I’m pretty sure I have the hardest working linen closet in the biz. We are actually super lucky to have a hall closet this large in an old house.

I revamped it a few years ago, so keeping it organized is just a little maintenance once in a great while. Would you like a tour as I go through it?

This was the “organized but lived in” look. It needed a bit of attention, but you can see the organizing bones are there.

There were a few big things I had to get out. First off, that red stick vacuum in the foreground has never worked since we bought it. I hate it. It’s going out tomorrow to donation! Whew. Glad I got that off my chest.

I mentioned hard working? This is what my closet has to accomplish:

Towel storage. The cool thing is, I found foutas (affiliate link). Can you see that they take up 1/4 of the space that bulky terry towels take up? I love them, and will replace all of my beach towels with them eventually. Guest towels are on the shelf below.

Craft storage. This is my stash of fabric.

This is where I keep books to swap out for my kids.

Gift wrap station. Those ribbons you see in the picture above are strung on a tension rod just inside the door. I re-use pretty ribbon scraps, hanging on the back of my door on large metal hoops.

I only keep 3 rolls of wrap, and they stay neat with a little sleeve made from a TP roll and washi tape. And they fit neatly in the couple of inches between where the door closes and the shelf unit.

Gift bags are stored in a plastic trash can, and bows are separated from tissue paper, both stored in fabric bins.

I’m sure you noticed the extension cord hanging from an over-door hook, so it’s not cluttering a shelf or getting lost in a pile.

This is the brains of my storage. This is what the kids see if they were to open the door.

But it hides keepsake toys (in the diaper box), “keep ’em busy on rainy day” toys they’ve never seen before, birthday presents wrapped in canvas bags, and toys that I’ve got in cold storage on the right, either because of discipline or hoping to part with those within the next few months.

We also store the quick getaway luggage in here. You know, always ready to go to Paris for the weekend!

A few random things, like stroller blankets (which I should be getting rid of soon) and chair slipcovers…

School supplies in the bag on the left, and the black and white is my bag of bags. What, you think I didn’t have one?

On the very tippy top, that’s my gift stash for birthday parties, and our sleeping bags that we used to use for the MS150 City to Shore bike tour, but will soon be redeployed for little girl sleepovers.

My sewing machine sits in the green bag behind the vacuum.

And I finally feel like I can breathe again!

What don’t I have in here?

• Mis-matched towels and wash cloths
• Rags
• Excess towels (we wash our towels and put them back in the bathroom the same day)
• Sheets (we have one set on the bed, and one set in the dresser in each room)
• Extra pillows (all extra pillows are on the beds)
• Tons of travel size products

So, what do you think. Do I have the hardest working linen closet you’ve seen? Did you find an idea in here you might be able to use in your closets?