Emotions and linen closets

Emotions and linen closets

I think my favorite house our family lived in while I was growing up was the Prospect House. Green stucco, nice porch and unique features. It was an old house and my parents remodeled it when I was in junior high. 

The upstairs had three bedrooms and one bathroom. The ceiling in the bathroom was slanted, so if you were tall you were out of luck and had to duck in certain areas of the room. I wasn’t out of luck. 

Sometimes Sherry and I would play in the bathroom with super balls. We would shut the door and then bounce the super ball against the wall or floor or tub and watch it ricochet off the wall, toilet, counter window and floor. We had to ALWAYS make sure to close the lid on the toilet. We laughed and laughed dodging it the whole time. The bathroom also had a laundry chute. That was always entertaining as well. Sometimes clothes would get stuck on a nail that stuck out too far, so we would have to get a hanger and bend it in such a way that we could hook the clothes and get them unstuck. I always wondered if I could fit down the chute. I never tried. 

My favorite feature in this house was at the top of the stairs right before entering the bathroom. To the right. A built in. A linen closet. Two bottom drawers and two doors that opened silultaneously to present four shelves. The color was off white, blush even. Unique, just like the house. The closet was filled with towels and bedding, soaps, shampoos and bathroom cleaning supplies. 

It wasn’t so much the linen closet, it was the feelings and emotions evoked from the smells in the linen closet. Have you ever opened your linen closet or where you store your sheets and just inhale the smell. Go try. You will know what I’m talking about. The smell is distinct. It’s unique.

Sometimes when I was sad or wasn’t quite sure what I was feeling, I would climb the stairs from the main floor, one by one, heading to the linen closet. I would unhook the handle and open the doors wide. I would take a big deep breath and take in the smell. I would lean my head against the towels and keep smelling. You know what I’m talking about. The crispness, the clean smell. The even-keel smell. The sheets, the towels and the soaps smell. The home smell. The comfort smell. The safe smell. 

I don’t know if it’s the combination or all the things in the linen closet that produce that smell or if it is just a sheet and towel smell or clean smell. I loved that linen closet. 

I was hugging John the other day and I could smell the linen closet smell on his shirt. I instantly felt calm and comfortable…and home.