DIY: Organized T-shirt Drawers

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, 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:

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)
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. :)