The Best Way to Fold and Organize Your Kids’ Clothes!

Let me just start off this post by saying that I am NOT a naturally organized person or a naturally good housekeeper. You know those women whose homes seem to always be clean and in order, even when you stop by unannounced? Yeah, I am definitely not one of them!

Because keeping a clean and organized home doesn’t come naturally to me, but I wish it did, I have read A LOT of books on organizing, decluttering, and cleaning. Over the years, through a lot of trial and error and with many relapses along the way, I have come up with a few simple routines for trying to staying on top of things and keeping my home somewhat clean most of the time. This is a big accomplishment for me!

But, despite all of the reading and learning about organization, the biggest thing I continue to struggle with is clutter. We have so much stuff, and no matter how many times we try to clean out, get rid of stuff, live with less, etc., the struggle just seems to never end.

Marie Kondo, the author of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing, claims that by following her method for decluttering and organizing, you can do it once and for all and never have to do it again! When I read that I was of course, very intrigued!

Since I was at the point where I felt like we were drowning in stuff, again, I got the book on Kindle just after the New Year and read through it pretty quickly – it’s an easy read. I was hopeful but also a little skeptical that this method could actually work for us.

Several weeks ago we dove into decluttering and reorganizing our home using the KonMari method laid out in this book. We started with our master bedroom, and then moved on to our kids’ clothing storage, and this past weekend we tackled our kids toys. (Let me just say: YIKES! That project is still ongoing!)

I looked at my husband after rearranging and reorganizing all of our kids’ clothes and I said with all sincerity, “This REALLY IS life-changing!” He laughed at me and told me I was being dramatic. Womp-womp. But seriously, maybe not for him, but for me the changes we have implemented so far have been life-changing! This is absolutely the best way to fold and organize kids’ clothes! 

So let me tell you a little bit about our kids’ clothing storage.

Before

All three of our kids share a room. We live in a small old house with tiny closets, so clothing storage has been quite a struggle for us for a long time. My hubs built this really great custom insert for our kids’ closet that I hoped would solve all our problems. But… it really didn’t.

The open shelves meant that when the kids were looking for a specific item of clothing, they would pull everything off to find it. Then they’d end up leaving everything in a pile on the floor, no matter how many times I reminded them to put their clothes away.

The shelves were always crowded and overflowing and never looked neat. The closet was full of clothes, plus each older kid had a rolling bin under their bed where we kept their pajamas. Their clothes took up A LOT of space in a room where space and storage are at a premium.

Because we kept all of their clothes in the closet, we used the drawers in the dresser to hold their toys. But this was never a good system either – junk just got thrown in the drawers and there was no rhyme or reason or organization to it. Because the drawers were so cluttered and messy the kids rarely played with the toys in their room.

It was definitely not working for us. It was stressing me out, which was stressing them out. The lack of organization kept them from being able to enjoy their toys and their room.

After

After reading about the KonMari method of folding and finding this helpful video about folding the whole family’s clothes – I knew I needed to tackle reorganizing the kids’ clothing storage.

This method advises storing clothing in drawers, folded into rectangles that can easily stand up vertically, instead of piling clothes on top of each other. So, I dedicated two dresser drawers for each child’s clothing – one for tops and bottoms and one for pj’s, socks, and undies. To my surprise, after refolding all of their clothes and standing them up vertically in the drawers, all of their clothing fit into the drawers! (There are still a few hanging clothes for each child which have stayed in the closet.)

I cannot believe how many clothes fit into such a small amount of space! And the best part is that my kids can easily see all of their clothes and pick what they want to wear without disrupting the whole storage system. They can also easily put away all of their own laundry. This is life-changing compared to our previous clothing storage system!

Then, after reorganizing and storing their clothes, I had the whole closet, half of a dresser, and their under-the-bed bins completely clear and available for storing their toys and other items.  I can’t believe how much more storage space we have in their room now, just from folding their clothing in a different way!

I can give you a little sneak preview and say that after going through their toys and reorganizing them this weekend, I am thrilled with those results too! I want to finish up decluttering their toys and then use the new system for a few weeks and see how it goes. I can’t wait to come back and share more about that process with you too!

Are your kids’ dressers and closets stressing you out? Do your kids struggle to keep their clothes neat and tidy? I can’t recommend this method enough!

What would you like to read next?

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