An easier way to find, fold & organize your t-shirts! DIY shirt folding board for Adults & Kids!

                                  

 

 

How many of us struggle to find a t-shirt that we folded in one of our drawers?  

You finally find the shirt that you want and it's buried at the bottom of the drawer (how did THAT happen?!) When you remove that shirt to wear, we've now made a mess of the drawer with t-shirts scattered all over and a big mess to refold!

That was my DAILY struggle for years. I don't think I ever realized that there was a problem with how I folded and organized not only MY shirts, but those belonging to my husband and daughter. We are creatures of habit and we tend to follow a certain routine with our head down. We're involved in the task and we don't stop to look up and realize that there are other methods to try! Many people do not like change and I am certainly no exception! I folded and stacked our shirts on top of each other and there were piles of shirts in each drawer which made it difficult to locate shirts that we wanted. I had to take several shirts out and often had some refolding to do. 

Shirts stacked on top of each other...not a good method!

This year has been the year of change for me. I know...I know, I just said that I DON'T like change, but there are times when we really do need a change for the better in our lives. It was the year that I lost the weight I had been trying to lose since I had our daughter and gosh, darn it, it's the year that my home WILL become more organized! Already I have done SO much in reaching for my organization goals! They say to start with small tasks and projects and that is exactly what I did! Learning a better way to fold our shirts was a good place to start. I was really tired of struggling, so I read articles, blogs and watched videos on how other people folded their t-shirts! I watched average people like me and professional organizers show different techniques on folding shirts. *insert mind explosion!  I learned quite a bit from the information that is out there!

The first thing that I learned, was instead of folding my t-shirts and laying them flat in the drawer as I had been, there is a technique called "File Folding" your shirts. The name comes from hanging file holders, where the fold of the shirt does not face inside the drawer but UP just like the part that opens from a file. The shirts are positioned in the drawer vertically and NOT horizontally. They look like they are hanging in the drawer (like a folder) instead of being stacked on top of each other.  I tried this with one row of my shirts and I easily found any shirt I was looking for. The shirts came out of the drawer much easier too! I did this to ALL of my shirt drawers. While I do an okay job with folding my clothes, I still wanted something a bit neater looking. The shirts looked all different sizes.

One of my shirt drawers that had been file folded. I still wanted it neater!

 When I worked retail and we sold blank t-shirts, we used to have plastic folding boards for getting the shirts neatly back into the boxes after customers had unfolded them. The boards worked much better than any of us employees trying to fold the shirts! I did learn how to fold shirts freestyle better by using those boards and applied that to folding my own shirts. The shirts were always so nice and flat and thin when folded with the boards. I knew that if I had one, our shirts would be much neater than my freestyle attempts. 

I contemplated buying a t-shirt board, but I figured that I could make one on my own with foam board or cardboard. I always have foam board from the Dollar Tree on hand for craft projects and the same with boxes for projects or shipping items I've sold. I made a few templates with large drawing paper to give me an idea and knew that 2 sheets of foam board would work perfectly if cut in half and then shortened by a few inches. A large box with sides around 28" would work, too, but I didn't have a box that large on hand. We used to fix the plastic folding boards at work with duct tape (after a lot of use, the plastic seams would break apart) so I decided to use duct tape to attach the pieces. Since I worked for a craft store for 20 years, I definitely have plenty of duct tape! Most of the plastic folding boards only have 2 center pieces, but I opted for 3 because I wanted my shirts folded to a smaller size.

My adult sized folding board pieces cut out and ready to assemble.

 Only $2.50 to make!

I took to the task of assembling my adult sized t-shirt folding board and it took about 8 minutes to put this board together. ( 15 if you count the time it took to make a template and cut the foam board pieces.)  It took even less time for me to put together a child sized board. Our daughter is a toddler and trying to fold her shirts on an adult sized board would not be easy. I knew that from experience at the store. We tried to fold kids' and infant shirts on the plastic folding board and it just didn't work well!

The children's sized folding board. $0 to make!

I decided to try an Amazon box that I already had to create the children's sized folding board. It worked perfectly and better yet, since I already had the duct tape, it was FREE to make. It took me about 10 minutes to cut out and assemble the child sized board. Less than a half an hour to create and make 2 folding boards with a total spent of $2.50 (two $1.25 foam boards)

Not only were they simple to make, but they worked well! Look at the before and after of my husband's shirt drawer! 

Before. stacked on top of each other.

After. Neat & organized. You can see ALL of his shirts. They are all folded the same size.

You could actually see ALL of his shirts at one time, and they were so NEAT and easy to remove and put back!

It honestly was not difficult to change how I folded shirts, take on the new way of file folding AND use a homemade DIY t-shirt folding board. The proof is in the pudding they say, well it's in the t-shirts this time!

 

My Youtube video showing how to create your own folding boards. 

 

Stay safe and be well!

Corrie-

If you don't want to create your own folding boards, Amazon does have them to purchase. 

https://amzn.to/3C8TDCy