What to Keep No.2: Linen closet math

Sally has four people in her household. Two of them sleep 8 hours per night. The other 2 sleep 7 and 6 hours per night respectively. If the average month has 30.4 days in it, how many sheet sets does Sally have in her linen closet? Probably too many.

Straightening and refreshing your linen closet, or wherever you store your sheets and towels, is an easy win with these simple formulas for getting it right.

The number of sheet sets you need is directly proportionate to your number of beds.

beds in household x 2 sheet sets = total sheet sets

There’s no need to store and dig through extras. One set is on the bed; the other set becomes your neatly folded lady in waiting, still smelling freshly laundered from its recent spin through the wash. No worn-out stragglers, one-offs or mismatched items to carry over or factor in. And no reindeer-spangled sheets to annoyingly remind you that there are only 258 days ‘til Christmas. Everything’s fresh, rotated and arranged in a pretty display of order.

You can solve for X with your bath towels, too. Your personal formula might look something like this.

(Number of bodies in your household x 4 towels) + 4 for guests = total bath towels

I’d rather toss in a load of towels than consistently store extras just in case. It’s so easy when they’re all white, no sorting required.

Remember the mantra: fewer, nicer things. Use these formulas and discover the rational numbers that will simplify what to keep in your linen closet.