Organizing a linen closet can be an endless project. Towels and sheets can easily become mixed up, and piles of neatly folded dinner napkins can go awry (we have all been there).
Leave it to Martha Stewart to give us some helpful tips on how to organize a linen closet, with wisdom and simple steps that are easy to follow. Those tips stem from an old clip found on the treasure trove that is the Martha Moments Instagram account, they are just as applicable today.
'I think I first started dreaming about having a real, organized linen closet when I was a young girl in Nutley, New Jersey, babysitting for a very nice couple on Elm Place,' Stewart explains of her affinity for organizing linens. 'They had the nicest house on the street, and the woman was very organized. She had the most beautiful cupboards, all down the long hall, and in the cupboards were all her neatly folded sheets and towels, dinner napkins, tablecloths, and I thought then,' Wow, what a great idea. Maybe someday I'll be that organized.
She continues, 'It's hard to be organized like that, but I think finally, in this nice room that's devoted to storage, I have a place where I can organize all those linens that I need on a daily basis.'
This pack of 10 lavender sachets conveniently comes with attached hooks for easy closet placement. There's a reason why this scent is so popular with Stewart, and it's just as popular today as it was when she first released this footage.
A roll of cardboard is essential for following Stewart's method – but where can we get one quicky? Amazon is a safe bet... it'll arrive quickly so you can experiment with Stewart's method even faster.
In the footage, we see Stewart utilize the handiest tool of all: A label maker. There will always be a need for some appliances, and this closet hero is one of them. Use it in the same way as Stewart for a cupboard that stays tidier for longer.
Stewart gives a great tip for table linens, which are notoriously difficult to keep neat and tidy in the closet due to their size.
'It's awful hard to find a spot where you can keep great big squares of linen, the napkins, in an organized fashion,' Stewart says in the video. 'This is finally how I've solved the problem: take a roll of cardboard, and just roll your napkins around the cardboard. Then, I cover the roll, leaving the ends open for air, with clear cellophane. I have several rolls of different widths of cellophane, and this works so well. Then I just keep them right on the shelves, and all the napkins are kept just that way.'
With towels, Stewart recommends a simple technique of folding and stacking them in piles.
'As far as bath towels and all the towels for the bathroom, I keep them folded all the same way so that they hang very easily over the towel bars, and they look good,' she says. 'They're folded in thirds and then in half, and in half again. I just keep these on the shelves, organized according to size and color. Everything has its place now, every washcloth and every hand towel.'
Finally, she suggests keeping a linen closet smelling as good as it looks with the help of a dried flower.
'To keep everything really fresh, some homemade sachets made out of little handkerchiefs. Just tuck them in on the shelves. Lavender, really fresh and lovely.'
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