Organization

January always seems like a good time to clean and purge.  After we get the Christmas decorations down it almost seems natural to want to clean.  Add to that the fact that we often get new 'stuff' for which we need to find a spot and organization ensues.  I would love to be able to spend a couple of weeks just cleaning and organizing my  home but alas, I am bound to work.  So I take what time I can and fit it in here and there.  Over the course of the last few weekends I have tackled the cabinets under each of three bathroom sinks, my mud room, hall closet, craft room and most recently, my linen closet.  We have one lined closet in this house and it is Small!  I'm talking TEENY TINY!  Years ago, I decided to move some of the towels into the en suite cabinet. It saved having to go out into the hall to grab a towel and freed up much needed room in the linen closet.  Somehow though, this closet became a sort of catch all for anything that we didn't know what to do with.  It was bursting at the seams.  I'm talking opening it was akin to taking your life in your hands!  You never knew what might jump out at you! Something had to give.

I started by pulling everything out and dumping it on the floor.  Then I began to sort and purge.  I had sheets in there for Isabella's bed.  I sent those back home with her Mom. I also realized that there are now only two people living in this house and we had not need for all of the towels and sheets that were taking up preciouse space.  When I was done I was shocked at what was left, a couple of sheet sets and a bunch of old, worn out towels.  (Read: rags) I thought a shopping trip was in order, but my budget was severly limited.  A trip to the Home Goods clearance section was called for.  I picked up 2 washcloths, 2 hand towels and 4 bath towel for $41.00!  Yeah, me!   Because they were clearanced it was difficult to find matching items, so I bought all white.  They are really nice too.  I found that I had only one set of sheets for the guest bed and discovered a gift card from Bed, Bath & Beyond in my purse that had some money left on it.  I grabbed a coupon and picked up a set of white sheets.

Here are the results:

The top shelf holds my Queen sized sheets, jersey and flannel and the regular cotton are on the second shelf.

 I never knew what to do with my collection of candles that I tend to accumulate, so I put them there on the left side of the bottom shelf.  They are easy to find and an added bonus, the closet smells great!  Also on that shelf, two glass water bottles and glass- one for each of the guest rooms, and a basket with a couple of first aid things.

 =

This shelf has all the new towels.

The basket on this shelf holds mismatched hand towels and next to that a couple of older towels that were in better condition.  The spare set of sheets are there too, still in the original pouch. 

To add a little pretty, I wove some blue ribbon through the wire on each shelf and the baskets. 
 The OCD side of me has is dying to run out and buy all white sheets, but the budget doesn't currently allow that!  White sheets are my favorite though because they can be bleached and I LOVE the smell of bleach! 
I must say, it makes me happy to look in there and see everything so neat and organized! 
                                   
                                                              Now, onto my next project...

.