Day #12 Organization Challenge - Linen Closet - Blankets and Comforters

Hello Organizing Buddies! Ugggh! I'm sorry I didn't post anything for the past two days! I've been feeling a little sick. It started on Monday. I initially thought that I was going through my typical allergy attacks but as the day progressed, I started to feel that it may not be my allergies. I've been too tired to organize anything. I do feel a little better today so I'll try to finish up my linen closet.

I have a little story to share before I discuss today's challenge. Growing up, although we weren't "poor", my grandparents (who adopted me) were very "frugal" and I kid you not!!! Our blankets were handmade and we've never had fitted sheets or pretty beddings. That's just the way life was. Although I appreciate the sewn blankets today and I wish I had a few of them now that my grandmother had passed away, growing up I always wanted a pretty made bed! I guess that's the reason why, now that I'm older and can basically afford them, I love buying them and dressing up my bed. LOL! But. . .how many comforter sets do one need?

Do you see the shelving above. It's actually quite taller than shown in the picture. It's normally stocked with blankets and comforter sets but I did a CRAZY thing. Because they've been sitting in the closet probably collecting dust, I decided to wash them ALL! I have problems with allergies so I thought it was a great idea to wash them. What the heck was I thinking???? It has taken me hours to wash and dry them. I spent 4 days washing and drying them and I have a few more to wash. The huge thick comforters barely fit into our washing machine. Honestly, it would have been smarter if I had thrown them into the drier and filter any dust or lint rather than washing them but I'm happy that I washed them now that I'm almost done. . .:)



Some of the blankets and comforter sets didn't have their original packaging so I used "Space Bags". They are FANTASTIC!! I highly recommend buying a few of them to store your blankets. . .they really save on space by compressing them to a smaller size. Click Here to check them out.

Okay! Let us FINISH our linen closet! Now to today's challenge. . . .if your blankets or beddings have been sitting in the closet for the past year without being used, air them out or throw them into the dryer and filter the dust or lint that has collected on them. When you're done, re-organize them nicely in your linen closet. This challenge should complete the "Linen Closet Challenge".

Hey. . .if you're done organizing your linen closet, take a photo of it and email it to me at cardinspired@gmail.com and I'll post it on the blog. I'll post my organized linen closet when I'm done washing and drying my blankets!! Hope you have a wonderful organizing day!!

Day #10 Organization Challenge - Sheets Day

Hello Organizing Buddies! Did any of you complete yesterday's challenge? If you did, send a photo of your organized towels and I'll post it on the blog. I'd love to see it and I'm sure others would too!

Above is a photo of my empty linen closet. I think it's more like linen cabinets, huh? It's located at one of the hallways upstairs. It's nice because it's very accessible. We have another linen shelving in my closet but that's a whole other situation. . .it'll be our challenge tomorrow so I won't discuss it right now. As you can see, my linen closet is empty. I wanted to show you that I actually do the challenges.

Well, let's get down to business. Today's challenge is multi -step again; similar to the towels.

1. Remove all the contents from your linen closet if you haven't done so yet (this was part of yesterday"s challenge)

2. Gather all of your sheets including the fitted sheets, fold your sheets following the video tutorial.

3. Return the sheets back into the linen closet. Organize them by color and size.

Got it? Simple, huh? Well, let's get going! Before you know it, your linen closet will look spectacular!!!

Yesterday I worked on yesterday's challenge. I got rid of some of my ratty looking towels and donated them to our dogs. LOL! Yes, our dogs. Whenever we bath our dogs, I don't like to use the newer towels because ugggh, I just don't like the idea of sharing towels with our dogs.

Here are the doggy towels. I store them under the dryer. I don't want them mixed up with our towels. If you have any old towels, rather than throwing them away, there are several things you can do with them:

1. Donate them to your dogs.

2. Donate them to the Goodwill or Salvation Army.

3. Cut them into hand towel size and you can use them to wipe your counters or dishes.

4. Cut them in half and use them to wipe your car.

5. Sell them at a garage sale.

I'm sure there are other ways to recycle them, can you think of any other ideas? Share them with us.

Well, I hope you'll play along . . .comment this post if you are planning to do this challenge. I'd love to hear from you!!!

I'll see you all tomorrow! Happy organizing, folks!!

Day #9 Organization Challenge - Project Linen Closet

Hi Organizing Buddies! Yesterday the challenge was to wash and dry your towels. Did you have a chance to do it? Well if you did, today we will start the first day of organizing our linen closet. I'm going to cut to the chase today because I still need to work on this challenge myself. LOL! I started off late today so I can't show you my completed task. I'll upload a photo when I'm done.

Today's challenge will be a multi-step challenge. Organizing your linen closet may take a few days so we'll start off with the towels and work our way through the other linens.

Here is today's challenge:

1. Remove every towel and linen from your closet. (Yes, you read it right. . .we want to start off fresh)

2. Pick out all the towels from your linen.

3. Fold all your towel as shown in the video tutorial, including the towels that you washed yesterday.

4. When you've completed folding the towels, organize your towels by color, type, and size.

5. Place your towels on the shelves of your linen closet based on the color, type, and size.

Can you manage that? I have a LOT of towels so it may take me a while but I'll try to get it done today.

Tomorrow we'll work on the next step on organizing our linen closet. I'll cut the chit-chat short today. . .I need to get on the ball so I'll see ya' all tomorrow! Hope you'll play along. Comment this post if you want to join in the challenge!! Happy organizing!!!

Day #8 Organization Challenge - Darn, That's A Lot of Towels!

No kidding! That is a lot of towels. Blame it on the department store Marshalls. LOL! Really! When they were closing down, their towels were 50 to 75% off so I went nuts and bought a whole bunch of them. The problem is . . .knowing we have a lot of towels, I don't wash all of them on a regular basis. I'll wait until there's two basket full of towels before I wash them.

Well, I decided to gather all of our towels and wash all of them! Look at that pile! LOL! No, I'm not going to keep it that way. After the towels were dried, I folded them immediately but come back tomorrow and we'll re-haul our linen closet. We'll even fold them nicely.

The organization challenge today is to simply wash the towels and dry them. If you want to quickly fold them just to get them out of the dryer, you may do so. Tomorrow, we'll fold them nicely and we'll work on making our linen closet pretty, okay!

Hope you'll participate in today's challenge. Comment this post if you plan on playing along. Come on. . .let's get the towels out of the way! Hope you all have a wonderful Wednesday!

Day#4 Organization Challenge - Where Are My Socks

Yeah, that is what my daughter and husband are always asking me. . .. "where are my socks?". How the heck would I know??? Actually, I do know. . .it's in that laundry basket! That's where they are and none of them are matched.

You're saying. . ."I thought you were moving on and was going to post a different type of challenge, Maria?" Well, I was going to move on to something else but after my last load of laundry yesterday, I noticed I had a ton of socks that I gathered in the basket and needed to put them away into the drawer. I decided to surf the Internet to find a great organizer to hold all the socks. I did find one but I didn't like the tutorial so guess what! Yup, I created my own tutorial! LOL!

The video below shows how to create this great sock organizer! Whoohoo. Look at all my socks! They are all organized and pretty inside the drawers. Not only that. . .but they're all matched and easily accessible! Boy, I just love it!

What's today's challenge? Well today's organization challenge is to match all your socks and organize them nicely into your sock drawer!

Simple, huh? You can do it while you're organizing your closet. Any of you working on the last 3 challenges? Let me know. . .tell me your progress or. . .non-progress! If you've completed any of the challenges, take a picture and email me with the picture and I'll post it on the blog. My email address is cardinspired@gmail.com!

Hope y'all have a wonderful Friday. . .organizing! LOL! Have a great weekend too. Be sure to stop by tomorrow for a new challenge. To comment this post, the comment link is at the top of this post.

Day #3 Organization Challenge: Help! My Closet is a Mess

Happy Thursday, Organizing Buddies!! Actually, my closet isn't a mess but yours may be. "Show off!" Yeah. . .my closet is actually organized. Shocking! Here is the reason why. . .for the past few years, I've been a sweat pants, jeans and tank top/t-shirt sort of girl so the majority of my nice clothes go untouched. If you don't touch them, they don't get messy! LOL!!! That's the truth. Furthermore, I can't fit half of the clothes in my closet. It's sad. But the good news is, besides becoming a more organized person, I'm also on a fitness/healthy lifestyle journey. . . .I'll tell you more about it later. . .right now, let's concentrate on our disorganized messy house.

Because we've been challenging ourselves to organize our laundry room and clothes, I decided before we move on to something else. . . .why don't you organize your closet. If your closet is a mess, start with one section at a time. Maybe start with gathering all of your long sleeve shirts today and hanging them together, then tomorrow work on the short sleeves and so on.

I do have a large walk-in closet so I'm sort of at an advantage. I have shelves and drawers built in too so it's easy to be organized in my closet. My husband has his own section so we don't clash with one another. He has more clothes than I do, believe it or not!!!

Okay. . .today's organization challenge is to organize your closet by hanging all the long sleeves together, then short sleeves, and so on. This can be a 3 or 4 day process. If you can do it all in one day. . .fabulous but if not, allow yourself a few days to get organized. The point is to get started.

Comment this post (the comment button is at the top of this post) if you'd like to play along. If you want to, you can send me a photo of your organized closet when you're done and I'll post it on the blog. . .:) Show it off when you're done!!!

Hope you have a happy organizing day!!

Day #2 Organization Challenge - Yikes, My Washing Machine is my Underwear Drawer

Happy Wednesday, Friends! Remember yesterday's challenge? Well, the challenge was to clear out your laundry room of clean clothing and to put the clothing away in your closet. Did you have the chance to complete the task?

I have a confession to make. What motivates me to do the laundry is when I'm running out of underwear! Seriously!! When I notice I have only a few left, it'll prompt me to do the laundry. Okay, I can handle reusing my jeans or a t-shirt but there is no way I can reuse my underwear. LOL!!!!

Well, I'll do a few loads of clothes and usually, wash my underwear last. . . .. and it sort of stays in the dryer. Why? Because it's easy to find and when there's only one or two underwear left in the dryer, I know it's time to wash the clothes again! Too funny!!

I know. . .it's weird! I do have some sort of system of organization and unfortunately, this is it.


Do you see the drawer? Well, it's my underwear drawer. It's empty, you say. . . . .ugggh, yeah! It's because my underwear are in the dryer. After completing the challenge yesterday, I decided to create a handmade organizer for my underwear. I probably could buy a few plastic containers at the dollar store but who looks in my drawer anyway? I mean, it don't have to be fancy or anything like that.

Today's organization challenge is to fold your underwear nicely and create some sort of organization so your underwear are easily accessible and organized.

Here are my bras. . .I can't believe I'm posting my underwear for all the world to see! LOL! But, hey . . .you want credibility, right? I organized my bra by color and by type. . .you know, strapless, padded, etc.

Here is a tutorial on how to create a super cheap underwear organizer:

Measure you drawer. . .both depth, length and width. Using card boards (use a cereal box or poster board), measure and cut the card board based on your drawer measurement into 4 pieces (3 for the length and 1 for the width).


If the card boards are too short, tape two pieces together



With 3 of the card boards that measures the length of your drawer, cut a notch at the center of the cardboard about 3/4" of the width of the cardboard. Do not cut the cardboard completely in half.

Using the cardboard that measures the width of your drawer, cut 3 notches in equal distance between each notch. Start with cutting a notch at the center of the cardboard then cut one notch to the left and right of the center notch.

Interlock the card boards by inserting the cardboard through the notches. This will create a total of 8 compartments.


Here is the picture of the completed cardboard organizer . . .simple and cheap! Gotta love it!

Okay, gang. . .are you up for today's challenge? If you have any ideas for a great underwear organizer. . .share it with us by commenting this post! I'll do some research and see what I can find to share with all of you. Hope you all have a wonderful day organizing your underwear drawer!!! ***the comment link is at the top of this post***