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All the talk about folding fitted sheets that’s been going on around here has me a little ashamed. Ashamed and in need of…DRAMATIC EYEBALL ROLLING GESTURE UP TO THE NAME OF THIS WEBSITE…confession. Although I think we were supposed to confess things about how clean and neat we are and how we love being clean and neat but you know what? I’ve been at this for eight weeks now. I am down to the shameful dirty confessions. It’s all I’ve got left.
This is a picture of my linen closet:
Yeah. Those fitted sheets are not folded properly. I don’t even think the flat sheets are what you would consider “folded properly.” I don’t know where the pillowcases are (though if I had to guess I’d say they were bunched up in the corners of the fitted sheets), I don’t remember ever owning blue sheets, I’ve been looking for that striped rug for awhile now and I do know that we own at least five sets of identical-looking brown sheets in full, queen AND king sizes, just to make mucho-ultra-confusing.
And now all this talk of sheets brings me to another…confession? tangent? something?…about sheets. I once heard that the “proper” way to make the bed involves putting the flat sheet on upside down – so any pattern or stitching or aesthetic detail faces the mattress. This wigged me out to no end. Why? WHY?
Someone told me it was so you could “see” the design when you get in and pull the sheets up. This made even less sense to me, since who pulls the sheets up over their face to contemplate the delicate floral design of the bedding? Then someone told me it was so the sheets would look right if you folded them down a little, a la hotel turndown service. But…I don’t HAVE hotel turndown service in my house. I just…get in bed. Sometimes I kick the top covers off and then what? I WILL SEE THE UPSIDE-DOWN SHEET AND IT WILL EAT ME IN MY NIGHTMARES.
Thus, the five sets of identical, pattern-free brown sheets in my closet.
Wikipedia tells me the “real” reason – although I wouldn’t put it past the “bed sheet” page to be rife with controversy and competing editors changing the page back and forth depending on their time zone – is so the top edge of the flat sheet can be folded back towards the foot of the bed when the bed is made up properly. Which means not only am I putting my sheets on wrong, I am making my bed incorrectly as well, because I never bother with folding anything down – I just yank the covers to the headboard and toss a dozen pillows on top. Thanks, Wikipedia! You jerk.
In even less related news, I am highly amused that the illustration chosen for Wikipedia’s page on bed sheets is one of “Changing James Garfield’s bedclothes after his shooting.” Seriously, those upside-down top sheets will get you if you’re not careful.
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OMG. Thank you. That is my linen closet. Except the sheets aren’t folded as nicely.
you put the sheet upside down so that when you fold it over the top of the blanket when making the bed the pattern side is face up