I’ve just moved a new idea to the top of my list of things that need to be invented: self-folding fitted sheets. I hate folding fitted sheets. In fact, I usually just take the sheets off, launder them, dry them, and put the same ones back on so I don’t have to fold the bottom sheet. It takes more time to fold a fitted sheet decently than it does to make the bed.
Self-folding fitted sheets — they’ll make someone a millionaire someday.
You’re supposed to fold them?
One of these days I’ll have Judi shoot a short video of me “folding” my bottom sheets.
Think “offsides” in football.
I am chagrined to admit that I am so anal about my linen closet that I can fold a king sized fitted sheet into a lovely little square. I am ready to admit that I have a problem.
Oh… my…
This is one of my peeves. I had someone show me a very easy way to fold fitted sheets and have been as anal as Amy ever since. My partner just wads them up and sticks them in the linen closet which makes my ears go red when I find it.
Tsk… and it’s so simple.
All ya’ll afflicted with fitted-sheet-syndrome need to take a class. In the meantime, maybe Amy and I could start a twelve step group for those of us willing to take that first step…
😉
I would sign up for the class. You would not believe the hours I have spent studying diagrams on the Internet and watching Martha Stewart, only to have lumpy folded fitted sheets. I have read all of the descriptions about inserting the one corner into the other, but I still can’t master it.
I’m with Amy and Natalie. I think it was G’ma Cook who taught me how to do them, but I’ve been doing it for so long now, I can’t remember. I guess it does trouble a lot of people, because last Christmas when my son, Eli, and his fiance, Jessica, came for a visit in Oregon we were unmaking the bed, and he specifically asked me to teach her how to do it because she had such a hard time with it. I must admit, I don’t see what is so difficult about it, but I suppose it’s just my decades of practice that make it so second nature to me.
I’m thinking some of you need to practice an expository writing assignment. When I was a fifth grade teacher, we used to work on writing directions without skipping steps. We always used making peanut butter sandwiches. The students would write their directions and then have to get up and follow them step by step. I guarantee every year we had some kid trying to put a knife in a closed jar of peanut butter or forgetting to put down the knife. It was fun . . .
Anyway, I digress. I would like Amy, Natalie, or Debby to please try their hand at this assignment. Write step-by-step directions for those of use who are miserable sheet folders. Help the needy!
I’ll give it a try:
1) First of all, if you have a table or some other way to keep the sheet from dragging on the floor, so much the better, but if you’re tall enough, and your arms are long enough, it won’t matter.
2) Pick up the fitted sheet with the finished side of the material toward you. Find the two corners of one of the longer sides of the sheet (a corner from the foot of the bed, and and one from the head). Grab either the left length of the sheet or the right; it doesn’t matter which, but they must both be from the same side of the sheet, length-wise.
3) Now fit your right fist into the right corner of the sheet. Put your left fist into the left corner. This is going to make it so that the inside seams are showing over the tops of your fists. Next, take one fist and its corner over to the other fist and invert that corner of the sheet over the opposite corner so that the two corner seams match up nice and tidy with one on top of the other, and both of them on top of your fist. (Now they are right-side-out again.)
4) At this point you may need to straighten out your work a bit and untangle the remaining sheet, if it’s very big. I leave my left fist in place inside the two corners (because I’m right handed) while I locate the remaining two corners. With my right fist I tuck one corner inside the other, just as I did with the first two corners, making sure the sheet isn’t twisted up. You now have a sheet that is folded in half with the two foot-of-the-bed corners tucked inside the two head-of-the-bed corners.
5) While holding one set of corners up with the right hand, and the other with the left hand, take one fist over to the other fist and invert those two corners (remember each set of corners already has one tucked neatly inside the other) over the top of the two opposite corners. Now all four corners are neatly tucked inside each other over one of your fists, and you are dealing with a folded piece of sheet that is one-quarter of the full size.
6) At this point, you will probably need to untangle the gathered lengths a bit. You can lay the sheet down on a clean surface and straighten up all the sides, or you can do it with them dangling over your fist, depending on how handy you are. You are basically just lining up and straightening out all the edges of material at this point.
7) However deep your corners are, you will want to make a fold with all four layers of sheet about that same width on each of the two gathered sides. (You need to make sure all the cloth edges line up and fold over, together, up so it’s not just a big wad.) After that, you should have a reasonably neat rectangle remaining. (If you did it wrong, you will just have a tangle-without-the-rec.)
8) Now that you have a fairly neat rectangle of cloth four layers thick, you can neatly fold the remainder into any size you want. Starting with the longest side, I find that folding the gathered edges in first, about 1/3 of the width of the remaining rectangle is about right. Then I fold the other third over that and sort of press it all flat with my hands. Now you just need to fold up the remainder. I fold it in half lengthwise, then in half or thirds for a neat little square. For the neatest finished product, fold the gathered part in first, since it is the bulkiest.
9) As with all skills, practice makes perfect.
I hope that makes sense, and I hope it helps. (It would be soooooooooo much easier to show you than to try and describe it in words.)
You did a great job with this description. I will definitely try it. It sounds very manageable. I will admit, though, that I’m tempted to just stick with MildChild’s suggestion of using the “offsides penalty” motion. 🙂