How to store shorts

person organising folded shorts into metal baskets

A well organised wardrobe can provide many benefits. It can save you time as every item of clothing is visible and easily accessible. This means no more hectic searching for your favourite jeans or your most comfortable top before you leave the house. It can also save space as it allows you to make the most of every inch of your wardrobe. You may even save money as when you can easily see all the clothes you own, you’re less likely to buy more than you need.

When the time comes to refresh your wardrobe for summer, storing shorts can pose a challenge. How should they be organised? Should they be folded or hung? What’s the best way to fold shorts? In this article, we answer all of these questions.

How to organise shorts

You want to be able to reach for the shorts you’d like to wear easily. This is why it’s a good idea to implement a logical organisation system. There are many ways to do this but the most important thing is that the system must make sense to you and anyone else that will be using it (for example, anyone that helps you with your laundry).

Here are some examples of good organisation methods for shorts:

● Colour coding

As the name suggests, colour coding involves organising shorts so that the same colours are grouped together. Not only can this make it easy for you to find the clothes you’re looking for, but it can also help you to put outfits together more easily. Many people also find colour coding to be very aesthetically pleasing so if you want to create a stylish looking wardrobe, this may be the method for you.

● Length

If you have shorts of different lengths in your wardrobe, you might want to try this. It can help you to find the style of shorts you’re looking for, whether they’re capri shorts, pedal pushers, knee length shorts, longer cargo shorts or mid length chino shorts. If you hang your shorts, you might choose to hang from longest to shortest to create an organised and harmonious-looking wardrobe.

● Occasion

Not all shorts suit every occasion. Make it easy to find exactly what you’re looking for and create outfits in a snap by segmenting your shorts according to where or when you wear them. For example, you could group all of your activewear together (this could be further divided by hobbies, for example ‘fishing shorts’, ‘tennis shorts’, ‘gardening shorts’, ‘golf shorts’ or ‘yoga shorts’). You could also group all of your beach shorts, lounge shorts and evening shorts together.

● Formality

If grouping by occasion is too tricky for you, you could go broader and divide your shorts by formality instead. This means simply folding or hanging them to create a spectrum that starts with your most casual shorts and ends with your most formal.

How to organise shorts in a drawer

If you’ve decided to categorise your shorts by colour, length, occasion or formality, you could make use of mesh or metal storage baskets to keep shorts of the same kind grouped together and separate from the rest of your collection.

However you group them, the key to successful arrangement is making sure that all of your shorts are easily visible without you having to root around or remove any items from the drawer. This will help your drawer to stay nice and neat, and it will also make it easier and quicker to create stylish ensembles.

So that each pair of shorts is easily visible at all times, it’s important to fold them so that they ‘stand’ upright. Arranging them in this way will allow you to see the colour and fabric of each pair, making deciding what to wear a far simpler and less time-consuming process.

How to fold shorts

When folding shorts, many people find that the KonMari method (named after Japanese organising consultant Marie Kondo) works well.

Here’s how you do it:

Step 1: Start by folding one leg of the shorts onto the other.

Step 2: Fold in half so that the end of your shorts meets the waistband.

Step 3: Stack the shorts in your drawer ‘standing’ upright.

Note: if you have longer shorts, when folding in half you should leave a gap at the waistband then fold again in half or thirds. This will help to ensure that all of the shorts in your drawer are roughly uniform in size.

How to hang shorts on a hanger

When it comes to deciding whether or not to store shorts in a drawer or hang them in a wardrobe, there are no right or wrong answers. It’s all about what works best for you and your space. If you’re short on drawer space, you struggle with folding clothes or you simply find it easier to skim through clothes that are hanging on a rail, hanging your shorts might work best for you.

Here are some tips for hanging your shorts:

1. Use adjustable trouser hangers

This tip may seem obvious but many people try to get away with hanging shorts by their waistbands using triangular clothes hangers that do not have clips. This can result in shorts falling off. Always use trouser hangers that allow you to clip the waistband onto the hanger securely. It’s a good idea to choose adjustable hangers so that they can be used for shorts of different sizes.

2. Use a waterfall hanging rail

A sloped piece of metal containing evenly spaced hooks or notches on which you can place hangers, waterfall hangers are particularly good for angled or sloped spaces. As well as being space saving, they can help you to see each pair of shorts you own easily. What’s more, they look very pleasing to the eye.

3. Use multi-tiered hangers

If you’re short on rail space, multi-tiered hangers can come in useful. Featuring three or four sets of clips, these types of hangers allow you to hang multiple pairs of shorts neatly, without taking up more space on your rail.

Now that you’ve learned how to store your shorts, why not get some tips on how to wear and style them with this handy guide?

Posted by Stephen R on 10 June 2021

Stephen works with email and social media at Chums. He specialises in men’s fashion marketing.

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