How to Fold a Dress Shirt

After you kiss the kids goodbye and jet off on your business trip, the last thing you want is to open your suitcase and find your dress shirts a wrinkled mess. Pull your shirts out of your bag looking as fresh as when you put them in with these dress shirt hacks.

Start with a freshly clean and pressed shirt with all the buttons enclosed. Lay the shirt face down with the sleeves fully extended, then fold each sleeve horizontally, crossing the cuffs over the middle of the shirt's back but being careful not to fold the side seams inward. Place a piece of tissue paper over the back to help prevent wrinkling. Next, fold the sleeves and shirt's side seams in towards the middle of the shirt. You should see a "V" shape just beneath the collar when you've done this correctly. Fold the bottom of the shirt up to the top of the collar, smooth and pack.

Stack your folded shirts with the collars facing in opposite directions and secure beneath the straps in your suitcase. A thin piece of white cardboard placed over the top of the shirts can help them stay secure and prevent "pinch marks" from the luggage straps.

Rough handling can make even the most neatly folded shirts shift and wrinkle by the time you reach your destination. Reduce wrinkling risk by using a compression garment folder. Garment folders come with folding boards that help you create uniformly-sized folded shirts that you can easily stack with collars facing in alternate directions. Place your folded shirts in the garment bag, top with the folding board and secure the compression wings to hold your shirts securely. Your dress shirts won't shift, whether you pack the garment bag in a pocket in your suitcase, in your carry-on or even in a backpack.

If you're not the do-it-yourself type, pay your local dry cleaner to fold your shirts for you. Your dry cleaner can lightly starch your shirts if you wish to prevent wrinkles and will fold the shirt with a cardboard insert that will help keep its shape. A protective plastic bag prevents shirts from rubbing against one another in your luggage and creating friction wrinkles. The uniform size of your folded shirts makes it easy to insert them in a packing cube inside your suitcase or carry-on.