Martha Stewart's Tips For Keeping An Organized, Clutter-Free Linen Closet

Martha Stewart didn't build an empire dedicated to fine living and entertaining by having a messy linen closet. If you imagined it to be a beautiful, spacious place where all her linens rest harmoniously in labeled rows, you'd be correct. They also drape on hangers in adjacent closets that are equally roomy and orderly. When an Instagram fan blog shared a clip of Stewart giving a tour of how she maintains her linens, we lapped up all her tips for keeping an organized, clutter-free linen closet. 

From her tips on the ideal method to store dinner napkins to the best way to have table runners ready for the next gathering, everything was what we've come to expect from Stewart: perfectly organized, creatively inspired, well-thought out, and fully vetted personally by the media mogul. Stewart attests that she became inspired while babysitting at the "nicest house on the street" in her youth, hoping that someday she would be "that organized."

To be "that organized" and avoid clutter, you first need to take stock of what you have. Stewart has said before that you should check your linen closet when it's time to declutter your home. She's spot on. If you need an idea for decluttering and reorganizing your linen closet, what better way to start than to get rid of what you don't need? Keep what's in good shape, what you'll use again and again, and what holds precious memories. Once that's done, Stewart has more tips to keep your linen closet organized and clutter-free.

Martha Stewart's method for storing dinner napkins does more than declutter; it keeps them company-ready. She uses cardboard tubes to prevent wrinkles, a brilliant way to repurpose a paper towel tube for storage. Bonus tip: She wraps the roll of linens in clear cellophane, adds a label sticker, secures it with extra pieces of tape, then leaves the ends open for ventilation. All the rolls stack neatly in the same area of a shelf.

Raise your hand if you fold towels the way your mother taught you. Stewart's method is to fold them as they'll hang on a towel bar, then give them a few extra folds so they fit on the shelf. Though she didn't add this, you can take that one step further and do the same for hand towels so that they, too, are ready to hang up.

Stewart mentions having places to store sheets and blankets (on labeled shelves), but she doesn't say what to do with really bulky items like down comforters or sleeping bags. Those items are quite the challenge to organizing a linen closet, especially if it's small, so you might first explore how to store comforters the right way. Items that are fluffy and bulky don't usually cooperate when you try to fold them; one recommendation is to fold them as soon as they come out of the dryer so they're still warm and can be manipulated easily. If space is really at a premium, you might have to stuff them into something like the Hefty MAX Shrink-Pak Vacuum Storage Bags, and vacuum out the air.

Martha Stewart's linen closet is truly a linen closet, as in linens and nothing but linens. But for most of us, a linen closet also contains items Stewart didn't show, such as holiday linens. Try a color-coded container for them (red for Christmas and orange for Halloween) and stash it out of the way. Your linen closet may also be the place for backup supplies of a variety of household goods like a sewing box, spare toiletries, and paper towels. Stewart adds homemade sachets with a lavender fragrance to several shelves in her linen closet. The sachet is a wonderful extra tip for keeping everything fresh (in whatever fragrance you prefer), but in order for it to work best, the closet shouldn't be so crowded that there isn't any airflow.

One of Stewart's favorite tips is to label everything, so consider getting something like the Brother P-touch Bluetooth Label Maker. Labeling is also one of the 10 tips for making the most out of your small linen closet. The labeling takes a different form in Stewart's adjacent linen closet where she hangs larger items like curtains, bed covers, and tablecloths. After washing and ironing them, she hangs them on large dry cleaner's hangers that have a cardboard tube running along the bottom, which protects the fabric from creases. She adds acid-free tissue paper, like Simetufy's white 24-inch by 36-inch sheets, under and over the items, giving them added protection. The final touch is a white key tag to label each item that she pops onto the hanger.