Not Shelves, Not Drawers: A Smarter Way To Store Bulky Blankets

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Spare blankets are a welcome sight on a chilly night, but when they're not needed, they could take up a lot of space. Blankets can be bulky, especially if they're thick or for a king- or queen-sized bed. Folding them to fit onto a shelf in the linen closet means there may not be much room for anything else on that shelf. There goes all your storage space. Banish the bulk by storing the blankets on sturdy hangers instead, and in a place other than the linen closet. If you only use those bulky blankets once in a great while, there's no real need to keep them so close at hand. Hanging them in a closet with louvered doors can help keep those blankets smelling fresh all the time since there's more airflow coming through. They're bound to smell better than if stored on overstuffed closet shelves in a stuffy closet with a solid door.

If you do use your bulky blankets regularly and they look nice enough to display, use racks to store your blankets in the room where they're most needed. Imagine all the freed space in your linen closet now, giving you room to store more towels, sheets, and pillow cases. It also makes it easier to find the linens you're looking for when it's time to change the sheets. 

Sturdy hangers will do a better job than most lightweight ones if your blankets have any heft to them. They're also less likely to break or bend from the weight. Look for options such as a 20-pack of wooden hangers that have a pants bar, and use any spares for clothing or even sheets. You could also keep some of the hangers for the laundry room clothesline for those hang-dry only items. Depending on how high up your closet rod is, fold each blanket in half either lengthwise or widthwise, and then again, so it fits on the hanger. Allow a little breathing room between each hanger when you put the blankets in the closet to keep them smelling clean.

Open-ended hangers designed for quilts are also an excellent choice for hanging your hefty blankets. For instance, stainless steel hangers with a non-slip coating can hold up to 40 pounds, and the non-slip grip on the bar means the blanket won't easily fall off. If the hook part of your hanger sometimes snags or makes noise as you move it along a metal closet rod, rub the closet rod with wax paper to make it so much easier to access your hanging items. It could also make the process quieter since the wax is a barrier between two metals rubbing against one another.