I find the Pile System a very effective way of managing my Clothes
Although I admire people who fold their clothes and meticulously pamper every item until the edges line up, I personally don’t have the time, patience and usually the desire. Home-maker magazines do make a romantically neat statement of what the ideal wardrobe should look like but the reality is that most closets are anything but perfect.
I’ve never been a great fan of the iron, fold, hang and shelve mentality — particularly so when travelling. If you’re of a military background then you could probably be forgiven for this seemingly unnatural tendency to keep everything neat and tidy, it’s not your fault, the military made you that way.
I tend to practice the Pile System, a method of storing clothes flat one on top of the other without any folding whatsoever. In reality I have two piles, the clothes that are clean and the clothes that have been worn. This may look like an unconventional system at first glance but it does have some significant advantages:
- You can easily tell when it’s time to do the laundry because the clean pile is smaller than the worn pile.
- It requires very little space to implement.
- Anyone can learn the Pile System.
- The Pile System doesn’t take hours of practice or regimented discipline to keep in check.
- It is very time-efficient, clothes take less than a second to be put away and almost as little to take out.
- Your view of the clothes is never obscured by drawers or doors.
- You always know where your clothes are; either on the clean pile or worn pile.
- It doesn’t need specialized hardware (coat hangers, tie racks, shelves, wardrobes).
- Can be created on floor, couch, chair or even in a washing basket (wherever you want).
- The weight of clothes on top slowly irons the ones on the bottom (of course I try to buy mostly wrinkle-free clothes).
The majority of us — and this is no secret — have a predisposition to ignore sensory feedback to the visual cortex from multi-coloured piles of clothes. The ignorance is so great that it almost borders on deliberate deception. My take on this is that it’s not deception at all but an innate acceptance of a familiar scene.
When we look at nature, there are very few things that consist of straight lines — in fact you’ll be hard pressed to find any without high magnification or the opposite. Yes, straight lines are very much a man-made phenomenon.
If we look at art, again, very few things consist of straight lines — unless you’re into cubism, but even that didn’t live up to its name. I’m more of an Art Nouveau fan and my pile system could rival any of Gaudi’s creations.
It could be said that our eyes, our brains and the way we are wired are as far away from straight lines as Pluto from the Sun — why then do we continue to force upon ourselves these restraints?
[title photo courtesy of Sylvia at thisgirlsylvia.com]
you’ve been living alone for too long ;)
yeah, i just manage them in my travel bag…
Its so much easier, you know that its going to be somewhere in that 1m x 1m space. If its put away, who knows what drawer its in
Apartment closets serve that role very well.
it is the only way ::)
A piling system – ordered chronologically by height!
Mine are either on me, on the clean pile or in the washing machine festering and waiting for me to switch it on ;)
When u travelling the pile system is the best unless one items dont smell to good then you can wash it with shower gel , shampoo or soap all the same does the job. Just make sure u never buy anything that needs to be ironed and you will be just fine.
my clothes is hanging in my wardrobes neatly organised by colour (:
I have functioned that way all my life. Everyone should have a method that works best for them.
Aaaahhh… dear beloved piling. I find it works just as well with paperwork, parking fines, food and bins. Gaudi? Is that all you’ve got oh mild piler! I’m working up an excellent curriculum vitae with the intention of God employing me to be his next ‘mountain/high stuff builder’ upon the first available vacancy….. I’ll send you rocks.x
Lol!! Loving the blogs man! x
They keep me amused too :)
I live out of two panniers and a bike trailer, when “it” is not packed “it” lives in one pile or another, ha ha ha
My system is even simpler. I only own two shorts, two shirts..one dirty freshly worn, other ready to put on. Life of the touring cyclist on the road!
I’ve whittled my ownership of stuff to a fairly bare minimum. Maybe its the age…I need a few creature comforts like a good sleep mattress and a good tent. I admire your thriftiness that level of “less” has been my goal…I’m close, just doubt that I will get much less. Good on ya Shem!