"This year, one of my goals has been to knock out organization projects throughout my home," says our friend Taryn Newton, blogger at Glamorous Versatility. "My house had gotten to the point where if you opened up anything behind close doors you would be in for a messy surprise, so I've been challenging myself to organize a new space each month."
For the month of August, Taryn decided to tackle her largest linen closet. Because she wasn't too sure about where to start or which products to use, she reached out to The Container Store for suggestions. (And, of course, we were DELIGHTED to help out!)
The linen closet in question is primarily her mother's space, but the rest of the family also utilizes it for extra bathroom storage. It featured a mixture of towels, hair care products, bath products, cosmetics, and medications, but Taryn knew she'd still have to clean and purge the shelves beforehand. "I didn't want to just keep everything, I wanted to effectively purge and throw out items that I had no business keeping," she explains. "Sifting through everything and ensuring you aren't keeping unnecessary items takes time, but it's worth it."
Once that first step was completed, Taryn categorized the remaining contents. "This will help you see exactly what type of storage you will need for this project," she says. And, after a quick trip to The Container Store, she was ready to get started!
In the video below, Taryn takes us through the whole process from start-to-finish. (Her family also shows up in some pretty adorable cameos.)
After the shelves were de-cluttered, cleaned, and re-organized, the closet was a stunner!
Using an attractive, complementary assortment of bins and baskets, Taryn and her husband organized the closet's contents by category and decided where each type of item should live. They first decided to utilize the closet's floor space by storing larger items such as bedding in our Braided Water Hyacinth Storage Cube with Handles. Taryn is a big fan of these cubes and uses them in other areas of her home (including her children's bathroom closet).
Next, they used the White Nordic Storage Baskets with Handles to store smaller towels and hair and makeup tools. These durable plastic baskets have optional bamboo lids that not only coordinate well with the Water Hyacinth Cubes, but also make them easily stackable in case their storage needs happen to change in the future. "Aesthetically, these are probably my favorite," Taryn adds.
Small hair products, medication, and cosmetics were organized into Translucent Like-it Bricks of various sizes. While these clear containers allow for easy visibility, Taryn opted to label them for added convenience. The Like-it Bricks also have optional dividers, allowing for a more customizable storage solution.
For the middle shelf, Taryn opted for our Large Water Hyacinth Bins, noting their "decorative flair" and functionality. These too can be easily labeled--via our White Bin Clip Labels--and they worked perfectly for additional hair care products and body wash. Finally, any lesser-used items were placed on the top shelf in a Rectangular Water Hyacinth Tapered Basket.
Placement, Taryn insists, proved to be just as important as the products she'd chosen. "One rule I always follow is that I like my baskets to be symmetrical," she elaborates. "You can see from my pictures that almost all of my bins have a matching partner. I feel it balances the space and makes the closet look more aesthetically cohesive, rather than having random-sized bins everywhere."
Now that this linen closet is neat and tidy, Taryn and her family are extremely pleased with the results. "Every time I do an organization project and see how easy it was, I am always shocked that it took me so long to cross off my to-do list!" she says.
(Don't forget to check out Taryn's Glamorous Versatility blog and Instagram for even more tips and suggestions!)
