Tips for Organizing Kitchen Linens and Towels

Unless you keep an extra deep dresser in your kitchen, finding a place to store all your kitchen linens can be something of a challenge. Textiles such as aprons, potholders, drying clothes, wash rags, and tablecloths belong in the kitchen but don’t always fit into the kitchen cabinet drawers.

Creating space for kitchen textiles is possible with a little bit of organization. Here are some tips to get you started.

Sort first. Before beginning any organization project, it helps to inventory what you actually have. The good linens that get used regularly should be left in the kitchen. Old towels and raggedy dishrags should be moved to a rag bag. Seasonal linens (especially Christmas and Thanksgiving) can be sealed up in a zippered bag and stored with your holiday decorations where they’ll be out of the way. Kitchen linens in good shape (but you’ll never use) should be donated. Moving out what you don’t need is a great first step in creating space in the kitchen for the items you do need.

Hooks on back of doors. For textiles that can be hung such as aprons and potholders, a couple of coat hooks on the back of a pantry door is a great way to keep these items out of the way yet easy to reach. To create extra space for sponges and scrubbies, I use an “over the door” organizer with hooks and tray which are priced for under $25.

Use baskets to store cloth napkins. If you use cloth napkins like our family does, you’ve probably discovered how tough it can be to keep these textiles neatly stacked. I solved this organization problem by stacking the napkins in a square wire basket instead which can then be stored in a cupboard. The basket prevents the napkins from falling over and lets me see at a glance which napkins match the tablecloth instead of having to root through the entire pile.

Tight folds. For the textiles that remain in the kitchen drawers such as tablecloths and drying towels, these items are much easier to store when they are folded tightly into a uniform size. My tablecloths, for example, are folded into a compact 12″ x 14″ size which can be stacked neatly into a bottom kitchen drawer. Randomly sized linens such as drying cloths can be rolled into 6-8″ tubes and placed side by side in the drawers where they are easy to reach.

Even in the tiniest kitchens, it’s possible to find space for storing linens. Getting rid of what you don’t need and carefully folding what remains is an easy way to create storage without having to add more kitchen cabinets.

More by this contributor:
Creating storage space in a teeny tiny bathroom.
Organizing your pantry and food storage areas.
How to hang clothes without a bedroom closet.