The Vertical Fold: Pros and Cons
I was a skeptic. For years, I was against the vertical fold. I felt it was more hassle than it's worth and it didn't seem functional. For those of you who are unaware what the vertical fold is, here's a little snapshot:
It looks amazing in a drawer, but it seemed to me that if you remove one item the entire system would collapse. Today I will share the pros and cons of the vertical fold, and when it works and when it doesn't.
Pro 1: You can see all of your clothing
I think my biggest pet peeve with clothing is when I can't see what I have. I don't know if this is a product of me being organized, or why I am organized. When my closet gets too crowded and I can't easily see what's hanging or folded, it's time to purge.
The vertical fold is meant to be used in drawers. It allows you to see everything stored in your drawer so when you put clothing away the last article in is not the only one visible, which is the case with the standard fold.
Pro 2: It stays organized
Storing clothing like this, despite my previous belief, actually keeps my drawers more organized than before. Since I'm not rooting through stacked piles, everything stays nicely in place and stays visible.
Pro 3: It prevents excess clothing
The vertical fold method is slightly restrictive in how many items you can have in each drawer, I guess this can be somewhat of a Con as well. When I switched to the vertical fold there were too many items in my drawer to fit folded vertically. Instead of quitting and saying, "well, guess this isn't for me" I purged. And once I started, as per usual, I realized there were plenty of items in my drawers that I didn't need/want/or like anymore. I just hadn't realized it because they'd be buried in the bottom for so long.
Con 1: It doesn't work for everyone/everything
The perfect example is my husband. He owns beaucoup amount of t-shirts and wears them regularly. When he comes home from work he throws on a tee, and then changes into a different one for bedtime. So within one work week he's going through 10 t-shirts. Then on the weekends who knows how many he wears, between James' snail trails (when do the runny noses end?!) and meal time, Brit probably goes through about 3 t-shirts per day on the weekends.
In between loads of laundry Brit may run through about 14 t-shirts. If you envision this nice neat line of t-shirts, then remove FOURTEEN of them, the lines collapse.
Because the rate he wears clothing and the rate at which we do laundry is very different, the vertical fold does not work for him. Now, he could take time to reset the line of tees each time we do laundry, but let's be realistic, no one wants to reorganize a drawer every time they do laundry.
Con 2: It takes practice
This method of folding may be different from how you originally folded your clothing, thus it will take some getting used to. This can be frustrating when you've folded an entire load of laundry only to realize when you go to put it away it's been folded "wrong". Basically the only difference is that the items need to be folded into a small rectangle.
I found this site that offers videos on how to fold vertically, but honestly if I took that much time to fold clothing I would be folding laundry for the rest of my life. I actually like folding laundry (there's a small group of us out there, anyone with me?) but I do not like spending time folding laundry. So my method differs greatly from this. I simply fold the items like I used to, then add one more fold to get them to the smaller rectangle size.
I use the vertical fold for t-shirts, legging, sweat pants, tanks, and all my workout clothing. I actually had to get a bit creative with my work out clothing because I like to fit everything (tops, bottoms, socks, sports bras) in the same drawer. I've been shocked that it's actually stayed this organized for several months. I thought for sure that since I wasn't folding everything in a nice neat line that the clothing would just collapse on itself. But it hasn't.... I kind of regret all of my skepticism and wish I would have incorporated this sooner.
If your clothing doesn't fit perfectly in a line inside your drawer, get creative. I turned some stacks sideways and placed other items in some of the gaps, like socks and sports bras. Or, you can leave some clothes stacked horizontally. My long-sleeved tees are stored this way, and since I only own three long-sleeved tees, it's easy for me to see what's in the stack.
Overall I'm thrilled with the way my drawers look now and it has actually been super simple to keep up with. I don't find myself searching for items as much as I did before either. So, who has switched to the vertical fold? I am the only one that super late to this party?
Thanks for visiting!
