How do I organise an airing cupboard?

An airing cupboard is a warm, ventilated cupboard whose warmth comes from the hot water cylinder, and that gives it one genuine function — drying and airing textiles — plus a temperature that suits some things and spoils others. Most are used as general storage, which is fine as long as what goes in is chosen for the warmth rather than in spite of it. Houses with a combi boiler have a cupboard with no cylinder in it and therefore no airing function at all, which is worth knowing before you plan around it.

Safety

Step by step

1. Empty it and find the controls.The immersion heater and its thermostat, the cylinder thermostat, the isolating valve and any zone valve or programmer. Note where they are, and plan the storage so all of them stay reachable without unloading the cupboard.
2. Leave the cylinder itself clear.Nothing resting against it, nothing draped on it, nothing on top of it. It needs its insulating jacket working and it needs access. Textiles against a hot surface are also a fire risk.
3. Zone by temperature, top to bottom.Warmest at the top: airing damp laundry, bedding in use, towels. Middle: spare linen and towels. Bottom, which is coolest: general storage such as cleaning cloths, ironing supplies and spare toiletries.
4. Keep out anything the warmth harms.Medicines, cosmetics, photographs, candles, chocolate, wine, batteries and anything with an electronic component. Warm dry air is also bad for leather and for anything already brittle.
5. Use slatted or mesh shelves.Solid shelves stop the air movement that makes the cupboard work, and the point of the space is circulation. If the shelves are solid, leave a gap at the back and do not pack to the shelf edge.
6. Fold to the shelf depth and store in sets.Fold linen so the stack does not overhang, and keep a bed's worth together — one duvet cover, one sheet, two pillowcases inside one of the pillowcases. It saves a search every time the beds are changed.
7. Do not overfill it.A packed cupboard has no air movement and becomes a damp cupboard rather than an airing one. Leave visible gaps between stacks and above them.
8. Keep the door shut, and open it when airing.Closed keeps the warmth in and the dust out. Open it while airing damp washing so the moisture leaves rather than condensing on the cold back wall.
9. Check the back wall for damp.Many airing cupboards back onto an external wall, and a warm cupboard against a cold wall with poor circulation is a classic mould site. Look at the back and the corners once a season.
10. Rotate the stock.Put clean linen at the bottom of the stack so everything gets used. Otherwise you own six sets and use two, and the bottom four yellow slowly on the shelf.

Tips

• A cylinder without an insulating jacket is losing money continuously. Fitting one is cheap, quick, and it makes the cupboard less punishing for the things stored in it.
• Air damp washing there rather than drying it there — a full load of wet laundry puts a lot of moisture into a small cupboard and can cause mould on the walls.
• Label the shelf edges by bed size. Everyone in the house then puts linen back correctly without asking.
• Store a spare set of bedding for each bed and no more. Excess linen is one of the most common storage overheads in a house.
• If you have a combi boiler and no cylinder, treat the cupboard as an ordinary one — there is no airing function and no warmth to plan around.

Questions people ask