Learn To Fold A Dress Shirt Effectively

LOL, I thought I was going to learn something new but this brings back memories!! Anyone here ever do a stint in the Navy? This is almost the EXACT way they had us folding our clothes in boot camp, but for an entirely different reason: there's not a lot of square footage per sailor on board a ship so one has to make the most efficient use of what little space is available to him. Folding our uniforms in this manner made for VERY efficient storage, so that's why we used the exact same technique as in the video. BTW, it really does cut down on wrinkles as advertised.

@joandrade: Just imagine when you will give a presentation in your office with your t-shirt.

I just use an iron.

thelastnamehere

I find that folding my dress shirts in this manner makes them not necessarily wrinkled, but still unwearable out of the drawer or suitcase. You end up with two creases running right down each side of your chest and the sleeves get all creased up as well.

When I pack for a business trip I take my 5 dress shirts for the weak and lay them all on top of one another as flat at possible. Then I fold the all sleeves in where they attach to the torso and then fold the whole bundle in half. The resulting bundle is almost the exact footprint of my trusty carry-on. I pack all my underwear and t-shirts in the bottom, lay my shirt bundle on top and put my pants on top of that. This is the most wrinkle free packing scheme I've managed to find yet.

12thMan

I do what I can to fold them, but realistically they'll need an iron when you get to the hotel. If you're good at it, it only takes a few minutes to iron a couple of shirts at the hotel while you're watching tv in the evening. If you really hate that -- just send them out and let the hotel do it for you. Whichever.

AndrewJayPollack

Rolling the shirt up into a ball and throwing it across the room to be found if and when I need it is much faster.

I am more productive as a result.

@jupiterthunder: Yeah, that makes sense. I was thinking of the movement of the object being folded.

squishyalt

This is how we folded them at Abercrombie when I used to work there back in HS, but most of the time we used folding boards to make it easier.

I bet you could make a folding board yourself pretty easily.

Baashar Alawneh

.. folding? Whats that?

@TheFu: I wish I lived somewhere that you can get a dress shirt laundered for 99 cents.

DangerousLiberal

@drhowarddrfine: You'd be surprised....and seeing it demo'd properly on video really was helpful. And timely--I have a trip next week. At least this will be handy for when the dry cleaner fails, again, to fold my shirts instead of hanging them.

DangerousLiberal

All I know is if my dress shirts aren't going in the closet, then I don't see reason for anything else too.

I used this for years. Seems rather obvious to me, but you know how that goes. It's not exactly the package fold from the dept store. That is done so that the cuffs point up toward the collar with an extra fold in the sleeve. However, this is just as effective, if not better.

jupiterthunder

@squishyalt:

She did. Maybe she was describing the fold by direction of the crease. Possibly?

jupiterthunder

@TheFu: b)Or put a pair of rolled up socks in there.

@sredlums: Yep. I learned this when I started traveling for work in the 70s.

@Attmay: OH, I saw it mentioned above, but I didn't notice that it was linked there, too.

SORRY!

While this method works, I was much more amazed by the t-shirt folding trick found here and here. I use it every time I fold laundry

My solution is:
-Wear T-shirts
-Problem solved

The few shirts I have, i keep them in coathangers, in the closet.

joandrade

For kid's shirts I grab them at the armpits, letting the shirt drape, then fold the bottom to roughly the same length as the top, folding the arms around it like a hug. This way they can see more of the shirt so they know which one it is.

Did she say "vertically" folded sleeves when folding them horizontally?

squishyalt

@sredlums: ha, i have the same question.

what no sox tutorial? :(

[Hehehe mi esposa and I still have the overhand-knotted tee shirt from lack of hand-eye coordination on rushing the [lifehacker.com] folding lesson.]

At any rate, this'll be a help. All these years, I've been folding in thirds, with the sleeves pointed down the sides of the shirt. Oh bulko mio. My typical suitcase habit is one "dose" of clothes per day: a plastic bag containing shirt, briefs, sox. This'll be a suitcase organization aid.

I have my shirts folded this way when I get them from the hotel laundry. Now I know how they do it! Thanks :)

Uh, this is the way to do it, but with these suggested changes:

a) Don't button all the buttons. Every other or 3 buttons is good enough.

b) If you want the collar to be crisp, place a plastic or cardboard collar insert in, just like when the shirt was new.

c) Even easier, take your shirts to the laundry and ask for folded instead of hangars. $0.99 is pretty cheap.

d) Use the t-shirt folding method, modified for dress shirts. It does work with very slight modification.

TheFu

Errm... is this serious?

I have been doing it like this all my life, and I viewed this video thinking I would learn a much better way to do it, only to find out that I have been a lean, mean folding machine all my life without even knowing it.

So in all honesty I ask: what other ways, really different from this, are there??

sredlums

That's basically the same way clothing stores fold t-shirts to display the logo on the front. I finally asked a sales girl to show me how they do it so my closet would look all nice and neat. ^^

I need this, really I do. I just fold my clothes like what it naturally feels to be a fold and it never is.

Type1

Holy ghost of Billy! That's so much simpler than how I usually do it. I'm going to go and fold my shirts now for that accomplished feeling.

FIRSTdukeofwellington

@Junkan: YEA KNOW I NOW WHAT THEY KNOW, BUT DO THEY KNOW I KNOW?

@FIRSTdukeofwellington: MISSION. ACCOMPLISHED! HEHE

@Baashar Alawneh: a standard (not briefcase) sized magazine

ffolliet

@DangerousLiberal: i think he meant 99cents extra to have it folded in stead of on a hanger after it's been cleaned

atomicrabbit

I must have led a very sheltered life. I'm in the minority who found this technique both new and very useful.

GrantMcPhee

but the wrinkles are still there....specially in the back where you're supposed to throw in tissue paper.

I guess this would work better on freshly ironed shirts.

yet it's a good tip!

ceez

@tech10171968: How did the navy teach you to iron? That's what I need help with.

azpat

@sredlums: well it does say "real simple"

azpat

The best way to avoid wrinkles is to avoid folding at all: that's the primary cause of the wrinkles in the first place (you can see the wrinkles that this gal is introducing to the shirt as she folds it).

At home, store shirts on hangers. When travelling, learn to bundle wrap ( [www.onebag.com] ).

How 'bout instructions for folding a fitted sheet?

Limekiller

@Tighe: Yea I work at one and will be using this tip when I need to do it quickly. You can also add a little clip at the bottom of the V to keep it tight (only if the two sides overlap).

jbrandonf likes pie. And Dreamcast

@ceviche: True, so much easier and faster. Then throw it on a hanger and hang in the bathroom while taking a shower for the steam to release the wrinkles.

@tech10171968: Yep. Learned this in boot camp. Only difference is that we didn't fold in the arms first. We folded over the sides first, then folded the sleeves at 90 degree angles.

Jwhite1979

@sredlums: Well, someone like me, whose parents didn't love him enough to teach him this skill, actually liked this. I never have occasion to fold dress shirts, as they hang in my closet.