additional baskets and on the shelves as well.

Our bath towels have to sit sideways, because of the shallow depth of the shelves.

It used to be a challenge to fit everything in here, but now that I’ve purged so much, and gotten rid of so many unneeded things in here, there is a ton of space and it feels like a breath of fresh air.I’ve kept only what we use, what we need, and a few additional items.

I even have some extra space in here that’s not being used, that’s how much I was holding on to.

I had so many extra ratty towels and bath mats – the ones that aren’t nice enough to donate, get used in the garage for rags.

The same goes for old sheets. Whatever can’t be given away gets used for drop cloths – I always need them for painting projects.

 It feels so great to have all of this extra space and such a clean look in this linen closet.

I’ll be honest – I don’t like organizing at all – it’s the reward that I love so much! This project was a lot of work.

Cleaning it out, sorting, painting and deciding what to put where afterward, was both physically and mentally tiring.

I think it took me about three or four days to complete, but I am so happy I finally got around to getting this done.

Nothing feels better than crossing a task off the list!

A place for everything and everything in its place.

Nothing makes me happier. It’s the little things ;)