Submitted by Aunt_Anne t3_zzd4vj in LifeProTips
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Submitted by Aunt_Anne t3_zzd4vj in LifeProTips
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My thoughts exactly. My mother kept the sheets and pillowcases folded in the linen closet, and would iron them before she made the bed.
Oh my! It gets worse...
My mom's sister is a nun (and therefore kind of doubly her "sister") . She's the principal at the Catholic boarding school to which I was sent.
Talk about folding and ironing...
I'm thinking that if your mom ironed the sheets and pillowcases before making up the bed, then at the very least the bed linens may have been warm and toasty?
Cheers!
> the bed linens may have been warm and toasty?
Hahaha, it wasn't that bad. She wasn't a posh butler, waiting to iron the linens just before we retired for the evening, lol!
You're lucky.
My mom's sister (the nun) insisted that when the bed linens were ironed that spray starch was used. So the creases were viciously sharp. Every morning I would wake up, my body oozing blood with what looked kind of like paper cuts.
I mentioned that to the priest associated with the parish and he told me it must be "stigmata". He said he'd be talking to Rome about sainthood, but it's been a few decades and I have yet to hear back.
I read this completely deadpan and then enjoyed a good hearty chuckle. Thank you.
What? Do you think this is funny?
I've been waiting for quite a while; in my time I've endured:
- 2 English monarchs
- A gaggle of popes
- Who knows how many English PM's (one of which could not afford/know how to use a comb)
And yet, here I am, waiting for sainthood, or at least to be beatified, for having survived Sr. Mary Penguin's viciously creased sheets and pillows (which did not do anything good for my red blood cell count or my hemoglobin values.)
I know that saints have to suffer adversity; but, you know, there is a limit to such things...
~ Catspaw129 (candidate for sainthood)
Have you tried doubling down on the heroic virtue? I hear that usually works.
By golly: You raise a good point -- the doubling down on heroic virtue thingy.
Even as I write this I am negotiating for the charter of a helicopter with downward facing speakers with a Wagner soundtrack (and of course a PR firm with a photographer.)
I wish we had this discussion about a week ago: I could have swooped down from the sky and provided aid and comfort to all those folks stranded by Southwest Airlines by tossing rolls of toilet tissue to those unfortunate souls!
A well-documented act like that is surely worthy of expedited sainthood.
Holy shit
>My mom's sister is a nun
Is your Mom Attila the hun? (Sorry, John Prine joke).
Well, yeah! That's my mom!
And her sister: My brother calls her Sr. Mary Penguin.
Edited to add:
I call my mom's sister "Attila the nun"
'cause , you know, you've got to get that palindrome "nun", in their.
(I once pointed that out to a priest that a nun is a palindrome; he was not amused. I'm still doing Hail Mary's.)
He said:
"That's my sister you're talking about!"
Sister²
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The ironing is to kill organisms on the sheets. We don't have to do that anymore.
My grandmother would do the same. She also ironed her jeans.
My grandpa did all the ironing in their household and taught us kids to iron using his socks and handkerchiefs for practice 🤣 not at all sure if he ironed those on the day to day tho!
I thought I’d long since buried the memory of my mom making me iron all the sheets. Ugh.
To be fair, it is LOVELY getting into a crisp freshly ironed bed 🤤
Not enough that I'd iron my sheets mind you. But it is lovely in a hotel and at granny's house
"To be fair, it is LOVELY getting into a crisp freshly ironed bed 🤤
Not enough that I'd iron my sheets mind you"
....said someone who secretly irons their sheets. It's OK to admit it. Heck, I might invite you over to iron my sheets before I take a snooze.
I WISH I had it in me to iron my sheets 😂 trust me I'd not hide it if I had that sort of time and energy
Ahem!
Maybe you misunderstand?
I wasn't talking about you ironing YOUR sheets. I was talking about you ironing MY sheets.
There's a crucial difference there.
If you do a nice job and I'm all warm and cozy when I put myself down to sleep in those freshly pressed sheets, then I'll give your a good review! (I have 3 followers on Facebook!)
My mom ironed and folded sheets before putting them away into perfect piles in the linen closet.
Mine usually go from the bed to the machine to the dryer to the bed :D
My mom even irons socks and underwear. 🫥🫠
My grandma did this too. I can't fold a folded sheet and I don't even own a iron.
I’ve definitely met your mother
Oh my!
Perhaps we can form a club? Maybe build a tree house? Have sekrit oaths and stuff?
Sounds good, son!
Aha!
I always wondered why I had no resemblance to my mother's husband.
You wrote that you definitely met my mother...
Are you, perhaps, my father? My name out in the real world is "Luke". Might your name in the real world be "Anakin"?
How?
And my axe! I mean and my wife…
Or my husband
Stand up to your mommy and you'll never need to fold anything in your life ever again.
That is pretty much word for word what I thought.
I won't even attempt this at my own house. She will sense it somehow next time she visits.
Me either 🤣 my mom irons her sheets
You're completely right in a logical world, but my brain is illogical and knowing it's not folded will keep me awake at night
I think it would take more space if not folded and it's not as ergonomic. Optimal is still folded I think 🤔
Haha who doesn't want ergonomic fitted sheets? They should include it as a selling point
Someone, I won't say who, may be unfamiliar with sleeping bags and "stuff sacks".
I'm not doing it for someone else, only for myself
#raisedright
I iron my duvet covers, pillow cases and fitted sheets! Always have. It would annoy the shit out of me to look at a crumpled bed. Tbf, my mum always did too.
INFO please: are you talking about the folds in your sheets & pillowcases or the foldy thingies in the grey matter of your brain?
Or both?
If you're looking at my sheets in my closet, you're going to have to leave
Wait until my children are old enough to live on their own, then their roommate discovers that we just shove our sheets into the linen closet and slam the door closed. Then it's too late, the lease has been signed and you're stuck with them!
Yep, I can't think of anyone close enough to me to critique my sheets that I have put away on the closet.
Yep, I can't think of anyone close enough to me to critique my sheets that I have put away on the closet.
Yeah that's better,
Geeze folks, face it: a linen closet is just a rigid stuff-sack.
Wait till you’re older and one of the few things you can control in life are non-wrinkled sheets.
I suspect that someone, I won't say who, is living with a lot of young children and is desperate yearns for a little order in their life.
Best of luck to that someone!
Nope. Thanks though
Huh!
First: I wasn't talking about you.
But...
It seems you are taking this personally; so, may I rephrase?
"Someone, not named Jimmireman, may have -- sometime in the past -- been blessed with a passel of young children (maybe nephew and nieces) and, in a desperate attempt to establish just a little bit of order to their life, took to ironing their bed linens."
*This rephrasing is offered with gentle humor.
Oh ok lol. My bad
I care! Therefore my fitted sheets get folded. Neatly 😁
They take up less storage space when neatly folded. Which makes it well worth the 90 seconds it takes to fold them after washing & drying them.
Only if you need the extra storage space. I just kind of throw them at a shelf, it's good enough.
That's how I do it. No problems so far.
No one cares. But it's pretty easy and so satisfying to fold a fitted sheet
Seriously. When you turn fitted sheets upside down, the elastic corners still form a loose, manageable corner, which means it is a rectangle like any other sheet. Use those as your folding corners and you are 95% of the way there. The other five percent is how much effort you want to put into folding them perfectly flat.
I have never once successfully folded a fitted sheet. It has never caused me problems. In fact, the only problem I ever faced was trying to fold the fitted sheet.
Folding fitted sheets is the bane of my existance
I’ve found the easiest two way’s, depending on if you’re alone or have help: to turn the sheet so the elastic is on top holding the outside of the seam, making sure the elastic is loose above the sheet, almost as if you’re ignoring that part, then folding it regularly OR if you turn one corner in and one out so they lay inside of each other and then it creates a nice line along the top and bottom edges, you and someone else would fold opposite sides in (you fold your right hand in, they fold their left hand in) then fold like normal sheet.
I hope that makes sense. Once I learned the first way, I’ve never had an issue with fitted sheets
I once had a woman at a laundromat ask if she could pay me to fold her fitted sheets. I politely declined and taught her instead.
Stick your hands inside the “pockets” that the corner seams form, starting with two adjacent corners. Match up the points, and then flip one corner over onto the other, so that both corners are now over one hand. Set this side down and repeat on the other side.
Then repeat with the two “double stacked” corners, so that all four corners are layered over each other. At that point, you should be able to fold the “side” parts to form a normal rectangle that’s about 1/4 the size of the mattress. Then fold that rectangle normally.
I roughly fold and then roll them into the elastic part.
Just cut the elastic in the corners and sew buttons there. Then you can unbutton them and fold them nicely, and just fasten the buttons when it's time to put them on the bed.
You're a monster.
As someone with OCD, I care if my fitted sheets are folded. Sometimes I can’t even function if I don’t do tasks such as cleaning (including folding my fitted sheets)
Stuff inside a matching pillowcase and call it a set.
I’m not an expert but I’m still pretty sure that’s not how OCD works, unfortunately 🫠
Can you elaborate on this comment? It sounds exactly like OCD to me.
I was replying to the comment saying it’s as easy as “stuffing it inside a pillowcase & calling it a day”. Yeah, it seems objectively easy, but not if you struggle with OCD.
I don’t know if I’m making sense?
No this will make the OCD worse lmao
You don't have OCD.
Wow, you make a solid argument, now I’m really torn. Who do I trust? The medical professionals who diagnosed me or some kid on the internet who “did his own research”
As a medical professional, I can confidently say that most people on the internet claiming "my OCD this, my OCD that" are actually self-diagnosed or try to demonstrate above average tidiness. You are a rarity.
Or just take the sheets right from the dryer and put them back on the bed without touching the spare set for a year or two.
This is the correct answer.
I use the Martha Stewart method, i kon mari'ed the heck out of my linen closet and looked magazine worthy
If I recall correctly Martha actually hates fitted sheets. I remember a clip of someone coming on the show to demonstrate folding technique and I believe she admitted she doesn’t use them in her home.
Queen Martha was how I learned to fold a fitted sheet.
You don’t use the edges, you poke your hands into the dart type parts (corners), let the elastic parts fall where they will while folding the corners together.
Than you place that and the flat sheet and pillowcase inside the other pillowcase so it all stays together.
I learned this from her, too. I grab the corners and let the elastic sides fall into place. And then somehow everything gets a little wonky from there and I end up balling the rest up and shoving it into the closet.
This is the reality.
What does she use instead of fitted sheets??
I would assume just an oversized regular sheet with the edges tucked under the mattress.
There are bands with clips on the ends which go between the mattress and box spring to secure flat sheets when they're used like this. This is pretty much what everyone did before elastic was available for fitted sheets.
Some high end hotels still do this because the flat sheets are more durable than the elastic, and when you're washing the sheets daily, it'll cause the elastic to wear out much, much quicker than in a home setting.
Just sheets
Don't they... Don't they slide off the mattress?
You tuck them under all around the edges but yes, fitted are much more convenient.
Oh jeez there's magazines about bed sheets?
This isn't an lpt
I don't care if it's a valuable LPT. Reading the comments make things worthwhile.
I care. I don't fold them for anyone else, but I do fold them for me.
Exactly this. Who folds their sheets for other people? I fold them because they stack tidily, it's easier to select the right sheets when you can actually see them, and they look and feel nice and fresh when they go on the bed.
I also make our bed and keep the master bedroom tidy, even though no visitors ever see it.
As Asian..."Somebody gonna get hurt real bad" echo in the head.
r/ShittyLifeProTips is leaking again 😂
I used to think this. Before I realized that taking maybe an extra 4mins folding my sheets flat and straight does, in fact save so much closet space. Added bonus of no chaos when you open that closet door.
Stop telling people they're no one.
Well I care if my fitted sheets are folded.
(Bonus: It's not difficult.)
Mary Kondo would like to have a word with you
I care...see what I did there? I single handedly refuted your whole argument. Be careful when speaking in absolutes.
This is what lazy people do.
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I roll mine too. Towels as well. I like it that way.
This is correct.
They get stretched by being on the mattress, so the wrinkles go away quickly.
They are under a top sheet and/or blanket, so I don't know when you would see them anyway.
I know some people feel compelled, and I used to as well, but life is too short to fold fitted sheets.
[Edit - extra word]
But... But it takes less time to fold a fitted sheet than a regular one?
A regular one you have to manually square up all the corners with each fold.
Fitted though, slam that thing in half, stick your hand in a corner (like a mitten) and stick the nearest corner over the top. Do the same on the other side, and then flip two of the corners into the other two. Ignore the bunchy bit around half of the sheet, and pretend the corner of the mitten (where all four fitted corners are now stacked on top of each other) is the"real" corner. Fold once or twice more on top of itself and you're done.
And significantly faster than folding non-fitted sheets, because you don't have to find the corners and line them up.
I just timed myself out of curiosity, it takes me 15 secs.
I’m really not that busy that I can’t take 15 secs to fold a fitted sheet…
Disagree. Learn new skills We have YouTube now It takes no time
I have a daughter whose OCD for folding clothes and linens comes in handy! LOVE IT when she straightens the linen closet! It's like looking at a wall display in BED BATH AND BEYOND! I open the closet doors, and just stand there in wonder! Then she rolls all of the towels in the bathroom like we are in some luxury spa! My daughter ROCKS!
PSST...Can you straighten the linen closet again? PLEASE?
Can she come over to my house to help?!
Can I borrow her?
Instead of pay I'll give her a nice review.
~ CB
You haven't met my father-in-law.
I just put the sheets right back on the bed after they’re washed and dried. It forces me to finish the wash & i don’t have to fold anything.
people with OCD care
Folding a fitted sheet doesn't take long and it's not that hard once you know how. It also saves space and looks nicer in a closet.
Your mum cares mate.
LPT: If you like your fitted sheets nicely folded, more power to you.
But, but what if the mother in law pops up checking the cabinet ?
I work at a hotel and my boss cares if the fitted sheets are folded.
LPT2: get more than 1 fitted sheet
i have several that i swap out each time one needs to be cleaned, so i have a system going where i just wash one, throw a new one on, wait for the other one to get clean, then just put it away and repeat when necessary
For people like me who are clean freaks…a little OCD about stuff like this, your solution would make me crazy!
My wife does, it's easy for her so eh....
How to fold fitted sheets:
This is probably going to be unpopular and down-voted to hell. When I was an expat my sheets were ironed and folded. I didn't ask for it like that, but I liked it.
I watched an episode of Oprah when I was maybe 12 and learned to fold a fitted sheet. It’s really not difficult. But if rolling it in a ball and stuffing it in a pillowcase works for you, more power to ya.
True, but it's like flexing in the mirror. Nobody'll ever see, but makes me feel cool.
I don’t care what anyone else does but I like folding things and seeing things organised. Letting cupboards and drawers get messy does take a toll on mental health. The small amounts of dread opening a cupboard that is full of balled up sheets or whatever isn’t worth it. I like opening cupboards and being delighted that things are easily accessible and look nice. I like to be able to recall exactly where everything is. I don’t fold and organise things because I’m afraid of judgement, I I do it because it makes my life better.
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That's not a LPT but a personal opinion and has no place here.
Well, I care about it. So you just lied to me
Or you could take an extra minute to fold them, save tons of space, know where they are (because they’re organized and not stuffed in a sack) and your bed won’t look like shit with wrinkled sheets. Just a thought.
If you just have one set a bed sheets you never need to fold. Wash and put right back on.
You'll also have to do more laundry.
In the essence of space-saving tips, this one is topshelf in the linen closet dept. Might as well stuff the whole bedding set into one pillowcase for an even more simplified solution.
Nobody cares about anything in your house to be honest. That’s not why people fold their sheets. They do it because they like to feel organized. Has nothing to do with some random ass friend coming into your house and looking in your closet. Weird LPT.
It's funny, I actually know how to fold a fitted sheet. But recently I decided it was important to me to keep sheets sets together and I do so by stuffing the fitted and top sheets in the pillowcase.
reads comments who knew folding sheets was so controversial lol
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About my own sheets.
Nobody cares if your bed is made either
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I inspect closets during posh dinner parties and exclaim, "well wtf is this while holding your rumpled sheets."
Tip if you use a duvet cover (or you could do it with a flat sheet): fold the nice, sharply folded duvet cover around the fitted sheet (and pillowcases). You’ve got a complete set when you change linens.
After reading "How to Keep House While Drowning" I decided that it is nuts to fuss over things like folding sheets when you're struggling with summoning the motivation to do life in general. So now every time I wash my sheets I put the clean flat sheet, fitted sheet and three pillowcases inside the fourth pillowcase. Everything is kept together. Sheets are wrinkled after the first night theyte on the bed so it doesn't bother me in the slightest to shove them in there.
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There are a lot of people in my life who be horrified by this. For myself, I save even more time by only having 1 sheet set. It goes straight from the dryer to the bed.
My MIL actually folds her sheets very neatly after they come out of the dryer. Takes her a good 20 minutes because she's so slow and it has to be done perfectly. Then she comes upstairs and puts them straight on her bed.
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I don't even give a shit about folded sheets anymore because they keep coming undone. The last time it came undone and I was just like "fuck it I don't give a shit". I don't sleep directly on the mattress, but mine has another thin layer of fabric underneath that fits it perfectly that I will wash
You've met people who've actually folded a fitted sheet? Wow!
You know what’s more embarrassing than wrinkly sheets? Nasty smelly sheets.
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you failed first semester nursing school
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Yep I just rolled them up and put them in my closet
No one laid on their death bed wishing their fitted sheets had been folded better.
I honestly don't care if you fold any of your laundry just be a decent fucking human
What’s with this “no one cares” nonsense?
Should anybody care is debatable, but I care God Dammit! And according to my mom I am a somebody!
Pfft. I bet this guy doesn’t even iron his socks
You not caring about something is not a lpt
if you fold your sheets properly they will take up less storage space, and that is more than enough reason for me.
Tell that to my wife. She has a super specific technique to folding sheets, and then wrapped them in a bundle with the pillow cases. She gets mad at me when I can't do, but I'm not professionally trained by HGTV.
I finally learned how to properly fold a fitted sheet, don't do this to me
Hotel housekeepers do
My mother made me learn how to fold them and now it is my black magic trick to impress
I took the time to learn how to fold fitted sheets and I am damn well put that knowledge to use.
You have clearly never met either my mother or my wife. I can assure you, they both care very much. I fought the good fight — and I lost.
I care. Just fold them. It's easy once you know how.
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Lpt: look up a video on how to fold fitted sheets. It’s not that difficult. Put all corners inside each other and lay flat. Then fold like normal. Obviously a visual medium would explain this better.
I don't fold any of my clothes anymore. Best decision I took this year.
Honestly, I just wash the sheets and put them right back on the bed when finished.
It simply isn’t that hard to fold them if you bother to learn how, though. 🤷🏻♀️
Folded sheets take up a lot less space. Though I do like the idea of putting the full set inside of one of the pillow cases. Never occurred to me.
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I care, I care alot
Speaking about folding and ironing: I iron my cheese sandwiches.
My sheets get balled up and shoved in the linen closet.
This is the way
That’s pretty good 👍
Catspaw129 t1_j2b37m9 wrote
Someone, I won't say who, never met my mother.