Challenge #4 The Linen Closet

A Bowl Full of Lemons has a daily organization challenge that I am going to participate in. Jump on over to her blog to join in the fun! Check back daily to see the progress I make on the house!!

Today was the linen closet.  YIPPEE!  I had a ton of towels I wanted to dispose of, and now was the time!  And of course, the hallway light blew today, and I don't have a replacement bulb on hand.  I brought in a lamp and got busy (so the pictures look a little dark and grainy). So here is my TINY linen closet before:

 A pretty big mess.  I let my dear son put the toilet paper in the closet last week and I haven't gotten around to straightening it yet.  I also had a ton of old towels at the top and beach towels just stuffed in the bottom.

 First, I got rid of 90% of the nasty old white towels that have been hanging around since 2003.  The rags look so bad because I've used Proactive for so long, and it stains your towels (and sheets, and clothes...pretty much whatever it may touch, but it WORKS!).  No amount of bleach would even get them clean, so AWAY THEY GO!

 I kept a few though, because you never know when you need an old towel plus I put a few of the old Proactive rags in our bathroom so no one will use them but me.  What I kept included my very hole filled Miss Piggy towel I have had since 5 years old (or maybe younger than that).  There are just some things that stick around forever with me, and that will be one until it is only a piece of string...and then maybe it will go in a keepsake box.

 I even got my sweet son involved.  He vacuumed out the bottom of the closet for me.

 Here is what I thought was going to be the finished product, until I stepped back and looked.  I hated the way the towels were folded.  So back to folding I went!

 MUCH better!

 My old towels and beach basket are on the top shelf.  Nicer towels and rags on the upper two shelves.

Bottom shelf is the left over towels that I just personally like and our hand towels.  In the bottom of the closet, I stacked our toilet paper nicely, stacked our beach towels (after I purged 3 old ones that I had no clue how we even acquired) into two stacks: one stack for son, one stack for mommy and daddy.  The towel in the front is my dear son's backup rest towel for school.  His favorite is the navy one which I must wash over the weekends so he can have it at school every week.

So I have a nice and neat linen closet!  My sheets are in a wardrobe in the extra bedroom, and they have been organized (and have miraculously stayed that way) for a couple of months.  Looking forward to tomorrow's challenge.  BRING IT!