T-shirt Re-org

I dream of being this organized

Value Village is one of my favourite stores. It's an amazing resource for buying fabric. I've bought unused upholstery fabric for $3, and you can get a double jersey sheet for $2 (I used this for an upcoming project - stay tuned!). Anyway, this week at VV (Monday, July 16 - Wednesday, July 18th) if you donate 2 bags or boxes full of clothes, you get a coupon to save 20% off your next purchase. That's a great deal! So, because today was laundry putting away day, I thought it would be great to go through the drawers to find any old clothes that I was no longer wearing (or no longer repurposing for that matter!). As I was going through stuff, I realized that I have an abundance of t-shirts, most of which I just can't fathom parting with... but I figured since I was going through the drawers anyway, I should really consider reorganizing the contents. This is why:

It's almost as if the Tasmanian Devil whipped through here looking for a garment...

Not that I need to look good at my job. Being a stay-at-home allows me the luxury of wearing jogging pants and grubby t-shirt most days (unless I have to go out in public...then I tidy myself up a bit...) I mean, I'm lucky to find the time to brush my teeth most days, so a wrinkly shirt isn't the end of the world. My current folding (LOL!) style, however, sure makes it difficult to open and close my dresser when I have clothes randomly rammed into it!


That's what brought me to this pin: Wouldn't it be wonderful to open up your drawers and instantly see all of your t-shirts at once without having to pull each one out, find the one you want, and then stuff (literally in my case) all the others back in, eventually looking like my photo above...? I sure think so.

I have all of my clean shirts set aside from laundry day, and all of the "never gonna wear agains" have been dumped in a "donate to VV" pile on the ground. Now it was time to start folding. The blog told me that the best way to fold one's t-shirts was to fold the shirt in half down the middle and tuck the sleeves in. I HATE DOING THIS. I like to be able to see the shirt's image in its entirety (yes, it's all part of my OCD), so, of course, I modified the fold. Here are my steps:

Step 1: Fold both sleeves behind shirt



Step 2: Fold shirt in half (image facing upwards)

Step 3: Fold shirt in half again

I did this to each and every t-shirt that I owned (and there are a LOT!), and slowly began to fit them into the drawer in a nice, orderly fashion. When I was finished, it looked pretty good!

Looks nice, right? Although anything is an improvement to what I had before!

Still, I wasn't sold on this method just yet. I was mostly concerned because the shirts still stuck out a bit at the top...

...but maybe my drawers are exceptionally shallow...? I just wasn't sure. I took a look at my husband's chest of drawers and his were super deep, but I checked back to the original blog and her drawers seemed as shallow as mine. Anyway, I thought I'd give it a try and put the drawer back into the chest to see how it would fit.

AND...I ...HAD...TO...PUSH...THAT...MOTHER...THROUGH...LIKE...I...HAD...JUST...
THROWN...A...PILE...OF...T-SHIRTS...INTO ...THE...DRAWER...WILLY...NILLY...!!! ARGHHHHH!

I see you peeking, ya bastards!

Well, that was a colossal waste of time...but at least when I pry the sucker open, it looks nice and orderly. I wonder maybe if I should try to fold the shirts as instructed in the blog...maybe that was my downfall? Or maybe I just have really long shirts? Or maybe my drawers really are shallow? I have an internal bet, no matter, that even if I get them to fit nicely, this stint in drawer organization will last up until the next laundry putting away day....after that it'll go right back to normal. Oh well. It was worth a try, right?

Shout Outs:
Original pin lead me to: Darkroom And Dearly
Another blog that explains t-shirt organization in detail: Simple Organized Living with its own video tutorial on how to fold the t-shirt properly