The day I figured out I was folding laundry completely backward

I grew up folding tshirts the way my mom did, folding the sleeves inward then the bottom up. Took me like 30 years to realize it made everything wrinkled and took twice as long. Then I saw a random video on YouTube from some Japanese organization expert showing the konmari fold where you fold it into a little rectangle that stands up on its own. I tried it with one shirt and it was like a lightbulb went off. Now my entire dresser is just rows of upright shirts and I can see every single one without digging. Has anyone else had that moment where you realized a basic life skill you learned as a kid was totally inefficient?

3 comments

3 Comments

paige_west1mo ago

Is there anything we learned as kids that actually works better than the "adult" way?

wadeg921mo agoMost Upvoted

Actually gotta push back on that fitted sheet thing a little. In my experience, the "adult" way of folding fitted sheets with the corners tucked into each other looks nice for about five minutes, but it always comes undone in the closet or during laundry day. The balled up method is way more practical and takes two seconds. Your mileage may vary, but I've tried both and the wad never fails me. Same with the KonMari folding method for t-shirts - looks great until you have to grab one from the middle of the stack and everything falls apart. Sometimes the lazy way is actually the better way, even if it's not as pretty.

joel_mason221mo ago

Had a similar experience with folding fitted sheets. Always just balled them up and shoved them in the linen closet, never understood why people made such a big deal about it. Then my wife showed me the method where you tuck the corners into each other, and now they actually look like a real folded sheet instead of a wadded up mess. That t-shirt fold you mentioned works great too, tried it last week and cleared out half my drawer space. Funny how we just do things the way we were taught without ever questioning if there's a better way.