This Dollar Tree Sink Mat Could Cut Down On Laundry Time

Even with the incredible time-saving convenience of modern washers and dryers, there's still one task machines can't do — fold our laundry. If you have several t-shirt-loving kids and/or a t-shirt-wearing spouse in your home, this laundry hack is specifically for you. You're going to love how much effort it saves, especially if your household wears — and therefore cleans — a high volume of t-shirts. Welcome to a type of laundry-folding maid, an ingenious hack courtesy of Dollar Tree sink mats. It's concocted from plastic or silicone mats you just need to connect together in a specific way. Then, you can flip the sides to automate the folding of your shirts.

Folding laundry can get irritating whenever there's a huge volume of items. Yet that's the weekly reality for families with even just a couple of kids. Two things can help, including your kids and spouse pitching in as cheerful assistants and assigning them to hang or fold, and then using this sink mat hack. Further, as you sort through everyone's t-shirt collection week after week, you'll eventually notice that some will be ready for retirement. You can repurpose old or unwanted items, including t-shirts, in creative ways.

Dollar Tree's sink mats are absolutely perfect for this hack. You will need a total of six mats and a roll of clear packing tape (about 3 inches in width). The big picture here is that you'll be joining all six of these mats together using tape on the front and back of the seams to create "hinges" that will fold your t-shirts for you. To begin, remove all the stickers from the mats. Then, place two mats side-by-side with a tiny gap between them and tape them together, placing the tape on both sides. Add a third mat and tape it to the end in the same way. You now have three mats in a row — a middle piece and a mat on each end that hinges or flaps toward the middle.

Add a fourth mat directly below the middle piece. Leave a small gap and tape them together on both sides. Now that will flip up over the top middle mat. Take your fifth mat and attach it below the right side without a gap. Don't attach this piece to the bottom middle mat, but keep those separate. You now have a long right side that will flip over to the left. Take your sixth mat, place it below the left side mat, and secure it in the same way. There's now a big left side as well, or one long piece that hinges over to the right.

Place a t-shirt face down in the middle of what you constructed with the collar at the top middle edge, then pull the sleeves out so they're not collapsed onto the t-shirt. Flip the right mats over to the left, and flip the left mats over to the right. Flip the lower middle mat upwards, then flip over the folded shirt and tuck in the sleeves for a professional look. You now have a completely folded t-shirt! This could save you time, as you can quickly get a large number of clothing items folded. While this is specifically made for t-shirts, you could also use this contraption on long sleeve shirts, sweatshirts, and sweaters, as long as you tuck in the sleeves and hoods. Also keep in mind that you will need a large flat surface, such as the floor or a countertop, to place the contraption on when folding. 

When you're not using this DIY contraption, you can fold it up and place it between your appliances or in a closet, so it's not always out in the open. If this has saved the day for you but the thought of folding anything beyond t-shirts has worked your very last nerve, more people are ditching folding their clothes. However, keep in mind that this anti-folding technique probably works best for the clothing of small children.