Thanks Fay - - simple solution - why didn't I think of that? LOL

I've been doing this for a while. It's very helpful.

An oldie-but-goodie tip and adorable video! Keep 'em comin!

Oh, the valley girl inflection.....

Here in HI we wear t-shirts/shorts EVERYwhere. I opted for no drawers. Built a vertical shelf unit with cubbies about the size of what I thought my "wardrobe" would hold (if I put a new, I recycle an old). I roll my t's in the clothing top shelf, 2-fold the shorts below shelf into 2 rows, and longer pants below 3-fold into 2 rows. I can see it all.

Agreed on the tip and the adorable video! Keep 'em coming!

..er...basically ditto to esotericara

Great idea, and it also works with belts in a drawer: Roll them up and store them buckle up. Another bonus: They don't get tangled.

Very appealing in principle, but in practice, how on earth do you do this and keep the shirts from coming out of the drawer all wrinkled? It would have been useful to show how she folds the shirts and places them vertically to keep wrinkles from happening. If that's possible.

Hi Kate - Since you roll your t-shirts, how do you differentiate them when they're the same color? Even if the shirts were rolled with the design out, wouldn't you have to move other shirts to see the design?

Cute. More please.

Funny how I fold my clothes like that when I travel, but never thought of doing it at home. Like, duh.

thanks for sharing. cute video. i do need a Def Leopard shirt.

Great tip--guess I'll be spending the evening organizing my t-shirt drawer!

This would be lovely and simple if it would work all shirts/sweater, but it really only works with medium-weight regular-cut cotton knit t-shirts, unfortunately.
If you have any shirts with fabric details (eg. ruffles, draping, etc), or that are silk or any thin woven material, the shirts will come out of the drawer terribly wrinkled, if you're even able to get them to stand on end at all.

this could have been a 15 second tip

we do this for our kids already and it helps them find stuff.

This is great if you wear one t-shirt, wash it, put it back, take another, wash it and put it back...otherwise after several t-shirts are missing you end up with a messy half-folded pile of shirts. Another fail AT! Read this comment quickly before AT deletes it! They can't really take any criticism...I have a feeling it's all yes men around that office.

moonbase alphan. Wrong! I have been doing this for the last 2 years and it works perfectly. I think that apartment therapy adhere to the rule of: "if you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all" Sound advice if you ask me.

Golly Gee Doris Day, I did this too and it was a mess...I guess you're just perfect. As for apartment therapy deleting negative posts...if you can't take the heat get out of the kitchen! This blog is becoming increasingly inane, and it seems that if people keep applauding these "brilliant solutions" we'll all be subjected to more of the same...watch for next week's tip "using water gets dishes cleaner!" or "put your stuff away for a neater apartment!"

Glad to see it's helpful for so many! I usually fold shirts like a normal tee would be folded in a store, and then fold again in half. It depends on your drawer size and what feels right for you. There's no one way or perfect way to organize, I've found. Different things work for different people. Thanks for watching, everyone! xx Fay

@Deborah Day I'm curious how you fold your t-shirts before stacking them upright. Like a few other readers have mentioned it seems like this system would leave you with some pretty wrinkled shirts. Also, what happens when you wear a few of the t-shirts and they aren't so densely packed into the drawer?

Has anyone else tried stacking their t-shirts this way? Did it work? Looking for some tips.

I do a version of this with cardboard dividers, which I learned on AT.
The pros
The full to find ratio for the two drawers is in my favor. I can find the shirt I want and fit them in, barely. If I wasn't on one in one out, I might have problems.
With dividers, I can tell if a shirt has gone missing easily, and find it....usually in the yard after it fell off the drying rack.

The cons
Learning curve on folding so I can differentiate screen printed shirts.
Dividers create arbitrary spaces based on geometry, so it has some wasted space in he sock and delicates drawer.

The adaptation
I did fold shirts in thirds after the sleeves were folded inward at the collar line.
Now, because of drawer depth but also to keep screen prints viable enough, I have four folds.

Overall, since I'm disinclined to hang knit shirts, this is a reasonable way to handle 20+ T-shirts.

And I'd love to see all comments left, even the haters, or something showing a comment was deleted. Otherwise responders sound strange.

It works amazingly well! I've been doing this for the last couple of years (and I think it was an AT post that started it all off). It's so much easier to find things, and put them away. Big improvement in my house anyway...

Great timing on this tip, as I am right now dragging out my summer gear from their vacuum sealed bags under the bed and switching sweaters and wool things into them. Now I can try a new way to do drawers! Good times, gals.

This is a such great tip! I just started doing this about 6 months ago, and it's kept my drawers so much more organized. I also do this with my camisoles and tanks.

That was a great tip and a cute video. More, please!!!!

Hey, she's great! Do more!

I don't get it. Unless your t-shirts are very tightly packed, and/or kind of stiff, don't they just...flop down? And get really wrinkled? (This from someone who irons nothing, mind you, let alone t-shirts.)

Although I don't keep t-shirts in drawers full-stop; they sit stacked on shelves in the wardrobe.

@studiostarter - I fold my shirts in thirds lengthwise and then do a flattish roll up from the bottom. AT should create more videos on how people fold/roll to organize. It really depends on the size of the item and the size of the drawer. I use at least five variations, and, yes, I know my wardrobe well enough to know how each item gets folded... Not that I don't still experiment. :)
As for wrinkling, i find I have a bit better results than I do folding/stacking.

Such a hassle, I don't fold anything except wool sweaters, socks, bras and underwear, everything else get's hung up immediately after coming out the dryer.

I've done this for years and have found it really helpful for the reasons mentioned in the video. I fold my shirts the Japanese method. I've found that it reduced the wrinkles in the shirts, is super fast to fold, and holds the fold even when stored vertically. Also, because it holds the fold, when I've worn a bunch of shirts, the remaining ones in the drawer naturally lay flat but retain their shape and don't get wrinkled.

Gasp! I love this idea!

I don't actually need it for my T-shirts, which I hang up (my uniform being a black T-shirt and whatever else), but for everythng else that I *do* indeed dig through (underwear, scarves, socks, etc.), this is a terrific idea.

Nice video. Good personality.

Now if I only had a cure for the set-in mystery stains on some of my T-shirts! One more "stain remover" failure, and I'll have to resort to turning them into rags or pillow stuffing.

hmmm.... Won't work for my hoard of t-shirts, I finally trimmed down my over 65 pairs of black t-shirts to just under 20. I am VERY lucky enough to have an extra closet and I just hang all my t-shirts. But I went years with them shoved into many drawers. But it was always like Christmas when I found an older t-shirt I had not worn in a while.

I do this as well. I agree with some of the feedback that as the drawer empties out there is the potential for the shirts to turn into a floppy half folded mess. Especially if you have the tendencies to go longer between laundry loads.

Adaptations: I found that this method worked better with shirts in shallower drawer. Shirts that are too thin get hung. If the drawer starts to get particularly empty I move all the shirts to the left, condensing them into one column. I always a few shirts that are out of season, so this seems to help.

Again, with a DIY cardboard divider, the shirts fall much less.
http://www.designsponge.com/2009/03/diy-wednesdays-march-11th.html

so simple. why have I not been doing?! she's adorable btw

I've been rolling my t-shirts in my dresser drawers for years. I do this for short sleeved and long sleeved shirts. It works perfectly, the shirts do not get wrinkled, and you can always see what you have without having to dig through a pile. Plus you can fit more shirts in drawers this way.

I've been "filing" my shirts vertically for almost a year now and I've never had a problem. But then again I have quite a large collection of t-shirts and once they've been upright and squished in long enough, they manage to stay standing even when things get a little roomier in the drawer.

As for folding, there was a bit of experimentation to get things to fit and look just right but after working retail for so many years, one knows a couple different ways to fold a shirt.

Is it OCD of me to use a piece of plexiglass (had a leftover from another project) to fold my t-shirts with so that they're all the exact same width when folded? I use a shelf for my shirts, rather than a drawer - same concept though.

Fay Wolf, I so freaking love you right now! I just came across this post as I am in the middle of switching out my seasonal wardrobe (hey, I'm a procrastinator), and wondering--yet again--if there is a better way to put away my dozens and dozens of t-shirts. Much as I would prefer it, I don't have shelf space on which to stack them, and I hate drawer storage because I can't see what I have. I just got three drawers worth of t's, sweats, and workout pants into one drawer with room to spare, and I can SEE everything in the drawer. After living with this system for a while, I may add some corrugated plastic dividers (I'm thinking to use "Tower Records" style labeled separators also), but this is already a big improvement over my old system. Thank you!

Why have I not been doing this?! I just gained a whole drawer for seasonal clothes--now I've got less to store! I am going to do this for my kids t-shirts too! thanks Fay!