Do You Have This Laundry Helper?

I just love those big plastic boards with holes in them like Swiss cheese that help fold your freshly washed and dried clothes for you with a quick flipping motion. They squeeze the air out of items such as cotton T-shirts while also serving as a template to ensure the perfect fold every time. Opened up, these devices repace the need for a bulky table-top and then fatten again for easy storage. I personally think this is going a step too far, but my husband balances one of these on his lap and folds clothes while he is watching television. I've used mine on top of the clothes dryer, but usually prefer to fold clothes on the bed. Then I just stick it out of sight behind the bedboard where it is ready to use again and again. Mine also has bump/cushions to protect hard surfaces so you can use it on top of any surface without clanking around or marring the finish.

Marketed online by several companies, as well as by the inventor, mom of two Debbee Barker, this folding tool comes in different sizes. We bought ours at Walgreens, where the young clerk initially had a hard time finding it for me, but when he did, he recognized it immediately and exclaimed, "That is what we used here in the store to fold all of the T-shirts in our display. It really works!" Mine is royal blue, but they are also available in pink, yellow, green, purple, orange, and tan. I have seen them in As Seen on TV stores, as well as on eBay and at least one website has a video demo showing how it works.

A few people just naturally like folding their own laundry, but I was never one of them. Devices such as this do such a great job of making T-tops and nighties fold perfectly flat and uniform in size that it is impossible not to feel joyful about the process, however, both while folding and then again when putting the attractively processed laundry away, The result is far neater than anything I have the patience to do by hand, especially when the clothes have been left in the dryer too long (Gasp!)

I haven't tried the other brands yet, but FlipFold rates very high on my list of liberating devices and it is hard to describe the wonderful feeling each time the air goes out of a garment with a "fwoosht" turning a huge pile of crumpled T-shirts into a neat little stack of new-looking clothes that take up way less space in your drawer or on your shelf. Prices average from around $8 up to $18 each, or you can make your own, following directions available online and using commonly available materials. One enterprising web publisher even has a YouTube presentation showing how to make a similar device using inexpensive foam board.