Why I Ended Up Rolling My Socks After All, and Then Abandoned it a Month Later- The Pros and Cons of KonMari Organizational Techniques

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As a quick summary for anybody new here -- I've been pursuing minimalism for a while (since "before it was cool," I'm always careful to point out... haha!) but I'm still perpetually interested in new ideas and perspectives to help me put my space and stuff to better use.  I recently reviewed Marie Kondo's book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, and my reading has continued to have some results I might not have expected at that time...  Example number one:

I ended up rolling my socks.

...and then, a month later, I decided it wasn't worth it after all.  I decided that commonsense organization was actually the way to go instead.

Here's why.

One of the Konmari "instructions" is to fold your clothing in very specific ways, so that it is all visible from above at a glance.  I already was doing this with my husband's t-shirt drawer (not folded her way, but folded and "filed" vertically so they were all visible, so... same idea) but I prefer to hang my clothing rather than use drawers.  I explain why here... believe me, hanging ALL THE THINGS can be life-changingly magical too!  

Marie Konmari, on the other hand, recommends nothing be hung, and her instructions on specific folding also include socks and underwear. 

*rolls eyes dramatically*

I don't fold my underwear.  I view such a prospect as a tedious waste of time, and -- at least initially when I read the book -- I thought the same of any form of sock-folding.  Such a waste of time!  They don't wrinkle, so why bother?

Then I started to get a little frustrated at how much space my underthings and socks were taking up in my nightstand.  Two whole drawers, one dedicated to each!  *swoon*

I had decided I wanted to try to hide all the little, cluttery things on the top of my nightstand (lotion, lip balm, pens, my journal, etc) by putting them in the top drawer instead, out of sight but accessible.  But, frankly, that just wasn't possible, since my socks and underwear were taking up so much room.  

(#firstworldproblems)

So as an experiment and ONLY as an experiment, I matched and rolled all my socks, and "filed" them in the drawer.  I also stuck a shoe box into one of the drawers, and piled all the underthings into that.

Utilizing that method, I could suddenly fit both socks AND underwear into one drawer.  (gosh, I've never typed the word "underwear" so many times in my whole life...)

So, to my very great surprise, I found myself rolling my socks.  Because the trade-off "time for space" was worth it to me.  

Fast forward a month later, when all the sudden my heavier winter socks are superfluous and I pack them away.  Now all I've got are fitness socks, and I have a new problem.  They don't take up enough room to stay put rolled.  At least the way I understood the instructions in The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, you're not supposed to FOLD the socks, just sort of spiral them into a cinnamon bun shape.  And if you're doing it that way, there has to be a very precise number of socks in the drawer at all times, so that they all stay in place and don't unravel.  

PUH-leese!  At any given time the majority of my socks are in the hamper...

So I gave up on folding them, since there was plenty of room in the half-drawer without the winter socks, and just started tossing them in helter-skelter once more.  At which point it occurred to me to wonder.

Was it ever rolling the socks that made everything fit?  Or was it the shoebox I put in the drawer to hold half the contents?  The shoebox came up almost exactly to the level of the top of the drawer, which meant it was giving me full vertical use of that space in the drawer... vertical use that I had not previously taken advantage of, since everything was just rolling around at the bottom.

I suspect, though I won't be able to tell you for sure until next winter when I need warm socks again, that the shoebox was always what was freeing up space in my drawer, not the Konmari sock folding.  

I remain steadfastly in the "don't waste time folding something that won't wrinkle!" camp, despite my brief sojourn on The Other Side.  

What about you -- how do you store your socks?  I genuinely want to know, because in the course of writing this post I've invested a good bit of energy in the topic.  ;P  

And if you are currently in need of more space, I strongly recommend trying a shoebox or two.  Cheapest drawer dividers out there.  Commonsense organization for the win!

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