I grew up in a military family and then served on both active duty and in the reserves myself. At one point, briefly, I was even a drill instructor. Folding clothes neatly and properly in ingrained in who I am.
Over the years, I’ve developed my own folding techniques that are easy to use in keeping your clothes neat and tidy. You may have heard of the KonMari folding method and wonder if it’s right for you. While it’s similar to my techniques, it’s a good place to start when talking about folding clothes.
How Do You Fold KonMari Clothes? Folding clothes KonMari style has been made famous by Marie Kondo. She did not create the method, it’s been around for years (I shared the file folding concept in one of my very early blog posts in 2012 on organizing your t-shirts). She has, however, made the folding method popular. Folding any clothing item is done to keep clothes neat and wrinkle free when stored in drawers or on shelves. The first purpose of using the KonMari folding method is to create folded clothing items that are all uniform in size. When all clothes items are folded in the same size, it’s easier to neatly organize clothes in a drawer. The second purpose of this folding method is to allow you to easily file clothing vertically in drawers, rather than stack it. When you file clothing items you can immediately see and access every item. There are different folding steps for each different type of clothing item. They all share similar concepts, but the steps are slightly different. Learning the different steps for konmari folding clothes make it easier to keep your clothes wrinkle free and neatly organized. Folding Clothes
When I help my clients in folding their clothes, I follow several common steps. And the very first step is editing or declutting. If you haven’t already, be sure to check out these decluttering the bedroom ideas.
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Assess the Storage Space Determine what makes sense for each drawer or shelf. Which items should be placed in each space for the easiest access. Determine how the clothing will best fit into the drawer or space. Most often file folding is the best answer for folding and organizing clothes. It allows you to immediately see every single item. No more items getting lost at the bottom of a pile. It allows you to easily reach in and grab just the item you want. No more wrestling around with a pile to pull the one item out. Determine the Best Way to Fold the Clothes Decide how you want the clothes to fit in the drawer or space. Will filing the items work?How vertically deep is the drawer or space? This impacts how you fold it. Will you line up your filed clothing across the drawer or from front to back? This may impact how you fold the clothes. Try folding the item to see if it will fit neatly. Make adjustments to how you fold the item if needed. Try the System Out and Make Adjustments as Needed Any organizing system requires trying it out to see if it needs adjustments. Plan on trying out a new way of folding clothes for at least two weeks. You may realize sooner that adjustments need to be made. If that happens, you don’t have to wait two weeks to make changes Don’t entirely give up on a new organizing system. You’re gathering data on how to make a new system work best for your unique situation and unique preferences. Simply make changes until the system works well for you. Folding Shirts Folding T-Shirts
T-shirts are one of the best candidates for the file folding method. Before you start folding, determine the best folded width to maximum the use of the space. Once you decide how wide to fold the t-shirts, the rest of the steps are simple to follow.
Folding Long-Sleeve Shirts
The key to folding a shirt with long sleeves is to keep the length of the sleeve wrinkle free. This tutorial shows how to fold three different styles of long-sleeve shirts.
Folding Jeans
Folding jeans is a much easier way to organize them than hanging them. When you fold jeans you can stack them, but I much prefer file folding them to make them easy to organize.
Folding Pants
The steps to folding pants are the same as those for folding jeans. With pants it’s important to keep the crease in the leg pants crisp and line the folds up on the creases rather than the seams.
Folding Sweatshirts
Some prefer to fold the arms of the sweatshirt in first and then fold the sweatshirt in half. However, I prefer to fold the sweatshirt in half first. This helps hold the sleeves in place neatly. You can see all the steps on how to fold a sweatshirt so that it’s neat in this tutorial.
Folding Sweaters
You can fold sweaters to store on a shelf or in a drawer in the same method used for folding sweatshirts. I prefer to fold and hang my sweaters since they are so bulky.
Folding Socks
I personally prefer to file fold my socks, but other members of my family prefer other methods, so I share four ways to fold socks. There’s sure to be one that will work for you.
Folding Pajamas
The secret to how to fold pajamas neatly is to fold both the top and bottom together in one packet. That way it keeps both pieces neatly together in the drawer.
Folding clothes properly is a simple way to make a big impact in organizing your bedroom. Neatly organized drawers and an organized closet saves you time, makes your day start off calmer and on the right foot (pun intended).
