Folding TikTok Is a Deeply Satisfying—And Useful—Universe

How does folding socks make your life easier? Or organizing your husband’s boxer drawer so it looks like a Calvin Klein display? People have been spending more time in their homes since the pandemic. This makes it easier to organize and clean. But women—the group that does the most domestic labor and childcare at home—have been the most overtaxed.

Is it really a good idea to add origami-like methods to home care expectations? Women homemakers purchased microwaves and dishwashers in the 1950s, a new technology that was touted as a time-saver for the busy housewife. Ruth Schwartz Cowan and other scholars have argued that these systems only raised expectations and created more work. Of the housewife, Schwartz Cowan wrote, “She is expected to perform work that ranges from the most menial physical labor to the most abstract of mental manipulations and to do it all without any specialized training.” Is CleanTok just a new way to carry on this tradition?

Not according to Lennia McCarter, TikTok’s “Folding Queen.” As the pandemic set in, McCarter, a stay-at-home mom in Charlotte, North Carolina, felt like she was drowning in responsibilities between her home, her toddler, and her six-month-old. “I was always thinking about how I wanted to change the way that I had all my stuff organized because I was feeling so overwhelmed,” she says. 

She had an idea. To hold themselves accountable for a workout, some people upload photos of themselves online. Can she be motivated to organize her day by posting videos of herself folding clothes? McCarter had worked in retail in the past but didn’t consider herself to be a folding expert. When she was asked by her followers how to fold particular items, McCarter would either search online for methods or try to figure it out on her own. One popular request was to fold socks. “To be honest, I did not fold my socks back then,” McCarter admits, laughing. She tried several approaches before she finally found the right one. Her video on folding socks has been viewed over 40 million times. “Basically, that’s how I fold my socks now,” she says.

McCarter, a mother of a two-year old and a six year-old, believes intricate folding is more than keeping up with influencer images. “It just brings me a little bit of peace,” she says. “I’m not saying my house is always spotless, because it’s not. I’m just working toward a place where I don’t have to think about it.” 

That’s the central question of organization tactics, including folding: Do you save more time in the long run by folding? Or by putting all your clothes into a drawer. Laura Vanderkam, who has written extensively about time management and productivity, says, “Habits can help save time and energy in certain circumstances. Our mental bandwidth is limited. When we burn up a lot of that bandwidth making decisions about daily life and life maintenance, we can feel like we’re living in chaos.” But Vanderkam cautions that you have to be careful about not overemphasizing household work. “It tends not to be moving people forward to their personal or professional goals,” she says.