Monday 20 April 2015

Organizing Bed Linens When You Don't Have A Linen Cupboard....

Disclaimer: I have not been paid to promote any products, just sharing our organizational journey, hugs x

Hi honeys
I hope you've had a fabulous weekend. It's been so lovely and sunny here. Birds are singing & building nests, and Jade is getting to play with her ball in the garden bless her :) She doesn't like rain at all and will stand at the back door looking out and then looking at me as if to say "turn it off Mum, I want to go out!" Oh that I had that power! It would never rain and laundry day would be every day :)

I had wanted to share this post with you on Friday but I didn't get it finished in time and having worked all weekend, I thought I'd share today how I finally managed to get our bed linen organised and sorted by size, colour etc.  It's such a daft thing to be so incredibly happy about but I really am :)

Have you ever gone to put something away and when you got there just thought "awww.... that's not right...." I should explain.  A while ago, not having an actual linen closet as such, we bought this....



It's a wooden unit with five slatted wood shelves and a "slip over" canvas type (it's actually a lovely soft poly/cotton) cover, the front of which rolls up and can be secured by two little ties.  It's actually a really nice little unit and is from a range which includes a wardrobe version, a shorter shelf version & a bedside table version with a drawer.

In the cupboard downstairs we had a couple of packs of leftover vinyl stick down floor tiles, like the ones you'd use in kitchens or bathrooms, and so we fitted those to the shelves in this canvas & wood unit, or rather Hubby did (thank you sweetheart xx.)  This was to make the shelves "smooth" and so make it easier to slide bedding in and out of the unit when needed, without their getting caught on the slats.

I then used it to store all of our bed linen, I should add here that I am to bedding & towels what any normal girl is to shoes & handbags :) I LOVE them :) ooooo there is no better joy for a housewife (or me anyway, I'm willing to concede I may be a little odd) than to have lovely fresh bedding & towels all sitting there, looking pretty & waiting to be useful.

So, as I said a little earlier I brought fresh bedding upstairs to put away and while the little canvas unit didn't look bad as such it had single duvet sets, for the bed in our guest room, mingled amongst double duvet sets for the bed in our Master bedroom.  I mean I knew which was which but I knew it could look better.   So, dear ones,  I emptied the entire unit and after around two & a half hours, some purging of unwanted sets & stopping for pain meds (my spine... ouchie) I'd managed to do this......


Oh my word did my body make me pay for it! However, I'm so in love with how it's organized now, and it'll be so easy to upkeep, well I only take out & use one set at a time mostly, that it has to be worth it, right?

Want to see how I sorted each shelf?  Let's have a closer look at the two top shelves....... 


The two top shelves are where our double duvet sets now all live.  We now have two beds in our home.  The double bed in the master bedroom and a single bed in the guest room.  Obviously we have far more double sets than we do single, since we don't have guests terribly often, and so an order was long overdue.

The top shelf is home to the sets we have which have four matching pillow cases. Four! Until I discovered the heaven that is Ikea honeys, I had no idea that such a concept existed! Actually, this brings up a whole other issue....  How many pillows do you have on your bed?

We have six pillows on our double bed.  We have two memory foam pillows and four firmer pillows.  We've always had six pillows.  The two top pillows are placed into the pillow cases which match the duvet set on the bed, obviously, and the remaining four, the bottom four pillows on the bed, we've always placed into pillow cases which match the bottom sheet.

Imagine my joy to discover it was possible to buy duvet sets with four pillowcases! Apparently this is the norm in Europe, although not in the UK unfortunately, at least not in our price range.  So, the sets on the top shelf all have four pillow cases.  It really is silly how ridiculously happy this makes me honeys :) Moving on .... :)

So, next to the four pillow case duvet sets (joy! shut up Rosie! lol :) the very back row has quilted pillow shams which match our heavier top throws (as if making the bed wasn't complicated enough hee hee) while the row in front of them has square cushion covers in assorted colours & designs.  I love lots of throw cushions on our bed. Love them. Also there are some new linen pillowcases I haven't unwrapped yet.

The next shelf, the second shelf down on this canvas covered wooden unit, then holds the rest of our double duvet sets. These have the more conventional two pillowcases per set.

Shall we move onto the next two shelves of the unit then honeys?  they look like this..... 


I'm really very pleased with how these shelves turned out, since I've used containers to group like items together and so make them easier to find when needed.  On the third shelf there are a few soft fleecy blankets.  Ideal for snuggling under when sitting on the sofa to watch TV.  Jade adores being snuggled under a blanket when she goes for a nap on the sofa and sometimes lets Mummy share her blanket with her so I can keep my feet warm. 

Next to the fluffy blankets I have a large container storing our double size fitted sheets.  I should say here, with absolutely no boasting whatsoever, honest, I am an expert, having been trained by my wonderful, beautiful Grandmother, at making a bed with "proper" sheets, top & bottom sheet, blankets and then huge big Candlewick top throw all fitted to the bed with proper "hospital corners" - yes this was in the days before duvets :) Yes, I am that old :)  Candlewick throws are too expensive now, but when I was a child every home had them :)

Back to sheets though, these days I have to admit, achey spine (and other joints) aside, it's far easier to use fitted sheets & duvets.  So, we have double fitted sheets in lots of different colours.  I'm so fussy about our beds. I like the bedding, sheets and assorted accessories to match. The sheets are stored next to another two compartment container which is home to our pillow case collection. All in colours to correspond with their matching sheets.

The pillowcases are folded into sets of two.  I do this to make it easier to grab what I need quickly and easily. Example: I want to change our bed over and choose a duvet set first, I then take a matching sheet and then, depending on whether the duvet set has two or four matching pillowcases, will take either one or two "folds" of pillowcases.

I love this new system! The pillowcases which correspond to each duvet set are folded into the duvet set itself, as you can see they are in pretty, neat & orderly bales above,  so the pillowcases are never separated from their respective covers.  This means when I pull out a duvet set, I pull out a whole "set." Just so makes life easier :)

The next & for now last shelf, has two other containers. The first one is a DRONA box from my personal happy place, Ikea :) This is being used to store some smaller, soft throws & runners, not entirely the most useful items but they do make your bed look pretty :)  

The jute trug next to the drona box I've used to store the single duvet sets, sheets and pillowcases for the single bed in the guest room.  They all fit in here and I can get to them at a moments notice if needed.  We always know ahead of time when my much loved brother in law is coming to visit and I love to make his room nice for his arrival.

You'll have noticed that I've only shown you four shelves of a five shelf unit?  This is because the bottom shelf is currently full of books :) We do own a lot of books. Hubby and I are both terrible bookworms and make no apologies for it :)

The books will find a new home eventually though and when they do I'll move the two containers storing our throws, runners & guest linens down to the bottom shelf and the fourth shelf will instead be used to store our towels, which are currently all littering up our bathroom & occasionally kitchen.  It's time they had a designated, central home to be taken to when they're laundered.

So, what do you think honeys?  How do you organize your linens & towels? Have you written a blog post? If so please share the link in the comments I'd love to read it. 

Till next time dear ones, I'm off to do some laundry and make a cuppa :) I hope you're having a great day and here's to a fabulous week for all of us, sending you heaps of hugs xx   

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