Organizational Tip: Visual Drawers

Have you ever gone through a drawer in your dresser to free up some space and been surprised at what you found at the bottom of the drawer?  "Hey, I forgot all about this shirt" or, "I wish I'd remembered this shirt when it was still summer" or maybe there were things you could have gotten rid of that had been taking up space in a crammed drawer for a long time.

Years ago I got tired of losing and re-finding my things at the bottom of drawers.  I decided there had to be a way to see all of your things at once.  I figured out if you stack your shirts (or shorts, or socks, etc.) on their sides standing up, you can still see each item, and you know exactly what's in the drawer.

For example, shirts are the easiest to do this with.  Here's an example of my t-shirt drawer:

Not only can you see all the t-shirts, but you can have a rotation system to let you know what you haven't worn in a while.  For example, after I wear a shirt, I fold it and put it back on the left.  That means the shirts more towards the right side of the drawer haven't been worn in as long.  That's also a nice way to decide when you're cleaning out a drawer what you don't want anymore.  The items on the right would be the ones most likely to be given away or donated. 

There are some factors in making this work.  First, you have to have a drawer that's tall enough for what you want to store vertically.  Socks and underwear can go in shallow drawers.  Shorts and shirts need taller drawers.  Secondly, this isn't going to work for you if you have to do something complicated to make it happen.  If you have to do a special folding process the clothes are more likely to stay in the hamper rather than get into the drawer.  And last, you need to have enough items for a drawer so they will be able to stand up without falling over.  If you're like me, it's usually not too little clothes that's the problem.

For folding shirts, I use a standard shirt fold and then fold it in half one more time like this:

I still remember the boyfriend in college who taught me how to fold shirts by grabbing the shirt a certain way and then doing a single motion ending on the folding surface.  I was amazed how quickly and neatly he was folding shirts.  To this day, I think of him often when I'm folding laundry.

The Big Boy Update:  Shapes and sorting.  He was putting the square into the square hole and the triangle in the triangle hole today.  He's making more logical associations now than he was just a few weeks ago.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  Platinum or Blonde?  Her hair is growing.  I can't tell if she's getting a little pigmentation in her hair or if it's just more noticeable because it's getting longer.  Initially when her head got wet her hair completely disappeared and it looked like she was completely bald.  Now you can see just a bit of something there when she's getting a bath.

Right-size Countdown:  3.1 pounds to go