photo styling 101: how to roll towels like a pro

I admit it. Sometimes my thrifty nature gets to be a bit much. I don't like to throw things out, and tend to use things until they wear out or fall apart. Old socks are recycled into sweaters for my Santa dolls and Fairies, bottlecaps are turned into lamps, twigs and tree trimmings are fashioned into rustic furniture, and worn out T-shirts and flannel sheets make good rags for dusting. All this recycling would lead one to believe Camp Cactus is a tidy place, orderly and simple. A place full of useful objects, a place that gets dusted occasionally, right? Well, not exactly...here, let's check out the linen closet:


I ask you, just how many dust rags does one need? I know, at first glance it doesn't look that bad. (What you don't see is the depth of the closet...at least three feet!) Please note that there are no towels in the stuffed to the gills neatly organized linen closet. There are however, crib and twin size sheets, even though we haven't had either a crib or a twin bed in the house for years. All this hoarding thriftiness has led to many inventive storage solutions, which is how we came to store the towels in a bookcase in the bathroom...

Even this is not simple, much to Dave's dismay. The poor guy craves the simple life. He doesn't like fussy stuff, whether it's "art food" or over-stylized window treatments, it just doesn't sit well with him. Which brings me back to the towels in the bathroom bookcase...

I'm a professional photo stylist. It's hard to check my design sense at the door. You've probably read the post I wrote about reorganizing the books in the front hall, so you know I get a little [ahem!] anal about how things look. But, back to the towels...I decided they didn't look so great folded, and if you wanted one from the bottom of the stack, it was difficult to extricate it without messing up the rest of the pile. So I pulled a stylist trick out of my hat and started rolling them up. Dave did his best, but couldn't quite replicate the look, so I decided to write a little tutorial. Here goes:

Step one: Fold in half lengthwise, ends together.

Step two: Fold the top third down to the center.

Step three: Fold the bottom third up over the top third, and smooth it out.

Step 4: Roll it up neatly, left to right, or vice versa.

Step five: And there you have it -
just like in the catalogs!

Stay tuned for my next tutorial: How to fold a T-shirt, Navy style.