Life-Shatteringly Important Question
Shatteringly? Is that even a word???
Regardless, I have to ask, because the lower temperatures outside tell me its that time of year again …. time for cozy fires, flannel blankets, and hot chocolate? Warm scarves and pink cheeks and perhaps, if we’re very lucky, even a snowball fight or two, with laughing children and sleigh bells and a brisk wind, nipping at our noses? Um, no. Nothing that picturesque. Time to drag the winter sweaters out of the drawer, that’s all.
But it brings me to the dilemma I have every year: To hang, or to stack?
If I hang my sweaters, I get those stupid shoulder pokes from the hanger. And if the sweater is heavy enough, the weight of it can stretch it out of shape.
But if I stack in a drawer, inevitably, I want to wear the one that is on the bottom, and I have to plow through the entire stack to find it, then re-fold all the sweaters over and over and over again, to the point where I’m sick and tired of refolding all of them, so then I’m just digging and shoving and leaving things as they lie, in a big messy mess, until the sweaters are all rumpled and wrinkly and I look like I ripped them off a hobo or perhaps found them in an alley, and I start to think maybe a few little shoulder pokes aren’t really so bad after all.
So what do you do? Hang, or stack?
And how do you make that work for you?
37 Responses to Life-Shatteringly Important Question
November 17th, 2009 saat: 11:58 PM
I stack them on a shelf in my closet…and when I want the one on the bottom they all fall down on me and I fling them back up…just a trade off for the drawer I guess…maybe that’s why I opt for sweatshirts!
Happy Wedneaday :)
November 18th, 2009 saat: 12:59 AM
How about combining the two with hanging sweater shelves something like this ?
November 18th, 2009 saat: 1:01 AM
I stack my sweaters…. but do so on shelves in my closet… so they are only about 3 deep.. i can pretty easily get a “bottom” sweater out without completely undoing the pile. :)
November 18th, 2009 saat: 6:03 AM
I’ve seen on some home tip shows that you can line your tightly folded sweaters or t-shirts in the drawer (think file folders) so you can see them all at a glance.
Not that I do that because, one, I don’t own enough sweaters to worry about it since I live in Africa, and two, I don’t have a wardrobe. We just put one on lay away and when we paid it off they didn’t have it in stock anymore. I’m a little bitter–can you tell? :)
November 18th, 2009 saat: 6:06 AM
I like the fabric or nylon hanging closet organizers with “shelves.” I can fold three or four sweaters neatly in each compartment and they’re all clearly visible because in a drawer I can only see the top one. I have another one that I use for skorts, tank tops (because they’re so annoying to hang up), leggings, and things like that. If you do choose to hang the sweaters, padded hangers are a good option. Oftentimes they’re very expensive, but you can buy less-expensive ones and the result is the same….no pointy shoulders.
November 18th, 2009 saat: 6:32 AM
I stack on a closet shelf as well… Not ideal, and periodically I end up refolding everything… It also helps if you are like me and haven’t bought anything but hoodies in the last 4 years! :o)
November 18th, 2009 saat: 6:34 AM
I bought boxes (fancy ones, not just cardboard boxes) to put on the top shelf of our closet. I put sweaters in there during the winter, and during the summer, I put a lot of my husband’s polo shirts. He’s a teacher, so he has a large amount of shirts and can’t keep them in a nice stack to save his life. We have a guest room as well, and I’ve bought different boxes for that closet to hold all of my purses and bags because I couldn’t keep them organized. It’s worked well for us :)
November 18th, 2009 saat: 7:18 AM
I too am a closet stacker…that actually sounds a lot scarier than it really is. :)
November 18th, 2009 saat: 7:41 AM
I fold them on narrow wire shelves, only 2-3 fit per shelf so I don’t have to rifle through a bunch. Yes, an earth-shattering morning here.
November 18th, 2009 saat: 9:06 AM
I am also a shelf stacker for my sweaters, however, my children’s sweaters go in a closet organizer (think those days of the week closet organizers for a childs room.) Works out pretty well for them, there just isn’t a space for it in my closet.
November 18th, 2009 saat: 9:10 AM
stack…definitely stack….we have wire rack shelving in our closets so we stack a lot in there!
November 18th, 2009 saat: 9:19 AM
Well, I’m usually a sweater stacker and like you, then have to fight the pile and the re-folding mess… However, here is my idea for this year. I noticed that when the nice wool sweaters come back from the dry cleaners, they are folded over the cardboard part of a pants hanger. This allows them to be hung up for easy access and viewing without the dreaded shoulder pokes and stretching from hanging on the actual shoulder part of the hanger. (I really wish I had a picture because I’m not sure I’m descibing this correctly. Hoepfully it makes sense). good luck!
November 18th, 2009 saat: 9:20 AM
Stack on a closet shelf – not too high. As other closet shelf stackers said… I can normally get one from the middle or bottom of the pile without wrecking the whole pile. Oh and I don’t have to take mine out because I never put them away. I don’t pack away clothes by season, everything’s out all the time :)
November 18th, 2009 saat: 9:29 AM
I totally agree, both ways suck!! Anyway we moved this year and I now have a huge closet so I have decided to fold my sweaters over the bottom bar of my hangers and I am going to try that.
November 18th, 2009 saat: 9:36 AM
I hang the light sweaters that won’t get the hanger pokes, and I fold the rest and put them on a shelf so that I can see them. The ones that I wear more often go on top.
November 18th, 2009 saat: 9:36 AM
I have an old oak wardrobe with five shelves. Except for a basket holding my “unders”, all of my clothes are stacked. I learned, long ago, that I hate putting my clthes away into drawers. Even less, I hate taking the time to hang anything. Making stacks? That I can do!!!
November 18th, 2009 saat: 9:40 AM
I “hang” my seaters on a hangar like a pair of pants. It elminates the “bumps” in the shoulders and the frustration of drawer/shelf madness!
November 18th, 2009 saat: 9:51 AM
I love to hang all my clothes in the closet. Just hate having to dig through a drawer to find something. Probably because I am always running late. LOL What works for me is to fold the sweater in half and hang in over the bar at the bottom of a plastic hanger. Easy to see and grab and no hanger marks on the shoulder.
November 18th, 2009 saat: 9:54 AM
If you hang your sweaters inside out they won’t have those little nubs that stick out-instead they will be “dimples” but when you wear the sweater the dimples will smooth out. Hope this helps!
November 18th, 2009 saat: 9:56 AM
I stack in the side of my dresser that has a shelf but only have a few and I rarely wear them anyway because, even though we live in Nebraska and it gets dang cold here in the winter, hot flashes tend to make sweaters very unappealing, so I think I’m the only one in the state that wears short sleeved shirts in the winter and therefore this comment will be totally useless.
November 18th, 2009 saat: 9:58 AM
I stack some on closet shelves and the others I fold over a soft hanger – like you would a pair of pants.
November 18th, 2009 saat: 9:59 AM
I stack. On the closet shelf, and on a bookcase I put in the closet to stack stuff on. Easy to see that way and can usually get the one I want out of the stack without making too big of a mess.
On another note, glad to hear that Blaine finally got to go back to work. Because I know that is what he wanted. Hope it works out for everyone. I feel you pain about driving kids to school.
November 18th, 2009 saat: 10:01 AM
I roll my sweaters kind of like I do my dishtowels and line them on the shelf. Really easy to pick the one you want without messing up the others.
November 18th, 2009 saat: 10:16 AM
I stack – and hang. I bought one of those hanging shelf doo-dads – hung it up in the closet, and stacked the sweaters on the shelves. Depending on the thickness of the sweater, I can get 3-5 sweaters on each shelf – that way I’m not toppling the whole lot of them when the one I want is on the bottom.
November 18th, 2009 saat: 11:18 AM
I hang my sweaters on padded hangers which usually is good enough. But if I get pokes, I just pat a little water on them. It dries before I go out and I have no noticeable sign of hanger pokes.
November 18th, 2009 saat: 11:20 AM
I stack them on my closet shelves.
November 18th, 2009 saat: 12:41 PM
I do a little of both.
If I hang, I get the special, extra-wide hangers that are designed for that sort of thing (knit sweaters), so that they don’t stretch the clothes out of shape. (Or actually I don’t, because I’m poor, so I actually just hang each sweater on three or four hangers and call it a day. But I know that the good ones work!)
If I stack in a drawer, I actually put them in vertically, so it’s like a file folder of sweaters, and I can just grab the one I want out of the middle or either end. It works great because then there’s no question of one being on top of another.
November 18th, 2009 saat: 1:29 PM
I pad hangers with old towels. I use old heavy wire hangers, and pad just the crosspiece at the bottom. Then, I fold the sweaters over the hanger and hang them up.
November 18th, 2009 saat: 1:42 PM
Yep! I am one of those fold it over the bottom part of the hanger, too! But it sure does take up a lotta space! My solution for that? I hang them in my husband’s closet! Problem solved! :)
November 18th, 2009 saat: 2:06 PM
I do both.. Not enough room in the closet or in the dresser drawers.
November 18th, 2009 saat: 3:06 PM
Buy sweatshirts…..
November 18th, 2009 saat: 6:39 PM
I do like Therese said – fold lengthwise and land on hanger like pants.
November 18th, 2009 saat: 6:54 PM
I hang mine inside out on padded hangers. :)
November 18th, 2009 saat: 7:42 PM
I’m sure someone else has recommended this but I’m too lazy to read your comments. I use one of those closet organizers and put two or three (if they’re the flattish kind) in each compartment. If you’re careful, you can pull the bottom one out without messing up the top one or two. Plus, since you have a visual of all of them, you don’t forget about what sweaters you actually have and then go and buy yourself one almost identical to one you already own. Not that I’ve ever done that or anything.
November 18th, 2009 saat: 7:47 PM
Two words – Huggable Hangers.
You can get them at Target and they will transform your life and your closet.
November 18th, 2009 saat: 8:39 PM
I hang mine in the closet but always thought stacking them in the closet would be good. Until I read some of your comments. So maybe my system isn’t so bad.
November 21st, 2009 saat: 11:50 PM
I prefer to roll them and lay them in the drawer. It prevents wrinkles or stretching and you can clearly see them all. And, depending on how tightly you roll them, you can usually get more in each drawer this way. It’s worth a try anyway.
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