# 23 years! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 9, 2011, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/23-years/599080 "2011-10-09T16:03:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_what_you_d_expect/32/3246_2.png) [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/23-years/599080/21 "2011-10-10T02:03:16Z")
Well, it wouldn’t be a very big book. ---
**Author:** ![Flutterby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Flutterby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flutterby)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/23-years/599080/22 "2011-10-10T02:06:53Z")
Maybe a pamphlet? ---
**Author:** ![\_Olive](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/4af34b/32.png) [@\_Olive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_Olive)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/23-years/599080/23 "2011-10-10T02:24:19Z")
omgosh …this thread is funny …i don’t fold any underwear … ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/23-years/599080/24 "2011-10-10T02:56:05Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#): > > He’s had his panties in a twist over this for 23 years? Oh, well then, I guess I can understand him not liking them folded _that_ way. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/23-years/599080/25 "2011-10-10T03:10:50Z")
> [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](#): > > 23 years! That is how long it took my husband to tell me that he would like it if I folded his underwear a different way. Am I the only person who read that as FONDLED his underwear a different way? ---
**Author:** ![flatlined](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb9ed0/32.png) [@flatlined](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flatlined)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/23-years/599080/26 "2011-10-10T04:11:57Z")
Tonight, I was reading this thread while talking to M. I was kinda snerting and asked him how he wanted his undies folded. He said “no starch while you iron them” ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/23-years/599080/27 "2011-10-10T04:14:39Z")
> [@AHunter3](#): > > Am I the only person who read that as FONDLED his underwear a different way? Well, that’s possible, but after 23 years, he’s probably just happy to get them fondled at all. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Mosier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ea924/32.png) [@Mosier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mosier)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/23-years/599080/28 "2011-10-10T04:15:31Z")
> [@congodwarf](#): > > My boyfriend and I have an agreement. I will wash and dry the clothes. I will hang his shirts and fold his pants. I will NOT match his damn socks or fold his damn underwear. I don’t match my own damn socks or fold my own damn underwear so I’m certainly not going to do his. He likes his underwear to be folded. I don’t know why. Friggen weirdo. It’s because it takes up less space. It’s how we can get away with giving you more dresser and closet room. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/23-years/599080/29 "2011-10-10T08:19:26Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > I s’pose there are lots of wives who do the laundry…but does there exist on this planet any other male who actually cares about how his underwear is folded? Oh, yes. Underwear (both the choosing and folding of it) was a big point of contention between Middlebro and SiL. She was very much a homemaking newbie except for cleaning, as her mother is the kind of woman who’s unable to let someone else enter her kitchen. The first few times she did laundry, she tried to fold his tighty-whities in half, but if you do that you end up with one side (the one with the center) much thicker than the other; they go in thirds. She also tried to move him to American-style loose boxers; they’ve eventually settled on either European-style tight boxers, folded in half and half again, or tighty-any-color, folded in thirds. And why do I know this? Because she had called her mother to back her up and the mother had known you fold tighty-withies in thirds, but not why. Then they asked us, and we knew. ---
**Author:** ![scareyfaerie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scareyfaerie/32/3135_2.png) [@scareyfaerie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scareyfaerie)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/23-years/599080/30 "2011-10-10T08:57:31Z")
If I folded his underwear he’s probably faint in shock. I don’t even do his laundry, we’re sufficiently independent that we can do our own. That way it doesn’t matter if I don’t fold it, iron it, air dry it, frou frou it in a certain direction… Honestly, life should be simple! ---
**Author:** ![6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/6/e19adc/32.png) [@6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/23-years/599080/31 "2011-10-10T11:36:22Z")
I fold undies into packages. Make of that what you will… ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/22080_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/23-years/599080/32 "2011-10-10T11:49:19Z")
I fold our various and sundry garments and undergarments so that they’ll fit in the appropriate drawers. It’s not such a big deal for him, since he uses the chest, and it’s got wider and deeper drawers than my dresser, but it is a lot easier to fit a folded stack than a crumpled mass. And I always stack the stuff that’s still in the drawer on top of the stuff I’ve just washed - that way, everything gets used. I’ve always preferred doing the laundry as one of my chores. If my husband happens to be home and not doing anything when a load of underwear comes out of the dryer, we’ll sit with the basket between us, each folding our own stuff. But these days, since I’m retired and I do laundry while he’s at work, I’ll just do it all in front of the TV. The only disagreement we have, if you want to call it that, is how t-shirts should be folded. I have to ask him not to fold mine because they end up too big for my small t-shirt drawer. He doesn’t seem to care one way or another how I fold his - at least he’s never asked me to do it another way, altho when he folds them, he does it his way. I dunno - of all the things we’ve argued about in almost 28 years, folding clothing isn’t even on the list. ---
**Author:** ![Queen\_Tonya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/4491bb/32.png) [@Queen\_Tonya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Tonya)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/23-years/599080/33 "2011-10-10T11:57:13Z")
That’s exactly the kind of small thing that my husband would quietly endure because 99% of the time he’d forget about it, and in those brief moments of annoyance with the mishandled undies he’d decide it wasn’t worth arguing over. Not that there’d be an argument, I’d be happy to adopt a different folding method upon request. And then, blammo, 23 years goes by, you think you know a person and they pull something out of their…well out of the blue anyway. I’d be just as bemused as the OP. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/23-years/599080/34 "2011-10-10T11:58:03Z")
> [@Flutterby](#): > > Maybe a pamphlet? Just be sure to fold it correctly. ---
**Author:** ![Onomatopoeia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/onomatopoeia/32/4145_2.png) [@Onomatopoeia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Onomatopoeia)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/23-years/599080/35 "2011-10-10T12:05:29Z")
My wife does the laundry, and yes, folds my briefs and Ts. If I inadvertently shuffle things in the drawer around a bit in the course of removing an item, she becomes agitated. I appreciate her doing the laundry and folding my stuff, but after 20 years, I still don’t understand the importance of keeping the underwear drawer organized. It’s underwear, for goodness’ sake. And don’t let me offer to put my own stuff away, no, because I “don’t do it right.” :rolleyes: I love her to death, but some things. Sheesh. Don’t let me get started about the dishwasher that I bought but am not allowed to touch. ---
**Author:** ![Spud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spud/32/347_2.png) [@Spud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spud)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/23-years/599080/36 "2011-10-10T12:11:51Z")
Folded??? My wife irons and hangs my underwear… what are you guys, barbarians? ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/23-years/599080/37 "2011-10-10T12:45:42Z")
> [@6ImpossibleThingsB4Breakfast](#): > > I fold undies into packages. > > Make of that what you will… I thought you were supposed to place packages into undies… ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/23-years/599080/38 "2011-10-10T13:13:57Z")
He probably complained about the pea near the bottom too? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/23-years/599080/39 "2011-10-10T13:14:45Z")
Fold underwear? Personally, as long as the sheets are properly pressed I’m happy. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![corkboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2011, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/23-years/599080/40 "2011-10-10T13:45:13Z")
My wife does all the laundry and folds my boxers. She doesn’t fold her own undies because you can’t really fold a thong so she just tosses them into the drawer. She also folds my handkerchiefs, and a couple months ago she started ironing them- no idea why, 13 years into marriage, I never asked her to. But after a couple weeks of this I did mention to her that, while I appreciate the ironed hankie, if she was going to continue to do it, which I in no way request or need, could she fold them differently? She has always folded the hankie in half lengthwise, then in half lenthwise again, so it was one long strip. Then in half widthwise, and in half again, to make a small square. The problem with folding it that way is it’s harder to unfold it quickly, which is important when I’m about to sneeze. But it was never a big issue so I never said anything about it. But when she ironed them that way, they were even harder to unfold. I’d prefer folding it in half lengthwise, then widthwise to make a square, then lengthwise, then widthwise into a square again. She got a little pissed, so now she folds them the way I like but doesn’t iron them. Which, frankly, I’m fine with. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/23-years/599080.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/23-years/599080.md?page=3)