Last week we talked about storing clothes in outfits to save space and time. That’s a great option if you have items you only wear in one outfit. Of course, you can hang mix-and-match outfits together, and still benefit from that method, but chances are there are some things in your closet that defy “outfit” type grouping. Think: t-shirts, undies, athletic wear, and jeans.
We have actually gone to storing undergarments in the bathroom instead of in a closet or dresser. After all, where are you when you need the under clothes most, right? (In a different house, we had room for the hamper in the bathroom, too, which was really awesome! We could do that in our current house, but then there wouldn’t be room for toilet paper in the bathroom, and toilet paper seemed to be a higher priority…)
Anyway, to get my husband’s undies and undershirts to share the same bin nicely, I had to learn a different way to fold shirts. This is really cool and it saves space by helping us store shirts efficiently. The one drawback is that it only works for short-sleeved shirts (I’m still trying to figure out how to adapt it for long sleeves and hoodies).
I didn’t invent this method, you can actually find dozens of videos online that show you how to do it. Here’s mine:
Pretty cool, huh?
By the way, when it comes to the “flat surface,” I don’t actually fold shirts on my dining room table, I fold them right on my lap in the living room.
Now this whole stack of undershirts can fit into just half of this bin, which saves space for undies in the other half.
And look what you can do with regular t-shirts, folded the same way, if you store your clothes in a dresser (we don’t use a dresser for clothes, so I had to borrow a drawer to take this picture – that’s how much I love y’all!):
Can you see how little room the shirts need? And you can see all of them at once, without having to dig through the drawer to find your favorite one!
For storing t-shirts on a shelf, I just eliminate the last half-fold so the stack doesn’t topple:
This quick-fold method not only saves space in the closet, it also saves time on laundry day and when you are getting dressed, not to mention the time you won’t need to spend straightening the closet or dresser.