Linen cupboards

**leckert** · June 21st, 2012, 05:48 PM

Vital questions

My linen cupboard needs a clean out - too many sheet sets and quilt/doona covers and towels.

On average how many towels per person do you keep (I probably have more than 5/person atm)?

How many sheet sets per bed to you keep? Cotton and flannelette (if required due to temp)

And how many quilt covers do you have?

I know I have far too many of all of these as I don't have much room left in the cupboard and I need to think about fitting single bed sheet sets in somehow. I want to do a clean out but don't want to toss too many out to the salvos.

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**Bathsheba** · June 21st, 2012, 06:13 PM

Our collection

(our bed) King size sheets: 3 sets of 1000 count, 2 sets that are home-made and that I'm trying to 'wear out'
(spares) 3 sets queens size
(DD's bed) Double: 3 sets
(boy's beds) Single sheets about 10 sets because we inherited MILs good quality linen from the 1950's

Towels: Approx 20. Half are ex-hotel and given by a friend, good quality but on their way out. Will probably only replace with about 5 new ones so that makes 3 per person. When you factor in about 4 pool/beach towels then that means there is enough for emergencies.

The things that take up space in our linen cupboard are all the miscellaneous table-clothes (so many different sizes), bath mats, hand towels, cushion covers, pillow cases, doilies (love my cross-stitch collection) and other multi-purpose bits of fabric.

We have a quilt cover for each season for our bed... heavy damask for winter, medium weights for Spring/Autumn, and a light weight one for Summer. The kids have 2 doona covers each... so that's a total of 10 for our family of 5. I'm ok with that.

**~Kim~** · June 21st, 2012, 06:35 PM

Towels I'll have to go and count but I have 2 linen cupboards so one for bed one for bath. Most of our towels were wedding presents and even after 8 years are still reasonable. I do have a stack of 'old' towels for all the messy business kids have and a stack of flat nappies. I agree with Bath though, I have lots of space taken up by hand towels table linen etc.
Sheets - 2 sets per bed. So 4 sets flannelette for the 2 singles and 4 cotton, 2 x king sized and I think I have about 4 for the queen but now that you mention it I must do a cull. 2 doona covers for each bed to account for the times I can't be bothered getting the cover off the line lol. I have a kazillion pillowcases for some reason.

**leckert** · June 21st, 2012, 07:02 PM

I did a clean out a whole back so i just have sheet sets and covers with pillowcases so no loose pillowcases but our queen bed stuff takes up nearly 2 shelves by themselves and towels nearly take one by them self stuffed full. The last shelf I have would be split between face washers, handtowels, bath & toilet mats which I don't want to cull (only takes up that much space because of the different piles).

ETA only table linen I have are 3 different sized table cloths for child's table, card table and regular table but that's in a different cupboard.

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**~Kim~** · June 21st, 2012, 07:18 PM

could the single bed sheet sets/doona covers go on a shelf in the appropriate wardrobe or under a bed?

**leckert** · June 21st, 2012, 07:30 PM

No wardrobe in DS's room

I suppose I could put them in the drawers under DS's bed but we have a big lounge chair blocking them (used to have a glider there but that's been shifted out to the lounge to use with ds2.). Currently DS's sheets are stacked on the desk in his room (3 sets for him) but we seem to have a lot of sheets (cotton- summer weight) for our bed stuffed in the linen cupboard.

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**HomeStyleMumma** · June 21st, 2012, 08:10 PM

We have seriously limited cupboard space atm so I've HAD to keep to a minimum which I'm pretty sure is 2 sets of cotton & 2 sets of flannelette sheets each bed (strip & remake with the other then other way next wash). In theory its kinda meant to be the same for towels but I know I have a few 'extras' for visitors or my hair

only has 2 toilet mats & bathmats to which is just enough.

**Ambersky** · June 21st, 2012, 08:32 PM

Funnily enough i was just thinking about this today as i was moving all our King linen from the hall cupboard in to our robe. I have 6 doona sets and i think 7 sheets for out bed as i went though a phase of buying 1000tc sets from COTD and those outlet sites. I retired two sheets the elastic has gone on to the 'dust sheet' box.
I think i need more for the girls beds as i really struggled when sickness went through recently. 3 sheets for DD1s single,, and 2 for DD2s KS and 4 doona covers they share. One of the doona covers neither of them will have a bar of because the butterflys are scary *sigh*

I recently bought the girls 2 bath sheets each from Ikea (orange for one, blue for the other), so i know whos is whos and there is one each in the bathroom and there are no arguments.
There are probably a dozen other towels in the laundry, but DH and I just did our EnSuite so i'll treat us to some new ones and cull the others for my birth box.

**chody47** · June 21st, 2012, 09:25 PM

We've got less than most of you, but I did a cull when we moved 1.5 years ago. We have 3 sets for our bed (we generally wash them as soon as we change them) and two for DD's cot (although as she currently only has a bottom sheet we could make the flat sheets into bottom sheets if desperate. Towel wise we each have two 'good' towels (once again, they go straight in the wash when we change). We also have two 'good' guest towels, numerous older towels which can be used if desperate and a beach towel each.

**sangie** · June 22nd, 2012, 12:06 PM

I recently cleaned mine out and retired old sheets and towels.
Now we have 3 sets sheets for me/DH. I usually wash them as soon as they come off the bed so that will be plenty for us.
For the kids they each have 3 sets cotton sheets and 2 sets flannelette. They also have two mattress protectors and 2 doona covers each. Likewise I wash doona covers/mattress protectors straight away if needed and I've never been caught short yet!

Towels I just retired some that were getting a bit tatty so I need to get a few more I think. At the moment we have around 6 nice towels (probaby not enough) plus a towel each which are just for swimming lessons. Might go and get the kids a few more. Love linen shopping lol!!

**sangie** · June 22nd, 2012, 12:06 PM

double post

**leckert** · June 21st, 2012, 08:31 PM

Right so sheets for the queen bed I could get away with 2 sets for summer & 2 for winter

(maybe a third for each in case of visitors for the air mattress)

Towels - maybe 3-4 per person? I have most towels in sets of 2 (so DH & I matched in the bathroom pre kids)

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**Sopdet** · June 22nd, 2012, 01:25 PM

Main bed - 3 sets of 1500 thread count sheet sets, stored in pillowcases (as in top/bottom sheets & 1 pillow case folded up inside the other pillow case)
Spare bed - 1 set 750 thread count sheet set, stored in pillowcase
2 quilt cover sets for winter doona (including european pillowcases)
1 comforter for summer (including pillowcases & european pillowcases)
In summer the doona is put away & the comforter comes out

Too many pillowcases to mention, I inherited them from deceased relatives

4 king sized bath sheets, 2 bath sheets, various smaller towels, 3 bathmats. Way too many towels but I change mine twice a week, so only have to wash once a week.

I'm about to do a cull this weekend.

**leckert** · June 22nd, 2012, 02:39 PM

Sopdet - I like your storage of sheet sets, might have to do that too.

Looks like next week will be cull the sheets and quilt covers time (when ds1 is at cc so I have space without two someones underfoot).

I'll look at exactly how many towels I have then too

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**Sopdet** · June 22nd, 2012, 06:03 PM

Sopdet - I like your storage of sheet sets, might have to do that too.

I "borrowed" the idea from Rouge

**Rouge** · June 22nd, 2012, 02:45 PM

To keep it neat store the sets in a pillowcase. That way everything is easy to find.

I know people who store towels rolled up in a basket in their bathroom and sheets stored in a tub under beds and tea towels in drawers.

If you are really anal checkout Martha Stewart's page for linen storage tips. She taught me how to fold a fitted sheet nearly 10 years ago