UPDATE: This Giveaway is now over! Winner announcement has been posted on my homepage. See more Giveaways being dropped on my blog here.
(This is a new series of articles on Fridays called “Favorite Things Friday” where I’ll be sharing some of my favorite things, products & life tips, in hopes that you might find it useful in some way for your family. Join me back here every Friday. Plus, every Favorite Things Friday article will have a giveaway on it!)
I’ve been on a journey this year to declutter my life and my house. As a child, I didn’t grow up in a very organized household. There was clutter and things everywhere. Every drawer you opened. Every surface… had clutter. And as an adult, I never learned the skills and habits to keep a home organized.
Seeing that my home reflected that of the cluttered environment I grew up in, I felt really determined to take some action this year and to change. I wanted to learn new habits and to invite more peace into our home. Plus, I didn’t want my kids to grow up in and to adopt the same bad habits I did.
While I still have a lot to learn, and changing one’s habit is a process that will take time and practice. I’m really proud of what I’ve started to adopt into my family’s life so far.
Marie Kondo’s book “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up” was LIFE Changing! I started with the physical book but ended up listening to the Audiobook instead. If you wanna dive in quickly like me, I highly recommend that you listen to the audiobook – You’ll get thru it much faster, plus you can listen and tidy at the same time (that’s what I did lol).
You can get TWO Free Audiobooks here if you are new to audible.
If you listen to the audiobook, I do have to warn you that the narrative is a little dry. Listen for the content and power thru it. It’s worth it. 🙂 Okay. You’ve been warned … so you’re not surprised.
If you follow me on SnapChat, you may have seen my transformation this year with decluttering my closet and re-doing the dresser drawer for each of my kids (and myself). Many of you wrote in and started doing the same (see pics below).
One of the sweetest new habits I picked up from Marie Kondo is her method and philosophy on folding clothes:
- Fold as much as you can instead of hanging
- You can fold almost anything into a little rectangle shape (more on this later below) – Even underwear and socks
- Store folded clothing vertically (standing up)
- Give everything a home
Ever since converting over to the “KonMari” folding method. Opening my drawers each morning to pick out a pair of tees, leggings, and socks has turned into a joyful ritual. I can’t explain it. You have to experience it to understand. And folding fresh laundry no longer feels like a chore. It feels like a peaceful medication that’s calming and fulfilling.
How to Fold Clothes Using KonMarie Method
I had a hard time visualizing and understanding her folding method from the audiobook, so I googled videos of Marie Kondo actually doing it. And it made so much more sense to see it visually. There are tons of video on YouTube you can look into, but here are a few to get you started:
- Marie Kondo: Basic Folding Method
- KonMari Method – Marie Demonstrating in English
- Folding Awkward Items on Rachael Ray Show
- Marie on Folding the Perfect Underwear Drawer
- Marie on the Ellen Show – Teaching Ellen to Fold
- Basic Folding Illustration
I found that by converting to her folding method, not only does it look nice, you can fit a lot more into a dresser than stacking them flat. I used to use 3-4 drawers for the same content I now keep in one drawer.
Tools I Love for Keeping Drawers Organized
While you don’t need to buy any tools for KonMari folding method (you can use cardboards as dividers), I ended up using these Dial Dream Drawer Organizers as dividers for my dressers. It looks so much nicer to have these plastic dividers to separate the different sections. I’ve also tried these wood dividers but didn’t like them (they were hard to use and I don’t recommend it).
For my kid’s drawers, I also got some of these clear storage trays for socks, underwear and swimsuits.
That’s it! 🙂
Here are more pics of examples using the clear trays for my daughter Sophie:
When I started converting our dressers, I first started with my own clothing. I used to have several drawers and shelves, now have two fully converted dresser drawers that fit everything. One drawer each for socks, underwear and bras. And one drawer for tops and leggings. I breakdown tops into tank tops, short sleeve tees and long sleeve tees.
Both my kids dressers are now fully converted too. My kids have a lot more clothes than me. So they have a drawer for tops, a drawer for bottoms, a drawer for PJs, and since we’re in SoCal and swim a lot, a drawer for swimsuits.
My son is on the Autism spectrum. Like all children who has ASD, he needs (and craves) structure. One of our biggest daily struggles is getting him ready in the morning, groomed and dressed. It’s chaos every morning! I started using the dream drawer dividers to carve out a spot for each day of the week in his dresser. I would pick out his clothes (including underwear and socks – not shown in pic above) at the start of the week, so mornings during the school week can go a little smoother.
I wanted to share this pic of my son’s “days of week” drawer, just in case it’s helpful. I have been brainstorming different ideas and found this to be helpful for our family. I think even for children who doesn’t have Autism, this can be helpful in morning routines to get your young kiddos ready for school.
I Want to See Your Progress
If you plan to adapt this folding method into your life, I would LOVE, love, love to see pictures of your progress. Here are some pictures some of you already sent to me on SnapChat. I love seeing your pics. They make my day. ❤️
Thank you @isabel_mn and @bluebudderfly for sharing these pics.
Giveaway Time! Win a Set of Dream Drawers + Tray
As I mentioned last week, I’m gonna include a Giveaway to go with each of these Favorite Things Friday articles every Friday. Check back every Friday for more of my Favorite Things.
For today’s giveaway, I’m giving away a Prize Pack to THREE People. Each Prize Pack includes:
- TWO packs of Dial Dream Drawer Organizers (each pack comes with 2 dividers. So you’ll get 4 dividers to help you get started)
- One Clear Storage Tray
This giveaway starts on Friday 8/31 and will end on Monday 9/3. Winners will be announced on this blog only on Tuesday 9/4 before 12pm PST. You’ll have 48 hours to claim your prize.
To enter in this giveaway: leave a comment below with a useful tip you use at home or something you recently learned or tell me about one of your favorite products. Or you can tell me about some of your frustrations that you would love help with. And tell me where you’re reading from (city and state). Let me know by leaving a comment on this post.
This post is NOT sponsored by anyone. I just really love this product and wanted to share my experience. All prizes are paid for by myself.
Do You Have a Favorite Product or Life Tip? Want to be published in a future “Favorite Things Friday”? Shoot me an email with your write up and pictures. If I accept your submission and publish your tip, I’ll also send you a $50 Gift Card to the store of your choice. Send an email to tina@FreeStuffFinder.com with subject “Favorite Things Friday Tip”.
Oakdale Ca- I can’t wait to try this new folding system! I hope I can teach my 4 kids because I don’t have time to put away all of their clothes like this in their drawers.
I built my kids their own Fold AMatic with cardboard and duct tape. It makes all the clothes the exact same size and the kids can fold their own shirts neatly.
Hello.This is Gaby in Long Beach Ca. This is so the post I needed to see. My kids have clutter drawers and I had no idea how to deal with it. I like to keep things organized but inside their drawers its a whole different story. Normally what helps me feel like there is less clutter are vacuum storage bags for blankets.
I am always organizing drawers, spaces I have and it seems they are still not organized. I get so frustrated so I go thru the items and give some away or throw them away. This technique I would love to learn! Thank you for sharing!
Fayetteville, GA – My biggest new thing for staying organized came out of frustration. My boyfriend and I are both rather messy and cluttered and tend to put things off until the last minute. I wanted to change my bad habits, and he wanted us to carve out time together since we are both very busy with multiple jobs on top of being fosters for rescue dogs. So we came up with ‘Cleaning Day’! One day out of the week we both take off work and we have list of chores that need to be done, like dishes and laundry and sweeping, etc. We also have a list of ‘big projects’ that we’ve been putting off, like organizing the tools in the garage. After we have completed the weekly tasks and one ‘big project,’ we go on a date! The quicker we’re done, the more time we have for date night. Keeps us motivated to keep moving, and since it’s time together, we’re both finding that cleaning and de-cluttering isn’t nearly the chore it used to be, now we look forward to it! The other big life saving idea is the concept of ‘meaningful clutter.’ I found it much easier to toss things that were cluttering up our space, but my boyfriend is a bit of a sentimental hoarder… So we got some old school glass hutches like you would display fine china, but instead meaningful clutter goes there. It’s on display without being in our way! LOVE that you’re sharing these tips btw!
Oh and I’m from New Orleans Louisiana!!
I have recently started using containers and organizing my home. My shed collapsed earlier this year, and I lost all our Christmas decorations, my moms things, and much more. So I have been using bins, containers, shelves, and hooks to organize my family’s things to store away since we no longer have a shed.
I use a flip fold for laundry, as as size of the folded clothes is consistent and fits in the drawe better
The thing for me is to keep clothes sorted by type. Work shirts, casual shirts, light long sleeve, heavier sweaters, etc.
My drawers are deep so I don’t know if this method would work, but I’m going to try it. Especially for my kids.
San Diego, CA- I recently reorganized my kitchen. It looks so much better and I can’t quickly find stuff. I’m working on our spare room. Any tips for helping your husband get rid of unessaey things that he’s attached to? I think we are having a bigger issue with that lol.