Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-10-06
FOR STORING LINEN
Convenient and Attractive
Methods Suggested.
OLD-FASHIONED CLOSETS
Seldom Found in the City Home
Nowadays.
SOME MODERN SUBSTITUTES
Arrangement of Linen on Shelves
How to Stack the Different Ar
ticles-Winter Bedclothes.
SOME MODERN SUBSTITUTES

Written for The Star by Grace Campbell Moore.
Freshly washed and ironed linen is so
attractive in itself that 1t deserves to be
stored for use in as neat and pleasing a
manner possible. The past generation
of housekeepers took great pride In Its
roomy, princely kept linen closets. Space
for such one housewives yearn for is
seldom to be had in the average city homo
today. Yet some place in which to store
her spare bed and table coverings has to
be found, and even under the adverse cir
cumstances of modern city living this place
still may be made beautiful to look upon.
A closet, rather than a box couch, side
board other makeshift receptacle so
often used for the purpose, should be de-
voted to this use, If one can possibly bo
spared. 1t should be lined with shelves set
in eighteen inches apart. The broader the
shelf, the better, until 1t is eighteen inches
wide. That is ample for any arrangement
of linen that may be adopted for laying 1t
away.
Shelves Better Than Drawers.
1t is not necessary to put these supplies
in drawers in order to keep them clean.
the older housekeepers believed. The cost
of putting in drawers is greater and they
are more bulky and really less convenient
than shelves. Moreover, linen cannot be
stacked prettily in them. If covers are
| made of cotton cloth, Bingham calico,
the stacks may rest for months undis-
turbed, yet dustless
| The beauty of closet of linen starched
| on shelves lies in the fashion of stacking
and in the arrangement of the piles.
| Sheets, spreads and table cloths should be
folded into long rather than square par
| eel. Sheets, in particular, are often laid
| away in the square form, when a last
| crease might be avoided and the sheets be
as conveniently and economically slowed
| away in their allotted space if the last
| fold had been omitted Pillow cases are
| folded first into three, lengtilwise and
! IA iS in no m
| yet again in the middle. Napkins are
treated in the same way Bureau covers
vary so in shape that the best way of fold
| ing must be decided with the cover in hand
If, however, the long parcel shape has been
adopted, then every stack should conform
to that arrangement, for uniformity con-
tributes greatly toward beauty.
| The first principle of putting away linen
is to fold evenly, edge to edge, and then,
as each piece is folded, to that il has
been made into an exact parcel. Stack all
the articles of a kind together, but in not
too high piles, if there is space enough
for several stacks of a kind. Do not lay
the piles parallel with the edge of the
shelf and at right angles to it, but dag
onally across it,
How to Pile the Linen.
If it were sheets that We're being thus
put away, the first would be laid in the
diagonal position, with the long fold of the
parcel toward the front and the edges of
the sheet diagonally to the wall. This brings
forward conspicuously a corner of the par
Gel. Across this corner the next sheet In
the pile is laid. Every sheet parcel Will be
found to have two sides made of folds and
two that show edges. The fold sides always
face front and the edge sides the wall. One
folded side is long and the other short, the
latter being in reality an end of the par
eel. 1t is this short fold or end that is laid
across the corner. so that the under sheet
projects in point. The third sheet is
laid on exactly over the first one, and in
this alternating fashion the stack is raised
as high desired.
Pieces of all kinds pile readily in this
fashion, and only those who haSe seen
linen put away in this arrangement can
appreciate its attractive appearance. The
larger pieces should occupy places on the
shelves midway from each end, and the
piles should graduate in size from the GEN.
ter of the line toward each end In other
| words, spreads. sheets and the like should
be stacked in the middle and pillow cases
and napkins at the ends of the shelves.
Blankets which have their place in the
closets, too, require special folding to look
their best A family's stock of these COW
collection of borders, blue for this room,
perhaps, and yellow for that or pink be-
cause some one happened to make present
of pink bordered blankets. To stack them
so that this rainbow combination of hues
shows will not present the blankets at their
best appearance, and such placing takes
away from the neat appearance of the
linen closet. Fold them, therefore, that
none of the borders in view. To do
this fold first end to end. bringing the
stripes together, then turn the ends back
to the fold so that the blanket lies in a
long parcel. Take the two ends of this
and bring them toward one another but
leave a space of two three inches The
space makes a hinge which to fold the
blanket once more. 1t now lies in par
eel more nearly square than long. This is
rather a departure from the shape suggest
ed. but is the only form into which
blanket be folded and not show It's
colors. Laid on the topmost shelf. where
blankets belong, becase they are more rare
ly disturbed than the rest of the bedding,
their square shape will not interfere with
the uniform appearance of the closet.