How to Decide Whether to Hang or Fold Your Clothes

Could be that you're unpacking clothes and loading a closet for the first time, or you're faced with meager closet space that leaves little room to deposit your clothes. The universal answer to questions about placement and arrangement of clothes lies in fabric type.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Clothes Hangers
• Dressers
• Plastic Storage Drawers
• Closet-organizing Systems

1. Think of your clothes in terms of material. Clothes made of woven material, such as khakis, are generally hung, while knits do better folded and stacked.

2. Hang slacks and casual pants over thicker, more rounded hangers, or clip their waists and hang lengthwise; jeans can go either way.

3. Lay shorts flat on a shelf or in a drawer. Save silk, linen or rayon ones, which will collect fewer wrinkles when hung.

4. Fold sweaters, knit pants and sweaterdresses. Your shelves could get rather bulky if you live in a colder winter climate, but hanging knit items can cause irreversible stretching and hanger holes at the shoulders.

5. Place dress shirts, which you may have bought folded and pinned, as well as blouses, on hangers. This reduces the amount of wrinkles, and therefore the amount of time spent ironing.

6. Stack folded T-shirts in drawers or on closet shelves. If folded space is limited, hang them, but remove the hanger from the bottom to prevent overstretching the neck.

7. Keep suits and any formal wear hanging at all times. If circumstances prevent this, lay the garment flat to minimize wrinkles.

8. Hang skirts and dresses from the loops you'll find inside the garment. Slip the loop into the hanger grooves or dangle it from hanger hooks for nonslip storage.

Tips & Warnings

• Choose hangers with broad and sturdy arms to hang suits, as flimsy wire hangers will do nothing to maintain the shape of the jacket and may bend due to the garment's weight.
• Tuck cedar blocks or herbal sachets in with knits to deter moths.
• Ensure that hanging clothes can dangle unencumbered. They may collect dust at the ends or collect wrinkles if shortened by shelves, boots or space limitations.

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[gizmo]

on 2/11/2007 The pant/skirt hangers that have 3 wide bars for pressing the waistline cause slipping. It's best to use the pant/skirt hangers with clips. I have found very durable stainless steel hangers recently. These seem to be the ticket!

on 9/21/2007 I use kids hangers for hanging jeans; the larger hangers skew on the rack causing the jeans to bunch up. I also hang knit dresses with spaghetti straps over the hanger bar to keep the straps from stretching out!

on 9/21/2007 Why they even still sell wire hangers is a mystery. Don't use wire hangers, that's just clothing cruelty. The minimum that is acceptable is thick, rounded plastic! Love your clothes, boycott wire hangers!

on 9/21/2007 You can easily turn a regular wire hanger into a skirt or pant hanger by taking two clothespins and clipping them through the bottom part of the hanger and the garment. This works just as well and costs much less! Plus, it's good to know in a pinch, as I have had some skirt hangers break on me when traveling.

Also, I found that padded hangers with a non-slippery material work great for garments that like to slide. They aren't as easy to find, but they are out there, and prevent those slippery dresses from ending up on the floor all the time. Definitely a must for silk dresses or anything with a more smooth interior fabric that loves to slide off wire or plastic.

on 9/21/2007 I use kid-size hangers for my T-shirts. They seem to fit better than the large size ones and they help to avoid stretching.