How To Fold Clothes Like A Retail Pro

Learn how to fold clothes in drawers the way retail stores do so your clothing is neat, tidy, and wrinkle-free, plus how to utilize the file-fold method.

I’m going to let you in on a little secret. A long time ago in a land far, far away, I was a retail store manager. I (who was basically a semi-grown teenager) managed a bunch of actual teenagers (who weren’t much younger than me) and somehow kept a store running and profitable.

This store had tons of clothes hanging on the walls, but we had 8 huge tiered tables piled with stacked shirts, tank tops, sweaters, hoodies, jeans, yoga pants, and whatever else we had going on at the time.

On a typical Saturday evening, by about 8pm, each and every single article of clothing on those tables had transformed into a big wad of a disaster zone. We’d close the store at 9, then fold until about 11.

Why Should You Improve Your Folding Game?

I say all this because I’ve done my fair share of folding shirts and pants and even underwear. My husband, on the other hand, has not. I opened his drawer one day to put something away for him and almost had a panic attack.

So in hopes that he may read this blog post (and anyone else in the world who folds like a twelve year old rebelling against their parents and the chores they’re forced to do) and fold clothes more neatly.

Folding stuff isn’t just to please crazy neat-freaks like me (although it does earn you major bonus points), it actually allows more pieces of clothing to fit in the space you’ve got. It also decreases wrinkles and makes finding the right piece of clothing easier.

Related Post: DIY Fabric Drawer Dividers

The File Folding Method

I’ve been folding my shirts, shorts, sweatpants, yoga pants, leggings, tank tops, and at one point even my socks this way. No I don’t do my socks this way anymore. I dropped my level of crazy down one notch.

You can see in the two photos above, it makes a huge difference. You can literally see every single article of clothing in the drawer at first glance. No more flopping through stacks trying to find one specific shirt.

How To Fold Shirts And Tanks

1. Start by laying the shirt flat on a hard surface. Don’t use something soft like a bed or you’ll end up with a loose, wrinkly fold. Don’t have a flat surface? See this post for an alternate folding method and a video tutorial.

2. Fold in the arms and sides in clean straight lines. For long sleeve shirts, you’ll have to make two folds on the sleeves. And for tanks, you just have to fold in the sides.

3. Bring the bottom up one third of the way. For longer shirts, you may have to fold it into fourths. For shorter shirts, you may need to fold it one half of the way. The key is to make sure all shirts, regardless of length, are the same size when folded.

4. Bring the bottom part you just folded up to the top for a second fold. It’s important to do it this way instead of bringing the top over because it keeps the collar nice and flat.

5. Flip it over and smooth edges. Make sure the collar is straight and edges don’t have wrinkles.

Additional Step To File Fold

To file fold your shirts, just flip your finished shirt in half again. This allows you to stand each shirt up in the drawer vertically so you can see them all at once versus stacking them on top of each other.

How To Fold Pants And Shorts

1. Start by buttoning/clasping the pants and folding them in half long-ways on a hard surface. Just like the shirts, you don’t want to do this on something soft like a bed or your edges will come out really uneven.

2. Fold in the booty seam. That section may have technical name…but I don’t know it. Plus, the teenagers I trained always got a good giggle when I said booty seam.

3. Flip the bottom edge of the pants right above the top edge of the pocket. Hold that booty seam in place while you do this. If you don’t have pockets, just bring the foot of the pants to the bottom of the waistline. If you’re doing shorts, that’s it, you’re done. Unless you want to file fold. At this point you’ll fold in half again.

4. Fold what you have in half. It’s best to leave about half an inch between the waist of the pants and the fold line, just so they lay flatter. (This is totally hard to describe, check out the photo above to make some sense of my jumbled rambling.)

5. Flip it over and you’re all set! If you want to file fold denim, instead of folding them in thirds like you did, fold them into fourths. That will make it less bulky in your drawers.

My Favorite Closet And Dresser Organizers

• Expanding Drawer Dividers
• Fabric Drawer Bins
• Hanging Shelves
• Large Fabric Bin
• Velvet Hangers
• Acrylic Purse Hooks
• Boot Hooks

Dresser Drawers With File Folded Clothes

See how much better that looks? Awesome, right? One thing you should know is that although it may take you a while to fold the clothes at first while you’re still learning, you’ll eventually be able to fly through this super quickly. And when you get really good, you won’t even need the table anymore. I’ve been known to pop my knee up in the air and use my leg as a prop when folding jeans, and I can now do the shirts just out in the air.

But until you’re doing fancy tricks while folding (and making your ten year old so embarrassed when he has friends over), I suggest sticking with the table. If you really want to make your drawers look great, add some dividers to keep things in place, like the ones I made from leftover fabric.