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Is It Better to Fold or Hang Your Clothes?

innovativestor • Feb 28, 2022

When it comes time to store the clothes in your custom closet, you may wonder if you should be folding certain items or hanging them up neatly. While this can be based on personal preference, there is a methodical approach to follow as well.

Here are the steps to figure out which clothes you should fold and which you should hang up:

Evaluate Your Clothes
Evaluate Your Space
Use The Right Hangers
Fold Properly

Read on to learn more space-saving tips!

Evaluate Your Clothes

Reorganizing your closets can be a big task. To lessen the burden, it’s a good idea to go through your entire wardrobe and get rid of any items you no longer need. Removing the excess right off the bat will make organizing that much easier. Optimal Garage & Closets Inc. provides additional tips on how to conduct a complete organizational rehaul in 6 Steps for Organizing Your Custom Closets.

Categorize

Once you decide on the clothing you’re keeping, start sorting everything into categories. Start super simple with general categories like pants, shirts, dresses, sweaters, and skirts. Then create more detailed groups. For instance, you may have the following categories for pants: dress pants, casual pants, and sweatpants, while your shirt section includes t-shirts, blouses, and knitwear.

Decide

Now that everything is categorized accordingly, it’s time to note if each group gets a hanger or drawer space. Shopstuffetc.com recommends deciding what goes where based on material and weight. Any items made of delicate fabric should be hung up, especially if they wrinkle easily. Stretchable pieces can be folded.

The Laundress offers the following guidelines:

Hang Up:

Skirts & work pants
Blazers
Formal blouses
Flowy fabrics
Casual dresses

Fold:

Sweaters
Workout gear (items that typically don’t wrinkle due to the synthetic materials)
Jeans and shorts

Additionally, you can fold t-shirts, sweatpants, pajamas, underwear, bras, and socks.

Evaluate Your Space

Now that you have a general idea of which items will require hangers versus drawer space, assess your closet to determine the best storage solutions.

Space-Saving Hangers & Drawer Dividers

If your closet isn’t very large, there are a few enhancements you can make to maximize storage, including:

Cascading Hangers

There are a few different variations of cascading hangers but they all do the same thing – maximize storage by hanging multiple items on top of each other. Plus, they collapse down so each item overlays one another without causing creases or wrinkles.

Vacuum Sealed Bags

Sometimes the best option for getting more space in your closet is by simply storing clothes according to season and swapping out accordingly. For some, this swap may seem like a bit of a hassle, but for others, it works as a way to stay extra organized (and can limit clothing options for those who are always indecisive about choosing outfits). You can store seasonal clothes in vacuum-sealed storage bags.

Honeycomb Drawer Organizers

As the name suggests, these organizers resemble a honeycomb, which creates smaller individual areas in a drawer and are ideal for storing socks and underwear.

Expandable Drawer Dividers

Another idea is purchasing expandable drawer dividers, particularly if your closet is on the larger side. Each divider typically adjusts and can be found in tons of styles and materials.

Use The Right Hangers

The purpose of organizing your closet is to extend the life of your wardrobe. Simply hanging up certain items isn’t enough. You have to make sure you’re hanging the items correctly. One way of doing this is by choosing the correct hangers.

The Container Store details the importance of each type of hanger here. However, Bob Vila gives a nice little cheat sheet as well and touches upon the fact that wire hangers can cause sharp creases on some pieces while plastic hangers are best for lightweight clothing, wooden hangers are meant for heavier items, and velvet hangers are best for delicate materials.

Fold Properly

Just as you want to use the correct hangers, you should also learn how to fold correctly. There are many different ways to fold clothes, based on the item, the organizational style you’re after, and the space available in your closet.

Conclusion

At the end of the day when the question is asked if you should fold or hang up your clothes, the answer is both. The next time you question how to store an item in your custom closet, refer to the above tips and extend the life of your wardrobe.