Are you urgently in need of some tips for organizing your closet? Do you want to change the looks of your closet and be more organised? We are here for you!
We understand that if your closet is filled with a clutter of rough duvets or a mountain of towels. If you dread the idea of making the bed in the visitor room due to the rough state of the sheets in your closet, assuming they are all accessible, then you can put an end to the stress and begin to organize.
If you’ve been looking for ways to fold clothes to maximize space in your drawers and more time in the morning, then there’s a possibility that you’ve been folding your clothes the wrong way in your life.
You likely have been stacking items flat and on top of one another. However, folding them upright is better than having them stand on end and organize them in rows from the front to the back of the drawer.
In this guide, we are going to share tips to arrange your clothes vertically and more organised.
KONMARI Technique of Filing Clothes
In past years, vertical filing has been more popular – all thanks to “the life-changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese way of decluttering and organizing” by Marie Kondo.
If you performed research on folding clothes in a vertical manner, you’ll discover different articles and videos on the subject. Everything seems to be a little twist of the same thing from my research. But the most popular is the KonMari Method.
Vertical Folding Explained
So, what does vertical folding mean? Consider a file cabinet that contains manila folders. Instead of having them placed on one another, the folders are properly arranged from front and backward. You can easily go through the tabs to see the content of the cabinet.
Well, the approach is similar to clothes. If you are anything like me and have packed your clothes from top to bottom, you may have faced the same challenges I encountered.
Let’s discuss the steps of how you can use the KonMari approach to fold clothes vertically.
Step 1: Place the item tightly on a flat surface
You can apply this step to almost any piece of clothing. You also can extend the step to your tea towels. Just make sure the item is placed uptight on a plane surface.
Step 2: Divide the item into three
This step will be a bit different based on the item you are folding. For instance, a t-shirt or a jumper, you will importantly need to share them into three parts
Step 3: Fold and tuck
Fold the item on one side and tuck in the sleeve.
Step 4: Repeat the process
Do the same on the other side.
Step 5: Fold in half
Fold the body of the item in ½ .
Step 6: Fold in 1/3
Now fold item into thirds.
Step 7: Stand item vertically for storage
Stand similar items vertically in your drawer and make use of collapsible dividers if needed to divide different items.
The Problem Associated With Traditional Storage
Many people normally end up putting on the same clothes they have on top of the stack and forget the ones on the bottom. When they search for a certain shirt, they completely messes up the drawer and have one serious mess to deal with.
To further complicate things, things like this often happens when they are in a hurry so the mess remains there, and eventually, they have to create more time to get it to reorganize.
Benefits of Vertical Clothes Organization
I completely started loving this approach and have never seen myself returning to my old ways. It was a very easy change to make and also comes with a lot of benefits. These include:
- You can see all you have in the drawer
- Everything gets accounted for in the shuffle
- You can easily find anything
- You can fit more item in the drawer
- As regards my kid’s clothes, I have most of them in the drawers and I can easily match pants with tops just by seeing everything at once.
Not enough time?
Long time ago, when I got to know vertical folding, I decided to give it a try in my one drawer to see how effective it is, and it got me. As a busy parent, I don’t have much time to face large projects, so I start by attacking one drawer at a time. I spent about 15 minutes on each drawer.
There are days when I only had time to work on just one drawer and on other days, I could complete two to three. This enables me to properly manage it and also I felt a sense of accomplishment with every drawer that was overcome.
5 Tips to Organizing a Closet to Achieve Vertical Folding
Below are some tips to organize a closet that will assist you in organizing any size of closet in no time.
- Pull it all out
What you find behind that tower of towels in your closet might surprise you: umbrellas, photos, and so on, that you have forgotten you have. Get yourself ready for some surprises.
But now, you will gain control of your closet, as a designated area for sheets and towels only, and maybe additional toiletries. That is because immediately you have removed everything from the shelves and baskets and come up with a closet organization plan, you are possibly not going to use the closet as a trashed house for random stuff, according to Kristin MacRae, CEO of Organizing in Ri, in Providence, Ri.
- Avoid storing excessively
Let’s begin with the obvious rule of linen closet organization: do not keep old, worn-out, or fraying towels and sheets, according to Christina Hidek, a Streamlined Living’s professional organizer in Cleveland.
Her suggestion is to rather donate them to an animal shelter. However, some linens are not qualified to be used as pet material, overcome the temptation of keeping those linens and pillows, since they will only clutter up your closet and render your organization’s efforts useless.
About three or four linen sets per bed are recommended by Hidek. You can consider two sets of lighter-weight linens for hot weather and two sets of heavy sheets for cooler evenings. She further advises that you have two bath towels for each person in your home, together with 4 or 5 additional sets of linens for guests.
- Zone out
Immediately you have removed everything from the linen closet drawers and shelves and you know the items you are definitely and necessarily keeping, designate an area as ‘storage zone’ for each item: sheets, towels, blankets, and possibly bathroom supplies, based on the number of sets and space you have. That will make sure you know the actual quantity of space you need for each stuff.
Apart from the initial organization being made easy by zones, they also assist in keeping a linen closet organized. Hidek says ‘you will see that one zone has got messy and you can tackle the shelf quickly to reorganize’.
Store the linen closet you often use (such as toilet paper) on the middle shelving, and leave the top shelf for large, occasionally needed items like sleeping bags, additional pillows and bedding, and air mattresses. Endeavor to keep small belongings in baskets or drawers, to declutter your shelves.
- Invest in the right organizing supplies
We understand that one can easily get too excited when buying new baskets and bins that you forget what the main job is: organizing the messy linen closet. Yet, though, the right dividers, baskets, and other closet organization supplies can make your life easier if you buy the right ones.
Hidek recommends a double-tier Lazy Susan to a basket for organizing medical and beauty supplies in the closet, because it consumes less space while providing easy access with a short spin. Prevent stacks of sheets or towels from mingling with other folded clothes by using shelf dividers. To make extra vertical space, use over-the-door storage, a hanging shelf, or shoe holders.
- Lastly, the best method to fold bedsheets and towels
There is a recommendation from people to put a whole set of sheets in the pillowcase for fast retrieval, but that is discovered by Hidek to be easier said than done. A lot of people put the sheets into the pillowcase anyhow, and instead of the whole thing is nicely wrapped up in a packaged way, it looks more like an oddly-shaped never-easy-to-store object. She gave a better idea of taking a pillowcase that is folded halfway on its width and wrap it around the flat, fitted sheets to achieve a neater stack that is easy to keep in the closet.
If your bedsheets are of different sizes, Mac Rae recommends storing similar sizes in the closet and label closet shelves for easy find and retrieval of contents without having to unfold the whole sheet to find out its size.
Final Words
It is very simple to perform vertical filing of your clothes and equally effective. It enables you to see a wider option of clothing at a go, provides you access to all your folded materials against just a few, and also allows you to match tops and bottoms easily. I want to know if you’ve tried out this clothes organization method before or if you are willing to try it. I hope it helps simplify things for you. It has helped many of our customers a lot.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you arrange clothes by category?
Get everything out of the closet and dressers and determine logical categories. Place casual clothing on a particular section on the floor or bed by category (tanks, yoga wear, t-shirts, pajamas, shorts, and so on) and work or other clothing in another (dressy pants, jackets, skirts, button-downs, dresses, sweaters).
What is the cost of building a closet?
The cost of an average professionally-installed walk-in closet is from $1,200 to $3,000 or more for both materials and installation, but you would be able to avoid expensive mistakes in the future with their experience and professionalism. The overall cost is dependent on the size of your closet as well as the type of system you go for.
How do you expand a closet?
This is part of our favorite hacks that is very simple, but highly effective. Do not leave anything on the closet floor, not even your shoes. Have a home, hanging rods, or shelf for everything. When you clear the floor space, you will automatically notice that your closet is bigger and cleaner.
What clothes should be stored in drawers?
Underwear, pajamas, socks, t-shirts, hosiery, and accessories are perfect for drawers, while larger items consume more space folded than on hangers. Keep sweaters, button-down shirts and blouses, and pants to the linen closet or any other storage space for the off-season.
Should you categorize your closet organization by outfit?
There is no official right way to organize a closet. While there are people who organize their clothes by style, others choose to categorize items by type or season. Yet, other clothing organisers decide to arrange their walk-in closet by color so they have the same colors together.
