7 Things You Should Toss from Your Linen Closet

and How to Decide How Many to Keep

After my last blog on folding (or not folding) and organizing your bedding and towels, I thought I’d keep the theme going and talk about some easy things you can declutter to make space in your linen closet. After all, you can have all the organizing tools in the world, but if you have too much that it won’t fit, there won’t be anything you can do to make it work.

The linen closet is an easy spot in your home to declutter because there’s very little in there, if any, that you’ll have an emotional attachment to. It's one of the categories I suggest you declutter when you’re looking to jumpstart your decluttering process.

7 Things You Should Definitely Toss

1. Items you no longer use, such as kiddie styles your children are too old for.

2. Stray or mismatched sheets or pillowcases. Same for towels if you only use matching sets.

3. Bedding in sizes you no longer have beds for, such as cribs or the XL twin from your dorm room.

4. Torn, overstretched, stained, discolored, mildewed, moth eaten, or permanently smelly items. And don't forget to check your fur baby's towels and bed covers as well.

5. For items you're storing in the attic or elsewhere vermin can get to, trash anything with evidence of being used as a nest.

6. Laundry detergents and cleaning products you no longer use.

7. Bedding in sizes you have an overabundance of.

How Many Should You Keep?

Here are some rules of thumb for determining how many sets of sheets you need. The less space you have, they more you’ll want to downsize your linens.

• If you had a full house with guests, including in makeshift spots like the sofa or air mattresses, how many sets of bedding would you need of each size and season? You don’t need any more than this, especially if you can do laundry in one day to get the bedding back on in time for bed. For blankets, you can use sofa and off-season ones for your guests.

• That said, it's easier if you have 2 sets of sheets for the beds you use regularly if you have the space. Check the sizes to see if the second sets cover the guest spots and add on if necessary. The guest spots don't need to have one for each season. Just one set of non-flannel sheets is fine for guests in the winter. Just make sure you have enough blankets.

• Does someone wet the bed? You’ll want to hold on to extra sets for them. To keep that to a minimum, you can protect the sheets with reusable bed pads and having them wear a diaper or disposable underwear (aka Depend®) if appropriate. You should also protect your mattress with a waterproof mattress cover, even if it doesn’t help with your laundry load.*

The same process can be used for towels, just take into account towel needs for sports, the beach, spicy time, and fur babies.

*As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases you make through my Amazon links at no extra cost to you.

Next Step:

Now that you’ve decluttered, check out this blog about folding and organizing your linens.

Then, use this momentum to keep on decluttering the other quick and easy categories in your home with my free 7-Day Decluttering Jumpstart. You’ve already finished the linens day!