If you're as worried about guests seeing your clean laundry as you are the dirty, it's probably time to reorganize your linen closet. It's easy to accumulate a large collection of worn-out and mismatched linens that crowd shelves in towering heaps, so jammed together that when you tug at one towel or reach for that mauve twin sheet, everything comes tumbling down.

But you don't have to resign yourself to balancing a swaying pile of laundry with one arm while stemming an avalanche with the other. Whipping a linen closet into shape is easy and a good way to feel you have at least one thing under control.