1/4/2015 DIY: Organized T­shirt Drawers — Darkroom and Dearly

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Adventure photography and i l lustrated paper goods

DIY: Organized T-shirtDrawersMarch 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

thoughts about how to organize t-shirt

drawers were forever destroyed. I consider

myself a pretty orderly person (and I do love

organizing a drawer), but this revelation

seriously had me yelling, "HOLY CRAP WHY

DID I NOT DO THIS BEFORE?!"

The epiphany? Folding t-shirts in a drawer in

horizontal rows instead of vertical ones so

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:

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1/4/2015 DIY: Organized T­shirt Drawers — Darkroom and Dearly

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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.

So, in case you're not already convinced,

here are reasons this technique is awesome:

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

you want to wear because you can see all of

them at once.

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

even knew you had because they've been

shoved in the bottom of your drawer so long.

(Seriously. It's like Christmas.)

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

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

magic!)

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

shirts you've long forgotten about. (Or turn

them into something craftier...)

For me, folding shirts like this is a different

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

pattern of the shirt facing up so you can

distinguish between them. Here's a handy-

dandy folding chart featuring my Mt.

Washington observatory shirt so you can

learn how to organize your drawers, too!

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

(In this case, it's the back of the shirt)

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1/4/2015 DIY: Organized T­shirt Drawers — Darkroom and Dearly

http://www.darkroomanddearly.com/blog/rkroomanddearly.com/2012/03/diy­organized­t­shirt­drawers.html 3/16

Tags DIY Projects, Adventures in

Homemaking

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2. Fold the shirt in half length-wise, print still

facing up.

3. Fold in your sleeves (this takes an extra

fold with long-sleeved shirts)

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

sleeves tucked inside the fold.

5. Fold one more time width-wise. (In this

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

patterned fold at the top.

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

shirts only took up half my drawer folded this

way, when before I was finding it difficult to

close the drawer without shirt tails hanging

out?

Sigh. Organized bliss. :)

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1/4/2015 DIY: Organized T­shirt Drawers — Darkroom and Dearly

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Comments (126) Subscribe via e-mail

Just alphabetized all my concert

shirts.... HEAVEN!!!!!

write my essay

It feels awe-inspiring to read such

informative and distinctive articles on

your websites.

Newest First

Preview POST COMMENT…

Pretty Boy

Bob

2 weeks ago

JOhn

2 months ago

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1/4/2015 DIY: Organized T­shirt Drawers — Darkroom and Dearly

http://www.darkroomanddearly.com/blog/rkroomanddearly.com/2012/03/diy­organized­t­shirt­drawers.html 5/16

More efficient than "The Gap"!

thanks so much! Just spent an hour

refolding all of my shirts. Super nice,

now I have room for new shirts!

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!

Lisa Ager

Wallace

9 months ago

Katherine

Parker

12 months ago

Vikki

Velvetfur

12 months ago

1/4/2015 DIY: Organized T­shirt Drawers — Darkroom and Dearly

http://www.darkroomanddearly.com/blog/rkroomanddearly.com/2012/03/diy­organized­t­shirt­drawers.html 6/16

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!!!

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.

Haha. Sometimes it's the simple

things.

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

*Star*

A year ago

Anonymous

A year ago

Jacque

A year ago

Hapar

Simpsons

A year ago

1/4/2015 DIY: Organized T­shirt Drawers — Darkroom and Dearly

http://www.darkroomanddearly.com/blog/rkroomanddearly.com/2012/03/diy­organized­t­shirt­drawers.html 7/16

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.

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.

Really a creative idea,I must say and i

have also found this on

http://www.apparelnbags.com/mens-

t-shirt-cotton.htm and i was really

impressed.

How... they fall here ! Not enough T-

shirts maybe...

Custom t

shirts

online

A year ago

Susan

A year ago

kate lewis

A year ago

Anonymous

A year ago

1/4/2015 DIY: Organized T­shirt Drawers — Darkroom and Dearly

http://www.darkroomanddearly.com/blog/rkroomanddearly.com/2012/03/diy­organized­t­shirt­drawers.html 8/16

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!!

Yay for Eskimo Joe's! Go Pokes!

Also yay for the organization idea. :)

Thank you!!!!

what if the shirts went strait across

the front to see them all, instead of

from front to back.

BRILLLLIANT!!! Thanks for posting

this - going right now to get my t-shirt

Anonymous

A year ago

Elise

Johansen

Harvey

A year ago

Anonymous

A year ago

Anonymous

A year ago

Becky B.

A year ago

1/4/2015 DIY: Organized T­shirt Drawers — Darkroom and Dearly

http://www.darkroomanddearly.com/blog/rkroomanddearly.com/2012/03/diy­organized­t­shirt­drawers.html 9/16

drawer in order at last!! :)

I also do this in my underwear

drawer

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.

Thanks so much! I love this!!

Awesome idea, thanks for helping

me rediscover all my old tees!

Awesome idea, thank you. I went and

tried this, brought my drawer from

full to 2/3s full. I have them organized

Anonymous

A year ago

Maria E.

A year ago

lolita dress

A year ago

Nathan

Gillingham

A year ago

Anonymous

A year ago

1/4/2015 DIY: Organized T­shirt Drawers — Darkroom and Dearly

http://www.darkroomanddearly.com/blog/rkroomanddearly.com/2012/03/diy­organized­t­shirt­drawers.html 10/16

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.

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.

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 :)

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)

Ivy A year ago

Dawn

Wessling

A year ago

Alisa

McCann

A year ago

1/4/2015 DIY: Organized T­shirt Drawers — Darkroom and Dearly

http://www.darkroomanddearly.com/blog/rkroomanddearly.com/2012/03/diy­organized­t­shirt­drawers.html 11/16

I do this with my shirts AND pants! it

works great.

I found this on buzz feed. I need to

try this

I just obsessively hang them up...

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 :)

That's the first thing I noticed too!

Love Eskimo Joes!

Anonymous

A year ago

warpedcookiecutter

A year ago

Anonymous

A year ago

Nupur

Deshpande

A year ago

Anonymous

A year ago

1/4/2015 DIY: Organized T­shirt Drawers — Darkroom and Dearly

http://www.darkroomanddearly.com/blog/rkroomanddearly.com/2012/03/diy­organized­t­shirt­drawers.html 12/16

I will definitely be doing this to my

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

pants too

Same here! Great pin! One of the

best I have pinned.

Love this! I did my sons drawer and it

looks awesome. We shall see how

long it stays this way!

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

today!!! Thanks for the tips!!

Thanks

Anonymous

A year ago

mommaD

A year ago

Anonymous

A year ago

Anonymous

A year ago

Anonymous

A year ago

1/4/2015 DIY: Organized T­shirt Drawers — Darkroom and Dearly

http://www.darkroomanddearly.com/blog/rkroomanddearly.com/2012/03/diy­organized­t­shirt­drawers.html 13/16

I do this, but I roll the shirts.

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!!!!

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.

Anonymous

A year ago

Anonymous

A year ago

Kimberly

Clemens

A year ago

1/4/2015 DIY: Organized T­shirt Drawers — Darkroom and Dearly

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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

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!

Perfect! Also noticed Joes clothes!!

Thank you for this amazing epiphany

!

This is perfect! My drawers are

always organized.

Robin B.

A year ago

kimberly

coseno

A year ago

Anonymous

A year ago

Anonymous

A year ago

1/4/2015 DIY: Organized T­shirt Drawers — Darkroom and Dearly

http://www.darkroomanddearly.com/blog/rkroomanddearly.com/2012/03/diy­organized­t­shirt­drawers.html 15/16

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/organized-

drawers.html

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 :)

I already folded my shirts like this,

but never thought of putting them on

end. Brilliant!

How do you guys keep the shirts

from falling over and getting messy

as you remove shirts from the

drawer?

Brittany

A year ago

Anonymous

2 years ago

Anonymous

2 years ago

Anonymous

2 years ago

1/4/2015 DIY: Organized T­shirt Drawers — Darkroom and Dearly

http://www.darkroomanddearly.com/blog/rkroomanddearly.com/2012/03/diy­organized­t­shirt­drawers.html 16/16

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!

a bar of soap works very well - and

smells good!

I was back in Stw today!! My niece

works at Joes clothes! My hometown

too :). Thanks for the neat tip!

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2 years ago

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