Tidying Up the Linen Closet

Today, I have decided to tackle the linen closet in my journey of de-cluttering my household to lead a more intentional life. I figured if there is less laundry in the house, I would have more time for family and playing with the kids. First off, I washed all the towels and bedspreads that were in our laundry area so I had a good idea of the number of sheet sets and towels that we owned.

Then I went through what was in the closet at the moment. I store games and puzzles at the bottom of our closet. Games and puzzles that were broken or missing pieces got trashed. If we had games that we never played or were to old for our children, I decided to donate them and happened to have a friend who was looking so it worked out perfectly. 

The next shelf up had bed sheets for our queen bed and the kids twin beds as well as random crib mattress protectors. I immediately posted the mattress protectors on Mama's for Mama's GP edition, a local Facebook page about donating goods to other Mama's in need. I sorted through my son's bed sheets and decided to keep two and donated the Thomas set and Cars set as he was too old for those now. My daughter just moved to a twin bed, so she only has one set with a backup paw patrol set from her brother. As for queen sheets we had two sets to donate. Not sure why we had four.

Next up, the towel shelves. We had towels from when we both lived on our own that were over six years old, somehow towels accumulate quickly. Previously, I had gone through our dishcloths and dish rags and downsized those to 6 of each, with 4 cleaning cloths as well. Around Christmas I plan to revisit this amount and see if we can make do with less. We are a family of two adults and two children. So for towels, I plan to keep 4 hooded towels for the kids, 4 beach towels, and 4 bath towels. As for washcloths, I kept 4 adult ones and 4 kids ones. Hand towels I kept 6 as we have 3 bathrooms in our home. Personally, I use the baby towels for my hair after a shower so I plan to keep two and donate the rest. We all know accidents and messes happen, because well kids and dogs, so I will be keeping four well loved towels for those messes. 

We don't usually have house guests at our home and if we do there would be two spares from the four adult towels I plan to keep. If you have house guests, definitely keep a set for them.

The top shelf of my closet has some spare reusable bags and a box of couch wooden bottom pieces. I took these off our couches so that toys wouldn't get lost underneath anymore ;)  I also decided to treat ourselves to a few new towels ( these are a part of the four kept) as a reward for spending the time de-cluttering.

Well that's a wrap on de-cluttering my closet. Below I will list my favorite places to donate to.

Mama's for Mama's - https://www.facebook.com/groups/214396762582554/

Bandaged Paws ( they love towels, flat sheets and blankets for their animals) 

https://www.facebook.com/BandagedPawsAnimalRescueAssociation/

Pregnant and Parenting Teen Program (for baby items)-  https://www.facebook.com/PregnantandparentingteenprogramGP/

Odyssey House ( women's items, children's items)- https://www.facebook.com/TheJourneyThroughFamilyViolence/