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DIY:OrganizedTshirtDrawersDarkroomandDearly

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March 30, 2012

Oh my goodness, you guys. Do you ever

have those moments where Pinterest
changes your life? I mean, really. I had
(another) one of those moments yesterday. I
found a pin linking to {this post} and all my

Latest Posts

thoughts about how to organize t-shirt

drawers were forever destroyed. I consider

SU

January 2015
MO

TU

WE

myself a pretty orderly person (and I do love

organizing a drawer), but this revelation

TH

FR

SA

seriously had me yelling, "HOLY CRAP WHY

10

DID I NOT DO THIS BEFORE?!"

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12

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The epiphany? Folding t-shirts in a drawer in

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horizontal rows instead of vertical ones so

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26

27

28

29

30

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you can actually see all of your t-shirts

at once. I KNOW. CRAZY.
Here's the before and after, once I dumped
out my drawers and tried it out:

I want to read
about....
A Greener Life
Valentine's Day
Photography
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Products
Thanksgiving
Bucket List
It's kind of embarrassing looking at the
before picture, actually. I swear most of the
time it looks better than that... but I get lazy.

Cool Stuff I've Discovered

Crafty Websites
Love and Marriage

So, in case you're not already convinced,

Travel

here are reasons this technique is awesome:

Adventures in Homemaking

1. It's ridiculously easier to find the t-shirts

Funny stories

you want to wear because you can see all of

PCT pre-hike

them at once.

Holiday fun

2. You'll start discovering t-shirts you never

Shop

even knew you had because they've been

shoved in the bottom of your drawer so long.
(Seriously. It's like Christmas.)

Brittany's awesome doodles

Dearly

3. You'll have oodles of new-found space

Christmas

that suddenly wasn't there before. (It's like

Life - the Universe - and

magic!)

Everything

4. You'll be able to clean out those old ratty t-

Shop stuff!

shirts you've long forgotten about. (Or turn

Interior Design

them into something craftier...)

12 days of Christmas

For me, folding shirts like this is a different

Delicious food

method than I'm used to. It's ideal to have the

DIY Projects

pattern of the shirt facing up so you can

distinguish between them. Here's a handydandy folding chart featuring my Mt.

Darkroom
Outdoor Adventures

Washington observatory shirt so you can

PCT hike

learn how to organize your drawers, too!

Pacific Crest Trail

Popular Posts
HOW TO MAKE
A SURVIVAL
BRACELET
Sep 17, 2012

1. Lay out your shirt with the print facing up.

(In this case, it's the back of the shirt)
http://www.darkroomanddearly.com/blog/rkroomanddearly.com/2012/03/diyorganizedtshirtdrawers.html

DIY: MAGNETIC
BATHROOM
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2. Fold the shirt in half length-wise, print still

RACK

facing up.

May 21, 2012

3. Fold in your sleeves (this takes an extra

fold with long-sleeved shirts)

DIY:
HOMEMADE
POLAROID
COASTERS

4. Fold your shirt in half width-wise, with the

sleeves tucked inside the fold.
5. Fold one more time width-wise. (In this

Apr 13, 2012

case I tucked the bottom up behind, in order

to best show off the pattern.)
6. Stack shirts in rows in your drawer with the

And there you have it. Can you believe 30 t-

DIY:
ORGANIZED TSHIRT
DRAWERS

shirts only took up half my drawer folded this

Mar 30, 2012

patterned fold at the top.

way, when before I was finding it difficult to

close the drawer without shirt tails hanging

10TH DAY OF
CHRISTMAS:
SOCK
SNOWMEN

out?
Sigh. Organized bliss. :)

Dec 21, 2011

Instagram @darkroomdearly

Tags DIY Projects, Adventures in

Homemaking
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April Fools 2012

Cake in a Cup

Comments (126)

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Pretty Boy
Bob
2 weeks ago

Just alphabetized all my concert

shirts.... HEAVEN!!!!!

JOhn

Blog RSS

2 months ago

write my essay
It feels awe-inspiring to read such
informative and distinctive articles on
your websites.

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Lisa Ager
Wallace
9 months ago

More efficient than "The Gap"!

Katherine
Parker
12 months ago

thanks so much! Just spent an hour

refolding all of my shirts. Super nice,
now I have room for new shirts!

Vikki
Velvetfur
12 months ago

Hello! I saw this picture on Pinterest

earlier this evening, clicked the link
to get to here, then flew around my
flat re-organising my tshirts in this
way! I managed to fit about 3
drawers' worth of tshirts and tops
into 2 of them in my chest of drawers
(which looks exactly the same as
yours - is yours pine?). Oh and if
anyone on the outside thinks dong
this to one's tshirts is a bit OCD - I
have organised mine in this way but
also subdivided into general printed
tshirts, vest tops, band tshirts, plain
black tops, plain purple tops, and
black&white stripey tops& tshirts :p
Thank you for the inspiraton!

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*Star*
A year ago

This is simply amazing!!! Currently I

don't have drawers, I just hang up all
my clothing, but I have to try this
when I get to my new apartment
(Which will have a dresser) I can't
wait for this easy organized way of
putting clothes away!!! Thank you!!!

Anonymous
A year ago

Excellent idea. I'll be able to see all

my Tshirts from various Rock
concerts in the 70s and 80s....Queen,
Styx, Rod Stewart, April Wine, Phil
Collins, Billy Joel, Pink Floyd...etc.
Some of the bands are still touring.
Anyways thanks again for the tip.

Jacque
A year ago

Haha. Sometimes it's the simple

things.

Hapar
Simpsons
A year ago

good to me, it's a mess in my drawer.

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Custom t
shirts
online
A year ago

I m really very lazy, but what I have

most is tshirts. I love buy tshirt online.
so especially I put a closet to hang
up the tshirts.

Susan
A year ago

Love the whole idea but don't like a

fold down the middle. Maybe fold the
shirt with front facing down, then fold
each side to meet in the middle
careful to keep the sleeves flat, fold
from the bottom up and placing the
shirt in the drawer with graphic
showing.

kate lewis
A year ago

Really a creative idea,I must say and i

have also found this on
http://www.apparelnbags.com/menst-shirt-cotton.htm and i was really
impressed.

Anonymous
A year ago

How... they fall here ! Not enough Tshirts maybe...

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Anonymous
A year ago

I loved the Joes shirts I have about

50!! The majority of my drawer is a
rainbow of joes and your folding
method worked great!!

Elise
Johansen
Harvey
A year ago

Yay for Eskimo Joe's! Go Pokes!

Also yay for the organization idea. :)

Anonymous
A year ago

Thank you!!!!

Anonymous
A year ago

what if the shirts went strait across

the front to see them all, instead of
from front to back.

Becky B.
A year ago

BRILLLLIANT!!! Thanks for posting

this - going right now to get my t-shirt
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drawer in order at last!! :)

Anonymous
A year ago

I also do this in my underwear

drawer

Maria E.
A year ago

I hope you don't mind if I share this

idea with my friends on Facebook,
I'm giving you full credit of course.
Thank you for this, it's very useful.

lolita dress
A year ago

Thanks so much! I love this!!

Nathan
Gillingham
A year ago

Awesome idea, thanks for helping

me rediscover all my old tees!

Anonymous
A year ago

Awesome idea, thank you. I went and

tried this, brought my drawer from
full to 2/3s full. I have them organized
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by long-sleeve, short sleeve,

sleeveless and then by color. The
only con I found was if I grab one
and end up not wanting it, it is a little
bit of a pain to get it back in the
drawer without redoing a part of the
row.

Ivy

A year ago

Thank you for sharing this! Such a

simple solution and yet it doesn't
occur to most of us to change things
up. We were resigned to suffering
messy T-shirt drawers as our fathers
before us, lol.

Dawn
Wessling
A year ago

Sad this did not occur to me before--this is, after all, the very way I learned
to fold my white t-shirts in Navy boot
camp and the way I still fold my
husband's white tees today! Thanks
for the reminder :)

Alisa
McCann
A year ago

Finally did this over the weekend and

I'm so happy with the results! My
daughter's drawers are next. Thanks
so much for the idea! :o)

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Anonymous
A year ago

I do this with my shirts AND pants! it

works great.

warpedcookiecutter
A year ago

I found this on buzz feed. I need to

try this

Anonymous
A year ago

I just obsessively hang them up...

Nupur
Deshpande
A year ago

So this is how the earlier part of my

Saturday went. Logged onto
Pinterest, saw a bunch of amazing
pins - and then I found this one. I
immediately stopped pinning - which
is something in itself, and started to
clean up my drawers - and now my
life will never be the same :)

Anonymous
A year ago

That's the first thing I noticed too!

Love Eskimo Joes!
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Anonymous
A year ago

I will definitely be doing this to my

son's shirts. I'm hoping it works with
pants too

mommaD
A year ago

Same here! Great pin! One of the

best I have pinned.

Anonymous
A year ago

Love this! I did my sons drawer and it

looks awesome. We shall see how
long it stays this way!

Anonymous
A year ago

Loving this!!! Can't wait to do this

today!!! Thanks for the tips!!

Anonymous
A year ago

Thanks

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Anonymous
A year ago

I do this, but I roll the shirts.

Anonymous
A year ago

Just did this and we love it!! I have

three sons and their drawers use to
be such a mess because they
couldn't find their favorite
teez...thank you thank you thank
you!!!!

Kimberly
Clemens
A year ago

I have seen compression bookends,

kind of like what a stapler does. You
might be able to use one in your
drawer, I havent tried this but your
question made it come to mind. As
you remove shirts, it shrinks to keep
them all in place. I think its called an
expansible spring-loaded retention
bookend. then you could probably
make small plastic dividers for
between your shirts to make it easier
to slide in and out, only the shirt
pulled will come out. Just a few
thoughts. Put a retention bookend in
your drawer and put a piece of
plastic between each shirt. then if
you make the plastic slightly larger,
you could even put labels on them.

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Robin B.
A year ago

I love this idea!! Though I first saw it

on Oprah.com, I like how you
showed the step-by-step folding of
the t-shirts. It really is so much easier
to store and find t-shirts this way.
And, putting away clean shirts from
the laundry is easier, too. Thank you!
:) Robin

kimberly
coseno
A year ago

I honestly do not own one single t

shirt. What is wrong with me? Mom of
triplets and no t shirts? Folded
husbands this way and it is brilliant.
Thanks!

Anonymous
A year ago

Perfect! Also noticed Joes clothes!!

Thank you for this amazing epiphany
!

Anonymous
A year ago

This is perfect! My drawers are

always organized.

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Brittany
A year ago

I'm a fan of IKEA's drawer dividers for

underwear. They keep everything
nicely organized. I posted about it
here:
http://www.darkroomanddearly.com/2012/01/organizeddrawers.html

Anonymous
2 years ago

Do you have any ideas for my

underwear drawer? That's what im
having a problem with.organization,
is a problem, with that drawer. thank
you :)

Anonymous
2 years ago

I already folded my shirts like this,

but never thought of putting them on
end. Brilliant!

Anonymous
2 years ago

How do you guys keep the shirts

from falling over and getting messy
as you remove shirts from the
drawer?

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Anonymous
2 years ago

I ran to do my son's drawer

immediately! Done in 5 minutes.
Can't wait until he gets home to find
his world upside down!

Anonymous
2 years ago

a bar of soap works very well - and

smells good!

Anonymous
2 years ago

I was back in Stw today!! My niece

works at Joes clothes! My hometown
too :). Thanks for the neat tip!

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