If you are lucky enough to have a large walk-in linen closet like this, you might also be a busy family with a large home and lots of responsibilities, not to mention four kids. It’s completely understandable that even if the rest of your house is as neat as a pin, there are one or two areas like this that are cluttered. It happens to the best of us.

What are the steps to reclaiming and organizing this space? This is a perfect example of where SORT and Succeed!

Start! There just is not enough time in the day, so she started by calling us. Our written gol was to clear the floor and have everything on shelves, where they belonged.

Organize by groups! There was already a bit of structure from the last time this space was organized, so we used that and built on. We put towels with towels, personal care items together, and blankets bundled alongside each other.

Reduce, Release, Reset! When all the towels were together, the client saw that some were ready for the rag pile, so that was an easy way to make room here. At her request, we tossed the personal care items that were expired. Everything else got folded and re-stacked or stored in drawers.

Tweak! In this case, many of the shelf labels needed to be replaced, either because they had fallen off, or the categories need to be moved around a little. Perhaps most importantly, we needed to all come to the conclusion that tote bags always end up here, no matter what, and so we gave her a way to store them somewhere other than the floor. A simple hanger does the trick, and bag handles are looped over a sturdy hanger. Problem solved!

Succeed! OK, this one is a bit harder to show, but we often do some kind of happy dance with this gal. She is always so happy to get a little more of her home ship shape. I mean, really, doesn’t it make you happy to look in this organized linen closet?

So you see how the 5 steps of SORT and Succeed can make quick work of a project like organizing a linen closet?