The Linen Press/Cupboard

As I stood with the doors open, I thought this is going to be easy. But as I began to pull out towels, doona covers, sheets and so on that I knew we had not used in years and the pile grew I knew it would be harder than I thought. My linen press has always been tidy and organised it consists of towels, blankets, sheets, spare guest linen, air mattresses, sleeping bags. But like most other places in my home it housed a lot of items that we no longer need or use. Doona covers that my son has outgrown, towels that we don’t use and so on. After about fifteen minutes I had two piles of things we didn’t need anymore the problem was it had not really made much of a dent to the space which was disappointing. You see I was hoping to free up a couple of shelves so that my vacuum cleaner could fit in the linen press rather than sitting in the corner of our study. I have two large wool blankets that take up lots of space in the linen press both of which although lovely and warm have not been used in many years. I took these two large blankets out with the intention of getting rid of them and keeping two smaller ones that I have. As I took them out my husband walked past and said “oh are you getting rid of them they are really warm”, I started second guessing my decision to get rid of them. “But we have not used them in years” was my reply, “fair enough” he said, but it brought doubt as to whether I really should get rid of them, I started to justify my reasoning when we both came to the conclusion that we did not need them both but would keep one for guests and cut the other one up for the dogs bed, great idea Pip our spoodle will love it and it will be nice and warm in her bed for winter.
I am now standing looking at the linen press and wondering how I can get the most out of it. What do I really want to have in it, and what can be moved elsewhere. Sometimes the easiest things become the hardest. When this happens ask yourself. What do you want the end result to be? so for me I want my linen press to have the following:
• baskets to separate the linen as even though in the past I have had separate piles for my son’s king single bed linen and our queen bed linen they still seem to get mixed up.
• basket for guest linen, as when we go away we have family house sit so I want a basket with separate guest linen, that I can just grab and make up the bed.
• one shelf just for the towels, hand towels and bath mats.
• a space for spare guest pillows.
• bottom of cupboard left for vacuum cleaner.
• a space for the iron as the linen press is right next to where I do my ironing
• a space for the spare toilet paper as the linen press is right outside the loo
• and lastly a spot for my mop bucket, broom and dusters might sound odd but I don’t have a space for these items in the laundry.
Then ask yourself what do you have to do to achieve this end result, well for me besides buying a few baskets, I have to move the guest doonas, air mattresses, blankets and sleeping bags to a new spot.
Then ask yourself will moving these items to a new spot help or hinder the situation. Well for me the answer is help as the items are only used once or twice a year it makes more sense for them to be somewhere else and the items I am using regularly be in the linen press. Then make the space look pretty, just because things are in a cupboard does not mean they can’t look nice. Lets face it its so much nicer to open a space and see everything neat and tidy and organised, and that is all part of our journey.
If you are wondering how much linen you need I work on the following.
Sheets/ pillow cases / doona covers: One set on the bed and a spare set (if you use flannelette sheets in winter then these are not counted as a spare but rather an extra.
Towels: one set in the bathroom and one spare set, the number of towels will vary depending on the number of people in your house and number of bathrooms you have. So if you have two bathrooms with four towels in each you would have another four in your linen press ready to put out when you wash the current ones.
Doona covers: I have my two favourites that’s it one on and one off and swap them each season.
Remember less is more.