Organizing a linen closet in 15 minutes

The division of labor debate is one of the most common problems running through every live-together relationship I have ever come across. How do couple and multiple roommates decide: Who does the dishes? Who cleans the refrigerator? Who pays the bills? Who schedules social activities for the house?

There are so many things I’m tempted to say right now about division of labor and thankfulness and general integrity. But, this post is merely about one woman’s attempt to help her family succeed in helping her.

Lisa has 3 kids, a dog, a hyper husband, and mad gardening skills. She is also one of those amazing people who take on projects like painting the dining room in a day. By herself. And she pulls it off beautifully.

I have helped her with some ideas in the past, organizing and staging her home office. But this idea she says she got from my set-up at an estate sale I did last year.

The problem at hand arose when her loving husband was doing his best to help her change the sheets on the 4 beds in regular use in their home. (That seems like a lot of beds to me. I feel so wimpy when I see what Lisa accomplishes regularly. But I digress.) This scene climaxed when husband could not figure out which sheets were which and took most of the folded linens in the closet out only to shove them back in willy-nilly (oh, NO he di-n’t!!) all the while yelling down the stairs, “THE BLUE ONES??? I DON’T SEE WHICH ONES! THE STRIPES?”

That was it. The next day, Lisa got out the handy blue tape and labeled those bad boys.

Here’s the result: one happy lady. And one organized linen closet.

It only took about 12 minutes to fold the sheets back (ahem) and 3 minutes to label the shelves. Now whoever want to help Lisa make the beds can figure it out no problem.

Martial bliss is so eeEeasy when you are organized.