Organizing: Linens

Like almost everybody else in the United States right now, I'm on a mission to get organized and live a more simple existence. I want to be doing everything I possibly can to prevent my house from being showcased on Hoarders or one of those other shows where they basically point out how disgusting and cluttered people's houses are. And now that I'm in full-on nesting mode, my organizing desire has been kicked into overdrive.

Last year, we made a huge move from Hawaii to a small town on the East Coast, downsizing the size of our living space almost as much as we downsized the city we live in. I think our square footage got cut in half--or at least close to it, but at least we own this home as opposed to living in base housing like before. I absolutely love our little house, and couldn't wish for a better starter home for our family. It's far--very far--from perfect, but we're making it our own and falling more in love with it with each project completed. One of its many glaring imperfections is a lack of storage space. Our bedroom closets are all decent sizes, but the pantry, linen closet, and hall closet are severely lacking in storage space.

Due to our decreased amount of storage space, we've had boxes and boxes piled up in our garage since July, not knowing where else to put those extra belongings. Last week, during Darling's final days of leave, we (I admit, mostly he) tackled that overwhelming space and got it almost completely organized. We got rid of a lot of stuff we'd been holding onto for no good reason, put other items in organized bins on shelves in the garage, and found homes for the remaining items inside the house. Some of these "remaining items" were spare sheets and towels that I've been hesitant to bring into our already-crowded baby linen closet until the garage-organizing and box-eliminating sort of forced me to. That, and we might need some of those extra linens for once the baby arrives, since we'll occasionally have people staying in our home to watch the older little ones while we're preoccupied at the hospital.

I reluctantly washed, dried, and "folded" the entire box of spare towels and sheets, ending up with a pile that looked like this:

The towels weren't an issue, since I long ago learned how to fold towels the Martha Stewart way, but the sheets--well, you can see that all those sheets were presenting quite the challenge. I admit it; I belong to the "I Don't Know How to Fold Fitted Sheets" Club. Here's where Pinterest once again came to the rescue for me, since I'd previously pinned something about folding bedsheets the pretty way. In the past, I've tried following Martha Stewart's step-by-step method, watching videos on Youtube, and various other ways of learning how to properly fold these tricky elastic-edged pieces of fabric, but never had any luck until now. After much struggle and battling it out with the sheets, I was able to do this:

 

 

another view:

 

 

 

Kelly (the blog writer responsible for my sheet-folding success) has a great step-by-step guide to folding sheets, including 4 different methods of finishing the "sheet packets" to make them look how you want them. I chose her Method #2, since I liked the neat appearance of it, but the other 3 options are great too. In fact, it made my selection of spare sheets go from the picture at the top of this page to this:

Needless to say, my sheet packets aren't nearly as perfect as hers, but they're a heck of a lot better than they were! I have a few sheet sets that are missing pillow cases, which is why they don't all have that "wrapped" look to them, but at least the fitted sheets are looking more neat and tidy than before. Thanks, Kelly! I was able to fit all those sheets in my crowded linen closet, and now it won't be so embarrassing to think of someone else reaching in there to grab out a set of sheets for the air mattress.