How I Care For and Organize my Clothes: The Winning Downy + Kon Mari Combination

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Downy. All opinions are 100% mine.

We try to be conscious about how we treat our clothes amongst other things in our lives and our home. After all, Bay Area living isn’t cheap and any little bit of extra care goes a long way.

How I Care For and Organize my Clothes by Joanne Encarnacion

How I Care For and Organize my Clothes by Joanne Encarnacion

I’ve been a huge Downy fabric conditioner fan for as long as I could remember. My mom used to use it on our clothes when I was younger and I always thought it was to soften clothing and had no idea it was used to actually preserve the clothes too.



Downy recently launched, Nature Blends, a plant-based fabric conditioner that’s free of dyes, parabens, and is gentle on the skin. For those of you who are going green, you’ll be excited to know that Nature Blends is made using 100% renewable wind electricity at a zero-manufacturing waste to landfill facility. You can find it at my favorite store Target, click here for an exclusive Cartwheel offer. I honestly think this was my mom’s secret to my hand me downs looking new and fresh when I was a kid and now I’m passing along that secret to my own.

Using products like Downy have helped protect my clothes from wash and wear over long periods of time. Great for me because as much as I love new clothes, I’m also very mindful of what I purchase as I try to slowly work towards being more minimal about my life.


In addition to using Downy, I’ve picked up a couple other habits that are helping me take better care of my clothes. Before we moved, I had discovered Marie Kondo, the author behind The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. A lot of people who have read that book have said its changed their life. Honestly, I haven’t read it yet so I don’t have an honest opinion on it, but I have looked into a lot of her closet and home organization tips such as The Kon Mari method. The KonMari Method™ is a way of life and a state of mind that encourages cherishing the things that spark joy in people’s lives. We still have a long way to go with decluttering our home, but we’ve adopted her method of folding clothes here at home and it’s made such a huge impact on how we preserve our clothes and our mental health.

How Kon Mari Method impacts mental health

Kon Mari is a system that is broken down into 6 simple rules with the premise of “does it spark joy?”. This is a philosophy I applied in other areas of my life such as relationships, people, and experiences. I never thought about applying that to objects or clothes until discovering Kon Mari.  Studies say that clutter can interrupt your flow. Taking this approach has helped me scale down most of my wardrobe which in turn has helped declutter my mind and minimize the stress I used to have opening up my drawers.

The Folding Method

Rather than laying clothes flat in a drawer, the Kon Mari Method recommends folding them into a rectangle shape so that they stand up; the more folds there are the less wrinkled the item will be when it's ready to wear.  While this saves a tremendous amount of space, the other objective of it is to give clothes the respect they deserve by touching, appreciating, and properly storing each item. For me, it allows me to see each item in my drawers clearly and it gives me a chance to rotate through my clothes with freedom.

Here’s my breakdown on how you fold your activewear:

Folding sports bras/tanks:

  1. Lay the top down flat in front of you.
  2. For a sports bra: Fold the straps and sides into the cups
    1. For a tank: Fold both sides towards the center
    2. Then fold in half
    3. Continue to fold into a smooth rectangle.

For leggings/tights:

  1. If the seat sticks out, fold it against the pant leg
  2. Fold the legs up into a smooth rectangle towards the waistband
  3. Then fold in the top half into a smooth rectangle
  4. Store upright.

We all know all high quality clothing can be expensive, especially activewear that has performance or sweat-wicking materials. I hope these two tips can help with integrating a little more mindfulness into other areas in your life; I know that both Downy and Kon Mari methods have for me.

If you’d like to see more home organization and mindful living lifestyle posts, comment below. And as always if you have questions about how to live more relentlessly in your life, just ask Jo.

Joanne E
