Spring is in the air, and that means it’s time to think about how I’m storing napkins! In the picture below, you can see the built-in drawers in my dining room where I put all my table linens. When we moved into this house twenty years ago, these drawers seemed like the perfect place for storing napkins. Lots of room, and right there by the dining table.
That was all fine at first, but over the years, they’ve gotten messier and messier. Oh, I’ve moved things around, like moving most of the tablecloths to a different storage space. But I’ve also added lots of new things! I’ve gotten several new sets of napkins, for instance, and I just kept stuffing them in. To say these drawers were a mess, was quite an understatement.
(But see those lovely blush linen napkins in the middle? You can read how I got them in this post.)
These drawers look messy alright, but the pictures don’t show you how bad they really were. For instance, you can’t see the depth – layers and layers of mixed up, and some squished up, linens. Trying to find the ones I wanted was often a challenge – there was a lot to sort through!
See? I had these red ones – and others – in a couple different drawers. Having to plow through it all was annoying at best, frustrating and frantic at worst. Especially, if I was trying to quickly set a pretty table.
I love having my napkins in the dining room – it makes setting lovely tables so easy and fast. But when they’re all messy and disorganized, it’s not as easy or fast as it could be. So I finally decided it was time to tidy up! It was actually really fun, and went much faster than I thought it would!
Storing Napkins – Step One: Emptying and Sorting
My first step was to empty everything out. I pulled all the tablecloths, napkins, runners, and old doilies out of the drawers and piled them on the table.
Then I gathered up all the remaining tablecloths. They don’t actually need to be in the drawers, since I have another place where I roll and hang them for storage. The ones I hadn’t already moved could now join their fellows.
Next, I sorted through the rest, and decided which ones I hadn’t used in forever – and which ones I won’t use ever again. Those ended up going into the donation box. I thought it would be hard, but it was really liberating to know that someone else could enjoy them now. There were a couple that were beyond repair, and they went straight into the rag bag.
And while the linens were all out, I wiped down the drawers. It had been quite a while since the bottoms had been visible!
I did make sure they dried completely before I carried on.
Step Two – Lining the Drawers
The next step in storing napkins – or any linens – is to line the drawers with paper drawer liners. This keeps the linens from snagging on the wood – especially old wood like in my drawers. It also makes them slide in and out more easily, and it looks pretty too.
(If your linens are heirloom pieces, you’ll want to wrap them lightly in cotton or linen to protect them from the acids in paper or wood of the drawers.) I’ve had this roll of pink liner paper for quite a while, and thought this would be the right time to use it.
It looked ok with the white linens, but I didn’t like it with the other colors, so I turned it over to use the white side. (I’ll be lining the drawer sides as well. I don’t want any of the napkins to touch the wood for long.)
Storing Napkins – Step Three
Then the sorting began! I grouped all the same colors and patterns together, and depending on the thickness of the napkins, I put 4 – 6 folded ones together, then half folded, half rolled into shape.
Rather than putting them flat into the drawers like I had before, standing them up on edge worked really well. Now, besides avoiding those sharp fold lines, I can also see what I have! Plus, it’s easy to take some out without messing the rest of them up.
And see? Now I have a whole empty drawer! Just think what I can put in there!
Storing napkins in such an organized way makes me really happy, and makes setting tables even easier! I’d love to hear how you’re storing napkins. Let us know in the Comments below!
Pin the Storing Napkins Post for Later!
I’m finally getting caught up on your posts. Haha! You’ve Kon Marie-d your napkins! I store mine that way too, although I have waaaaay too many all jammed into one drawer, so I may need to rethink that soon LOL.
HA! There’s a lot to catch up on – you’re very brave! You know, I’ve never actually read Marie Kondo, but I bet I would love her concept. I’ve wondered too what I’ll do when I have too many for the drawers. I just can’t help picking up fun ones when I see them. I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Good luck with yours!
I did organize my napkins and YES I do agree it does look so much better than stacking them. Started cleaning up my herb garden and can’t wait (still too early) to start planting. Pulled out all my deck chairs etc. and they are now on the back deck. Have had such nice weather (off and on). Love Spring. Take care Barbara.
Janice
Yaay! I’m so glad that worked out for you! And yaay to garden and yard prep too! We have to take advantage of whatever nice weather we get, right?! 😊
What a great idea on how to store cloth napkins (love the idea of folding them and standing them up on edge – so smart – and it would eliminate those fold lines). No more searching. I have done a lot of Spring cleaning and thought I was finished – I guess I am not quite finished. So going to do this. Thanks for sharing your napkin storing ideas. Also, the blush napkins are beautiful. Love the edge on them.
Looking forward to your ideas on storing tablecloths. I have 29 and keep them in the upstairs (spare) bedroom closet on velvet hangers – the wire hangers leave creases.
Haha – sorry to remind you of more work to do! It sure does make me happy to open those drawers now, though! Great idea to use velvet hangers for your tablecloths – thanks for sharing that tip! Hope you’re doing well up there, and that spring is starting to spring!
I would probably do this but place them vertically (side-o-side) inside each drawer. As it stands now, with me, I do this except my napkins are in a huge Sterlite bin, They are double layered by color (2 levels of napkins) as I have approximately 10 of each color of the rainbow (patterns & solids). I probably should downsize them…lol.
Ha Robin! I say if you use them and have enough room, hold onto them all! 😊 Nothing like finding the perfect napkin among your stash! That’s a great idea to double-stack them in the bin, too! A perfect way to get the extra storage and still see everything you have. Thanks for chiming in – it’s great to get other points of view. Happy Monday to you!
GREAT idea. To avoid crease lines is awesome. I need to redo mine. Appreciate the inspiration.
BTW- I actually posted yesterday – late and past now – but I did! For some reason my post didn’t go to my subscriber’s email so I am telling you in case you felt like visiting. I am not very techie so not sure what to do about this though. Ugh.
Hugs! ♥
Anytime! 🙂 And Yaay! I’m thrilled that you posted – I’m definitely going to go check it out! Thanks for the heads up, and good luck with all that. It’s a challenge. Hugs back and Happy March my friend!
Great post Barbara and I’m so envious of your built-in drawers right in the dining room – how fabulous is that! I store mine upright like yours in plastic bins in the garage – and it can get kind of nippy in there during the winter rummaging around for napkins. I like the idea of folding them all together to minimize some of the creases. Thanks for sharing your wonderful organizational skills and inspiration!
Howdy! Yes, I am lucky to have so much storage right there in the dining room. Maybe it’s because it’s a really old house and people actually used their dining rooms all the time. We don’t have an eating area in the kitchen like newer homes. Brrrr! If I were you, I’d have to figure out what I wanted before I went out there! 🤣 I’d love to see your collection sometime – you have so many beautiful linens! Happy Monday my friend! Hope you have a great week!
Such an amazing idea, as well as something everyone might need to know. Thank you for sharing this super valuable organizing idea.
Thanks so much Chas! I can’t remember where I saw it first, but I figured it was time to put it into practice! 😊 So glad it was useful. Take care my friend, and see you out there!
I store mine similar to yours but I put each set in a zip lock bag. I write on the outside of the bag a description of the napkins and how many there are in the bag.. I do this because at times, I would be looking for two “missing” napkins only to find out I really just had six and not eight. Or I had only four and thought I had six, etc. This way I don’t have to look for “missing” ones that don’t exist!! I do store mine in clear plastic bends by color, and seasonal ones in their own bins. I really don’t have any storage area in my dining room like you do. I love that yours are right there where you need them!! Hope you do a post on tablecloth storage. I hang most of my runners and some tablecloths but I’m running out of closet space!
Wow Bonnie! I love that description idea – what a great way to know what you have! Thanks for sharing that. I do hope to do a tablecloth storage post in near future, so stay tuned. 🙂 Thanks so much for stopping over!
Great idea to fold them like that! I bet you smile every time you open the drawers now!
Yes – I totally do! 😊 One more messy area down, 487 more to go! 🤣
Love this idea! I can’t stuff any more napkins into my drawers and I can’t see what’s on the bottom so I am constantly shifting through making a mess. Thanks for sharing
Ha – that’s exactly what I was doing! I felt like one of those dogs digging a hole, but instead of scattering dirt all over everywhere, I was scattering linens! 🤣 I bet you’ll love the new system Jonelle – let me know how it works for you. Take care and Happy March!
Loved this article! Love to see how other people do things (not being nosey -it helps people). I used to sew a square bag for my tablecloth sizes and I would put my sets in there – I started doing this after I was fortunate to find a Lenox cut-out Christmas tablecloth, 16 napkins, and 8 placemats on a 70% off sale.
I really like how you can see all your napkins because you fold/rolled them – now I won’t be lifting or pulling them out from underneath other linens and everything will stay straight. I also like the color coordination. I do mine by season but I only have one small drawer compared to all yours.
Thank you for this – I learned something and am going to copy the roll and stand on end advice!
Excellent Pam! I’ve really been enjoying the new napkin system – I bet you’ll love it too! Wow – that Lenox linen set sounds fabulous, and keeping them all together is a great idea. So glad you stopped over, and hope you have a great week!
Okay, well, first of all…wow! That is a beautiful collection of napkins, which should be expected given the beautiful table settings you create. But second of all…thank you!!! I have the same problem, and I all the ‘solutions’ I came up with were mostly useless. I use a mahogany chest that I grew up with (my mother called it a buffet) that is in kind of a Mid-Century style. I have a mixture of tablecloths and napkins in there, but I am going to try and figure out how you folded those napkins to make them look like little soldiers, all ready to do service as part of a dinner party! Could you do another post about how you store the tablecloths? Pinning away!
Hi Kristine! Yes, I definitely will do a post on the tablecloths pretty soon – it’s so nice not to have those sharp fold lines in them! 🙂 Let me know how your napkin drawers turn out – your buffet sounds lovely. And I’d love to see how this system works for you. I’m really loving it! Thanks so much for stopping over, and for pinning. Hope you’re having a lovely week!