The Kitchen Towel Folding Method That Frees Up Drawer Space (Thanks, Martha Stewart)

Little details make a big difference, and no one knows this like Martha Stewart. The domestic diva is always doling out essential life tips to make common tasks easier. Stewart educated TikTok on the easiest way to eat lobster tail. Her hosting tips to make a party a success should be required reading, and how she folds kitchen towels is a game-changer that frees up drawer space and is visually appealing. What's her secret? Stewart swears by the triple fold when she is folding towels. 

In a video demonstration with Oprah Winfrey, the cookbook author places a towel on an ironing board — don't worry, there's no ironing required for this folding trick. Stewart notes that a table with a flat surface is ideal. She then explains that you want to work in thirds. With the towel flat, you are going to fold a third of it in on one side and a third of it in on the other side lengthwise. It should overlap the other fold and look like a travel brochure, making it as even as possible. Then she folds it in half, so it looks like it would if you were hanging it from a towel rack, before folding it in half a second time to make it nice and compact.

Martha Stewart's towel folding technique is known as the classic hotel fold. What makes this simple towel folding hack so groundbreaking is that it creates a uniform bundle. This means it is easier to maximize both the width and depth of where you store your towels when you stack them, and you can fit stacks closer together. This method also keeps your kitchen towels nice and neat in the drawer or on the shelf where you store them. 

There is also a side benefit. When you take time to smooth and fold your kitchen towels, you help eliminate wrinkles, so they look well-manicured. Of course, with every trick comes questions, like what if it looks too fluffy and big after you fold it? If you take a moment to flatten each towel, just like Stewart does in her video, it will help ensure your towels aren't bulky after they've been folded. What if you have kitchen towels that are different sizes? Keep like-sized, folded towels together. Why does it matter? An organized kitchen will improve your cooking game, so get to folding.