Disclaimer: I do use affiliate links on my site, meaning that if you purchase anything through my affiliate links I receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. My views and opinions are never swayed because of this. I only recommend products and services that I trust and love!

I am a little bit obsessed with Marie Kondo. Ok, a lot obsessed. I read her book, “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up,” hanging on to her every word, ready to purge my belongings, start fresh, and spark joy in my life. I was literally taking notes as I read through her book, not lying. I’ve also watched her Netflix series Tidying Up all the way through twice (so far).

If you’re looking to change your life, you should start by reading her book. Want to get out of debt? Change career paths? Figure out who you are? Lose weight? Read this book. I kid you not! 

When you go through the process of tidying, it will inspire you to learn more about yourself and lead you to want to tidy other areas of your life!

Her book inspired me to undergo a massive shift in my thinking, as well as begin an incredible journey of decluttering. I’m still on my journey, and with two small children, it might take me a little while, but I want to share with you one of the biggest organizing tips I learned from “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up.”

There is so much to learn from this book that I HIGHLY recommend buying it and giving it a read if you haven’t already. But, without further ado…

Here it is: The BEST tip you will ever find to organize your drawers!!

When you open a drawer, you should know at a glance EXACTLY what you have.

That’s it.

A magical piece of advice that has changed the way I declutter and the way I organize.

I know some of you might think that the way you fold clothes doesn’t matter, but I’m here to tell you and show you, how you fold your clothes is crucial to staying organized. SERIOUSLY, look at these before and after photos of my daughter’s drawer!

BEFORE I reorganized my daughter’s drawer: who knows how many shirts and shorts and pants are in there?! Everything is organized and folded nicely, but you can only see a couple items on the top of the piles.

AFTER I organized my daughter’s drawer: I have no need to go shopping! I can see exactly how much of everything my child has. I can fit more clothes in each drawer and keep them better organized at the same time! When my daughter picks out her clothes, she can see everything at once. There is no need to go digging through piles, so it’s easier for my children to keep organized too!

How To Fold Your Clothes Using the KonMari Method

How to Fold a Tee Shirt

Step 1: Lay the shirt flat and upside down.

Step 2: Fold shirt 1/3 of the way in toward the center.

Step 3: Fold the other side in toward the center 1/3 of the way to create a long rectangle.

Step 4: Fold bottom of the shirt a little less than half way, leaving a gap at the top.

5. Fold the remaining rectangle in half. You’re done! Stack your beautiful little rectangle in your drawer!

How to Fold Pants the KonMari Way

  1. Lay Pants out flat.

2. Fold in half, one pant leg covering the other and smooth flat.

3. Fold the cuff of the pants nearly half way toward the waist of the pants, leaving a small gap.

4. Continuing to fold towards the waist band, fold the lower half of the pants 1/3 of the way up.

5. Fold the remaining rectangle in half. You’re done! Stack it on its edge, vertically in the drawer!

How to Organize Your Child’s Clothes Like a Professional

  1. Don’t Create Piles of Clothes – Organize clothes by stacking items on their sides so that you can see everything when you pull open a drawer.
  2. Left to Right – Start with the shortest items and move to the longest. In my drawer here, it goes column 1 is short sleeve shirts, column 2 long sleeve shirts, column 3 is shorts (and skirts), column 4 is pants.
  3. Organize your clothes lightest to darkest – If you want to go above and beyond, (no my children don’t follow this organizing rule) organize your columns of clothes by putting lighter colored items toward the front of the drawer and darker colors toward the back. It is simply more visually appealing and makes your clothes look more organized. Obviously, this step is optional.

When you open a drawer, you should be able to see everything that’s inside. If you organize but things are hiding, you’re bound to forget about them. What use is it to have something if it gets lost and forgotten? When you finally find it, whatever “it” is will be out of date or aged so much that it’s no longer useable or worse, you’ll have replaced it spending money that could have been spent elsewhere or saved.

Trust me, this is sage organizing advice that has helped me to organize my home and my family in a way that even my children can understand and help to maintain. They know just where to find things because the system I use to organize is so simple and easy to catch on to.

There’s a place for everything, a home for everything.

Not only are things more organized, but it helps save money because I know what we have and don’t feel pressure to go buy unnecessary items.

One more pearl of organizing advice that I cannot let you go away without hearing is…

“Declutter first, organize later.”

Do not try to organize mountains of clutter into bins or buy organizing systems that will do nothing but create more “stuff” and more clutter for you to deal with in the long run.

Save your money. Don’t buy fancy bins, and fancy, expensive organizing systems until you’ve gone through ALL your belongings and decluttered your home. You have to see the items you truly want to keep before figuring out where and how to keep them in your home.

I know fancy bins are tempting. Believe me, I LOVE FANCY BINS! I get it. But, please, resist the urge! First, you’ve got to purge!

What’s the best way to declutter and tidy your home? Read Marie Kondo’s book: “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up” to find out!!! Believe me, it is truly life-changing! Take it from a person who has loved organizing their whole life, there is still more to learn. You won’t regret getting this book and taking notes as you read!

Check out my post: “How to organize ANYTHING in 5 Simple Steps” for tips on decluttering and tidying your home!

COMMENT on this post with your BEST organizing advice you’ve ever heard!

PIN this post on Pinterest to keep coming back to!

LIKE Big Love Small Moments on Facebook to stay up to date on the cool things happening here!

We’d love to have you as part of our community of imperfect parents raising imperfect children!