31 Days of Decluttering - Day #6 - Sheets

This is one I was dreading for the simple fact that I know how many sheet sets I have and it's ridiculous!  I have them for 3 sizes of beds:  twin (college), full (the old spare bedroom bed), and queen.  They're in plastic tubs, in the bottom of the spare bedroom closet, and in a storage ottoman downstairs.  This one is going to take a minute to complete!

Here's the "before" photo once I got them all together:

These are the steps to take according to "From Overwhelmed to Organized":

• Normally I'd start with throwing out any garbage, but with sheets, you can always use torn sheets as rags or donate them to an animal shelter.  So unless you've got some other kinds of garbage that have found their way into your sheet piles, let's move on to donating and giving away.
• Donate or give away any worn out or torn sheets
• Donate or give away any sets that are missing parts {unless you're going for the mismatched look}
• Donate or give away any sheets that you have not used in the last 3 months {except for any seasonal sheets - like extra warm flannel sheets for winter}
• Donate or give away any sized sheets that you don't own beds for {e.g. crib/toddler size sheets when your kids have moved into twin sized beds, full size sheets for a pull-out couch you no longer own, etc.}
• Of the sheets you have left, choose the 2 sets you love the most, for each bed in your home, and then give away all the rest.

Here's also a photo from Martha Stewart that shows a great way to store your sheet sets:

What a great idea!  No more sheet sets haphazardly piled up.  

Here's the "after" photo:

I'm not sure how Martha Stewart got her sheet/pillow cases in a perfect rectangle like she did.  I did get mine all grouped together and put into the pillow case so at least I won't have to search for the fitted sheet that goes with the flat sheet, etc.

Here's what is going either to AmVets or the animal shelter (I never would've thought of that, but LOVE the idea):

The twin and full sheets are now grouped together in a crate too.  All in all, all the sheets are much more organized and together, which makes me feel better.  And some shelter animals will now get to be warm too :).  

Next up:  Day #7 - Magazines  (Uh-oh)!