How To Fold Clothes To Save Space

 

Decluttering your home and only keeping what sparks joy has been pretty trendy in the past couple of years. This was made popular by Marie Kondo, author of “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.” Kondo then released her own series on Netflix, helping people declutter and organize their homes. Beyond Kondo’s method of only keeping what “sparks joy,” her method for folding clothing seems to be a large part of her organization techniques. 

 

When you fold your clothes according to the Konmari Method, it leaves you a lot more space. It also allows you to see every piece of clothing that you own because nothing is buried under anything. 

 

When you can see all of your clothes and nothing is getting buried, you begin to realize what you are never wearing, further allowing you to minimize your wardrobe even more… leaving you even more space. 

 

If having more space for your clothes and having nice and tidy drawers is appealing to you then continue on to learn exactly how Marie Kondo folds her clothes. 

 

 

How To Fold Shirts

 

1. Lay your shirt flat, front side down
2. Then fold each side of the shirt into the middle
3. Fold the sleeves into the middle as well
4. If there is extra material on the sleeve, be sure to fold that back towards the outside and not across the middle
5. When you have a flat rectangle fold your shirt in half from the bottom to the top
6. Fold the bottom third over into the middle 
7. Fold again covering the last 3rd

 

 

 

 

How To Fold Pants

 

1. Lay your pants flat and then fold one leg over the other
2. Fold the crotch area of the pants inward
3. Fold the pants in half by bringing the bottom of the pants up towards the waistline
4. Fold the pants into 3rds

 

 

 

 

How To Fold Socks and Underwear

 

I personally like to make chores as simple as possible and for me, that means throwing my socks and underwear into a drawer and calling it good. If you keep what you actually wear you won’t have an overloaded, crazy mess of an underwear drawer. 

 

However, if you have the time, have very limited space, and/or really enjoy a super tidy underwear drawer then, by all means, fold your socks and underwear the Konmari way. 

 

Socks

1. Lay your socks flat on top of each other
2. Fold them in half
3. Fold them into 3rds

 

Underwear

1. Lay your underwear flat
2. Fold the middle up to the top
3. Fold each side into the middle
4. Fold into 3rds from the bottom to the top

 

 

 

How To Fold Shorts

 

1. Lay your shorts flat
2. Fold them in half from left to right
3. Fold the crotch in
4. Fold into 3rds

 

 

 

 

How To Fold Sweaters

 

1. Lay the sweater flat, front side down, and smooth out
2. Find the center of the sweater and fold the right side over so that the edge is in the middle
3. Fold the right sleeve across to the other side, then back again so that the entire sleeve is folded up on the right side
4. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for the left side and left sleeve and you should have a long rectangular shape
5. Imagine the sweater is cut into 3rds and fold the bottom 3rd up towards the center
6. Fold the entire sweater over, covering the last 3rd of material

 

 

 

 

How To Fold Dress Shirts

 

Kondo recommends hanging your dress clothes. However, there are always circumstances where they may need to be folded. This technique works great for traveling, especially if traveling for business when you want to avoid those wrinkled up dress clothes. 

 

1. Lay the shirt flat, front side down
2. Fold the left side towards the middle
3. Fold the left sleeve back and forth so that the whole sleeve fits flat on the left side
4. Repeat steps 2 and 3 on the right side
5. Fold the shirt in half
6. Store button side up with the collar at the top

 

 

 

Folding your clothes the way Marie Kondo does really tidies up your space. You will enjoy looking at your newly organized dresser drawers. If you don’t have the patience to do this with all of your clothes, then just pick one drawer!

 

Try starting with just your t-shirt drawer. You’ll always be able to grab the t-shirt you want, plus you will become more aware of what is always being left in the drawer. 

 

Happy folding. 🙂

 

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