Last week, we talked about towels. How many towels do you need. If you missed it, it’s the post below.
This week, let’s talk about the towels’ close cousin – *bedding*.
In Sydney, clients, including myself had bedding from the late 80s that were still used. They were still surprisingly intact, but over the decades we racked up a few from Boxing Day sales and so on. And the once airy shelf grew into 5 other places in the linen closet – that was not happy ever after.
Note, there are only 3-5 beds per house and 30 bedding sets. Some clients more, some less. Some complete sets but mostly a mish-mash of cartoon ones to luxury ones that are dished out on special occasions.
YES, there are different sizes and you need more pillow cases than sheets – I get it. But unlike clothes, the bed can only wear one set each time!
Hong Kong apartments are on average 3 times smaller than US and Australian homes, so I’ve decided scrutinise our Hong Kong linen closet. It’s pleasantly airy. 4 beds and each one having 2 sets (including the helper’s). 2 beds are the same size plus a shared general one. The other two are different sizes. So there are always only 3 sets in the linen closet (helper stores her own downstairs). One set on the beds, one set in the closet. Easy peasy!
So how DO you organise them?
Here’s a product that I like – it’s a shelf divider (https://amzn.to/35KpKGl) that keeps the linens stacked neatly in their place. Stacking is not my favourite way of organising, but the size and weight of the sheets makes it easier than rolling or filing, especially for deep shelves.
Pro tip: it’s an industry trend to put all the pieces of one bedding set inside one pillow case. My take is, the key is that it has to be organised. And organisation is being able to find and put things away easily. And our motto is effortless efficiency.
It’s not effortless to unwrap a burrito-folded-pillowcase to find ONE every 2-3 days when I change it. That’s an unnecessary 60 second process repeated a twice a week. Not to mention the pain of putting the burrito back, Instagram worthy style. Compared to regular stacking that would take 2 seconds to retrieve.
So… have the entire set stacked from heaviest (duvet cover) to lightest (pillow cases). If you’re shopping for a new bedding set, go for white with a bit of accent like this one (https://amzn.to/37YgIax). It gives it that luxurious hotel feeling, then grab a few plain white pillow cases (easy to bleach out drools 😆) that you can change during the week. If you live in a family, you can share these pillow cases and place them in a separate area. Personally, I like my own pillow cases, thank you very much. It sits perched on top of my set.
With the mindset of doing things ONCE, minimise your process as much as possible while looking fabulous.
That’s all for now folks. I’d love to hear how your linen closet is working for you. Show it some love coming up to the Lunar New Year 💖
PS. So why do I change my pillow cases so often? It helps my skin to be clear of blemishes. I wash my hair daily but dirt and grime still builds on the pillow cases. That’s one of the many habits I teach busy private clients for their transformation – effortless!
*Note that there might be links that if you do purchase from will give me a small commission without you paying extra. It helps me see if these products have been a useful suggestion.