Most homeowners enjoy the organization and appearance of neatly folded clothes in closets and dresser drawers. But enjoying how something looks and being able to create that look and keep it up are different things. Often one or more members of a family simply can’t be bothered to fold clothes properly. It does take patience and know-how to do the job right, and, to be fair, it can be difficult for people to spend time on proper folding if they are in a rush or don’t consider folding of particular importance.
But folding clothes correctly does more than keep you organized – it prevents garments and linens from wrinkling (and therefore needing to be ironed or re-washed and dried) and from getting lost when they fall behind piles or shelves, or get stuffed into the back of drawers.
So, what IS the proper way to fold clothes?
eHow.com, offers some helpful tips on how to organize and fold a load of laundry in an efficient way (for more details you can click over to the site). The steps they recommend include:
- Dry clothes fully.
- Determine which clothes to fold (for example you should hang pants with a seam, dress shirts, and formal wear). Hang any clothes that need to be hung.
- Divide clothes into piles of like items.
- Fold long-sleeved shirts in half vertically, and then fold in the sleeves before folding the shirts horizontally.
- Fold short-sleeved shirts in half vertically with the arms together, then place the arm sleeves onto the shirt and fold again horizontally. This process also works for skirts and dresses that don’t need to be hung.
- Fold pants without a crease vertically, with the legs together and the pockets on the outside. Bring the legs to just above the pocket (two inches below the waistline if there are not pockets). Do the same for shorts.
WikiHow has posted step-by-step instructions for properly folding a button-down shirt. In summary, the nine steps below are recommended (see the site for photos and more detail):
1. Button the top and third button.
2. Lay the shirt face down.
3. Smooth out the shirt so it is flat, front and back.
4. The first fold is the right side: fold about one-third of the body toward the center of the shirt. The fold line starts at the center of the shoulder and ends at the tail.
5. Neatly fold the sleeve forward, creating an angled fold at the shoulder. The sleeve should line up with the edge of the first body fold.
6. Fold the left side the same way.
7. Make a fold of several inches of the shirttail.
8. Fold up the bottom half of the partially folded shirt. The tail should be just behind the collar of the shirt now.
9.Turn the entire shirt over and enjoy your neatly folded shirt!
Garments aren’t the only items that need proper attention when it comes to folding. Martha Stewart has the answer if you’ve been struggling with an age-old problem that many people face: how to fold a fitted sheet. And if we still haven’t covered everything you’ve battled to fold, RealSimple has posted a handy guide packed with videos on to “How to Fold Anything”. They even offer advice on how to fan-fold table napkins!
Not everyone will consider folding a fun task, or feel the rewards are worth the effort that goes into folding laundry loads and other items properly. But the rewards are indeed substantial – organized, neat-looking closets and shelves, easy-to-retrieve items, and less necessary effort dealing with wrinkles. Proper folding can be a huge time saver and a great organizational tool. You might be surprised at how much you appreciate the results after you’ve gotten into the habit of folding things right!