Is This Linen Closet Organized?

Seriously, what do you think? I, one of the messiest professional organizers you will ever meet think it looks terrible, but is it? Can the owner of this linen closet find her guest sheets in one minute? Can she find a clean bath mat without looking under anything? If retrieval is the number one tenet of organization — and yes, if you’re wondering, it is — than this hot mess of a closet IS organized because the anonymous owner of this linen closet can find everything she needs in under a minute.

Would this closet be okay for a Classic? Hell no! You Classics need tidy piles, shelf organizers, labels. I think this might even bug some Funs. But you Organics and Smarts? Hey if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. If you can get what you need in under a minute, then it’s organized. Labels are only needed if more than one person is putting things in here, because then it really will be a hot mess.

Now is this best place for her to keep her toilet paper and paper towels? Not so sure. It would bug many a Classic and a few Funs, and I might even venture to call it “inappropriate storage.” But when space for bulky items is scarce than sometimes you have to make do, and as long as it’s not keeping you from getting to anything in a minute or less, than all the power to you. You don’t have to look organized to be organized.