Organised Home Project 1: The Linen Cupboard

Hello all, I really enjoyed reading everyone's comments about joining in on my 'Organised Home' challenge.  There's obviously quite a few of you out there like me that are ready for a more organised home for 2011! So every week (hopefully!) I'm going to post a project plus a few crafty and eco ideas to go with each project.
To join in all you have to do is

• leave a comment on any of my challenge posts with a link to the project on your blog- so if you want to get started on your linen cupboard too you could link up showing us your pics. I might start a Linky thingee depending on how many people join in but for now you'll just have to copy and past your URL in your comment.
• OR you could just leave a comment telling us about another organising project you've done this week if you don't feel like tackling your linen cupboard just yet or yours is already organised! (you could link to your blog if you've posted about it or just tell us about it if you don't have a blog) 

Of course you can just join in by reading along too and be with us in spirit!

You can link up to any project at any time but just for fun I'm going to have a little giveaway to go with some projects and I'll randomly draw a winner about a week or two after I post a project from someone who comments. 

So, this week's challenge - the linen cupboard...a place where random sheets, far too many pillowcases, old towels and cushion inners have been crammed for too long!
Time taken: about 2 hours
Here's my 'before' pic...

And now for the 'after' pic...

Ah, much better! 

This was a great project to start with as it was something that's been bugging me for ages. Here's what I did...

1. Took everything out of the cupboard and sorted it into 'keep', 'move' and 'giveaway' piles. Soaked any towels looking a bit grey and washed all the sheets and towels.

Some of the the sleeping bags, backpacks and the portacot found new homes in other cupboards. Into the charity shop bag went some pillowcases, a couple of old cushion inners, a set of queen sheets and an old valance for a bed size we don't even have anymore.

(and I actually took this bag to the charity shop rather than my usual habit of cramming it in another cupboard waiting to be taken!)

2. Did the rather painful task with the sheets of figuring out what size they were, writing it on the label of each sheet and bundling them together in fitted/flat sets.

Tip: For my three year old's sheets I bought them in a different colour so it would be easy to identify them, and I keep them in her wardrobe.

3. I put everything back and labelled it all- I've got to admit when we moved in I did this too but as life got busier and busier I started ignoring the labels and just shoved things anywhere so I'm going to try harder to keep to the labels!

I've moved the linen spray up higher now as it contains alcohol - don't want the kids getting drunk on lavender water!!

Now I think it's really important to have a little treat to look forward to when you are doing some organising don't you? So for this project I thought of a few crafty and eco things to make with a 'linen cupboard' theme. I really enjoyed going to the health store and buying some essential oils and other 'ingredients' and had a fun morning making up some sprays and sachets.  And now the cupboard smells divine when I open it up!

Here's some ideas for 'Linen Cupboard' Crafty/ Eco things to make

* I made some lavender linen water using this recipe from Apartment Therapy. 

* I used a couple of recipes from my  'Home Companion' book by Wendyl Nissen to make some natural moth repellent sachets for my blankets and also to make some 'romance' pillow spray as Wendyl calls it.

The recipe for the moth repellant sachets is on this page (just scroll down). I halved her recipe amounts and just made smaller sachets for mine.

The recipe for the romance pillow spray is on this page. It's pretty expensive buying each of the oils though so I bought an essential oils blend called "Sheer Bliss' that I just mixed with the rose water, vodka and water.

* I made some lavender bag sachets to put on my sheets and pillowcase piles.

Wouldn't this make a great gift for someone for a housewarming or birthday? This would also be really fun to do with a group of friends as you could all bring one ingredient each.

Note:  I know there are warnings about the use of essential oils in pregnancy especially in the first trimester but I'm not too clued up on them so you might want to do a bit of research before making these if you have any concerns.

So this week being 'the linen cupboard challenge' the giveaway is a 200 ml size spray bottle to make your own linen spray, a moth repellant sachet for your winter blankets and a handmade Cath Kidston fabric lavender sachet to make your sheets smell lovely. And all organised in a little plastic tray for you. Just link up or comment to be in to win.

So there you go, project number 1 done and I am feeling good! Looking forward to reading about your projects, sorry this is the longest post ever! and sorry for the overuse use of exclamation marks in this post too....

Next week's project...'My Craft Space'. If you're keen to get crafty this year this could be a good time to think about a space you could possibly make or make a start gathering some supplies to get crafty for 2011.

Happy organising!

From Megan

PS: I tried to reply to everyone that said they're keen to join in but if you didn't get a reply from me it's because when I clicked reply it just came up with the email address noreplycomment@blogger.com.

To enable your email so you can get replies to comments I think you need to go to your blogger profile page and do something there...if you want to of course!

PPS: There's a little button on my blog for the challenge if you want to add it to your blog :)