Let’s face it, unless you have enough closet space to hang all your clothing, you need to fold it and put it away somehow. Unfortunately, it does take a considerable amount of time. So, a long time ago someone (Brian?) showed me the “Japanese shirt folding technique.” It’s a good technique that does save time but not that much, even if you do get good at it. Usually if you try to do it fast, you do fold the shirt but it doesn’t come out very well and requires adjustment. It also doesn’t fold long sleeve shirts and the shirts come apart more easily when you move them. However, the main issue with this technique is that the shirts fold into different sizes depending on the original size of the shirt and so they don’t stack very well.
A better way to fold your clothes is to use this DIY shirt folding machine. When I first saw this I scoffed at it, but it actually is worth the time to make. It takes about 30 minutes to make once you have the materials but it’s easier and faster to use than the folding technique above. It also easily folds long sleeve shirts (fold sleeves so nothing extends past the ends of the cardboard) and the shirts all come out the same width (height, unfortunately is still variable). Better for storage, and looks better as well.
