Declutter Your Home Checklist: Den & Linen Closet

Welcome to Week 3, where we’re tackling the den (or living room or family room – whatever you call the space where you actually live) and the linen closet. These areas have something in common: they’re both catch-all spaces where things tend to pile up when we don’t know where else to put them.

Your den collects the everyday clutter of living – books you’ve finished reading, games with missing pieces, remote controls that go to devices you no longer own, throw pillows that multiply like rabbits.

Your linen closet, meanwhile, hangs onto threadbare towels and mismatched sheet sets long past their usefulness.

This week’s checklist has 26 items to help you identify what’s taking up space without adding value to your life. Pay special attention to the items you’re keeping out of obligation rather than love – that faded throw blanket, those dried floral arrangements you never display, the DVDs you’ll never watch again. These spaces should support the way you actually live, not the way you think you should live.

Clear out what doesn’t serve you and enjoy having room to breathe. Think of it as a Decluttering Scavenger Hunt! Print off your 2026 Declutter Your Home Checklist for the Den and Linen Closet, and let’s get busy!

If you are new to this Declutter Challenge, pop over to week 1 where we dive into our bedrooms and bathrooms.

If you haven’t joined the Declutter Challenge yet, you can do that here. Once you join, you will receive:

• Weekly emails with a declutter-your-home checklist for specific areas of the home. With these checklists, I feel I am on a Decluttering Scavenger hunt, making the whole process a little more enjoyable! At the end of 7 weeks, you will have checklists with more than 253 items to toss!
• Additional tips, suggestions, and resources for your successful decluttering

Before diving in, check out these 10 questions to ask yourself when deciding what to keep or discard.

Remember, these checklists are starting points. When you’re looking at games with missing pieces, you’ll probably notice that deck of cards you haven’t used in years, the coasters that are beyond repair, or the magazines piling up in the corner. One item on the checklist often reminds you of three or four other things that should go. Trust that once you start looking with fresh eyes, you’ll see the clutter you’ve been overlooking for months.

Enough small talk, grab your Declutter Your Home Checklist, let’s get busy!

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Declutter Your Home Checklist for the Den

Whether you call it the Den, the Family Room, the Great Room, or the Living Room, or you have a combination of them, these rooms often collect ‘stuff.’ You spend a great deal of time in these rooms, so much so that you usually don’t really ‘see’ what is there anymore; your eyes glance over everything in the room without really taking it in.

So, spend some time really looking at these rooms today. That vase of silk or dried flowers that has been sitting on the shelf collecting dust for the past 5 years…does it speak to you anymore?

Let’s talk about some items we often find in these rooms.

All those CDs, DVDs, and even VHS cassettes…

Here’s the truth: if you really want to get rid of the clutter in the house, 98% of those CDs, DVDs, and VHS cassettes can go to a new home. You’d be hard-pressed not to find all those songs and videos on streaming services like Amazon Music, Netflix, Pandora, Spotify, etc… You could even upload them to your PC or laptop if you were concerned. And while you look hard at these items, don’t forget all those empty cases you’ve kept on to, just in case…

Games and Puzzles

Spend time looking at games and puzzles; ones with missing pieces are easy to toss. Then look at ones that haven’t been opened in years…maybe send those to your local Boys and Girls Club or Church. Pop over here for more places to donate and recycle your discards.

Pet Toys

If your four-legged babies are anything like mine, they have accumulated any number of toys over the years. And, if your four-legged babies are still anything like mine, they don’t play with 75% of them. And yes, I have finally realized that Peep that Cat prefers empty boxes and bags over any toy we’ve ever purchased, and Elsa the Dog prefers to carry our shoes more than she does 50% of her stuffed babies. Check with your PetSmart or other pet store; ours will take gently used toys to distribute to the various charities they work with.

Remote Controls

Quick, can you tell what each remote control in the room actually controls? I found three remotes with no related device! That was easy!

Blankets

Blankets, throws, and afghans have a way of accumulating over time. How many of the ones you have do you actively use? Can one or two find their way to a new home?

Knick-Knacks and Picture Frames

Trust me, I love my tchotchkes and picture frames, especially those passed down from family members or that we purchased on our travels. But it is time to take a good, hard look at these during your decluttering and rehome the ones that don’t spark happiness for you!

An alternative to a plethora of picture frames is to get a digital frame. We have this digital frame, and it is perfect! Photos are easily uploaded to the frame from family phones!

Manuals are easy to toss in the Declutter Your Home Challenge

You may have a few of these tucked in next to your DVD player or stereo system, and they may have been sitting there, unopened, for the past four years since you acquired said DVD player or stereo system. They can be recycled. Chances are very good that all these manuals are available online.

Declutter Your Home Checklist for the Linen Closet

Bedding

Take a good, hard look at all the bedding and towels in your linen closet. If you are anything like me, you have held on too long to flat sheets that may not have their matching fitted partner. (I know, they make great drop cloths!)

And let’s not even talk about how pillowcases seem to multiply like rabbits!

Spend a few minutes matching the flat and fitted sheets with their corresponding pillowcases. I like to put them all together in one pillowcase, so all I need to do is grab the one pillowcase and I have the entire set.

Toss into the trash ripped sheets and donate the ones that may be perfectly good but just don’t get used in your home.

Ask yourself the question, How many sets of sheets do I really need?

And then there are the bedspreads and quilts that are perfectly good but no longer your style! Ugh, I know! But they are taking up space in your home, and if you aren’t likely to use them again, send them somewhere where they will be used. OR…if by chance you have one of those lovely Candlewick Bedspreads, upcycle it into hand towels!

Bath Towels

Are you holding onto too many bath towels just because ‘you never know ‘? Weed through them and donate the worn ones to your local homeless or animal shelter.

So grab your Declutter Your Home Checklist for your Den/Living Room/Family Room and Linen Closet and get after it!

Let the Decluttering Scavenger hunt begin! Pop back in with your successes or challenges!

How many items were you able to check off your checklist?

What did you find I need to add to the declutter-your-home checklist for the den and linen closet?

If you signed up for the Declutter Challenge, you received a link to the PDF in your email inbox. If you didn’t sign up for the challenge but still want the Bedroom and Bathroom Declutter Checklist, you can grab it in the Subscriber Benefits Library, where all the checklists are. You can also click the button below to subscribe to the Declutter Challenge. You can join the challenge at any time and receive one email weekly for six weeks with each of the six checklists.

If you would like to refer back to this Declutter Your Home Checklist for Dens and Linen Closets in the future, bookmark this page or pin the following image!

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Until next time…  

Hugs,

Thanks for making my day by SHARING!!