Folding for Shelves Made Easy addresses how to fold garments and towel bundles that are stored on shelves. In my Folding A Fitted Sheet Made Easy video, I discussed how to create a neat bundle that sits on a shelf. In my Folding Clothes Made Easy video I talked about folded items that do best in drawers. This blog is for sweaters, pullovers, and sweatshirts that sit on shelves in your closet. It’s also for towel sets that you store on linen closet shelves, with your sheets. The more visible and limited an item is, the more find-able it is. That saves time which is irreplaceable. The calm appearance eases your stress level and the find-ability adds to the value of good folding.

Garments

As you may recall from my “folding made easy” video, I am a huge proponent of folding for vertical storage in your drawer space. The difference with shelves is that you are viewing a vertical stack rather than a horizontal row. Therefore, garments can fold longer for shelves. Let’s start with the sweater.

If you are folding for a deeper shelf, as with T-shirts, choose a standard guide. A standard 8.5 notepad backing might be just the thing. Start by placing show-side down. Use the guide to divide in thirds vertically. For a single depth fold, bring the arms in lengthwise and fold vertically once. This will go well on a deep shelf.

For shallower shelves, we are going to fold a sweatshirt with a method that you can also apply to a sweater. Same idea, show-side down. Pull the hood in and down, on the other end, pull the bottom back about 5 inches. Now fold vertically in thirds across the hood, this time folding the sleeves laterally across the top. Make one vertical fold, then fold back the bottom fold to secure the sweatshirt into one neat bundle.

Towel Bundles

Finally, for the towels that go with the fitted sheets in the linen closet, I recommend a similar bundling idea. Fold the hand towel in half three times. Then fold the bath towel in half, then in thirds. Then place the hand towel inside and fold the bath towel over it once more. This should leave you with one thick bundle. Always position it on the shelf elbow side out, so it is easier on the eyes.

These folding techniques should allow your garments and towels to sit level on your shelves. For additional support, you might find it easier to maintain a more organized appearance with separators from The Container Store.

So that’s it for Folding for Shelves Made Easy; I’d love to hear your thoughts and questions in the box below!