I decided that this blog has been woefully lacking when it comes to providing helpful household hints, so here is something that I found pretty useful.
Fitted sheets are nice in that they stay in place on the bed. But anyone who has tried folding them prior to storage knows that you end up with just a bulky mess that takes up a lot of space in the closet. So I was pleased to come across (via Mark Frauenfelder) these two videos that show how to fold fitted sheets (with and without elastic along the edges) so that they end up flat, something that really appeals to someone like me who likes to keep things neat.
Here she does it for a fitted sheet without elastic.
Here is how to do it with elastic.
I tried it out myself. I had to do it several times while watching the video before I finally got it right and it is a lot neater. However, I would not go quite as far as the person in the video who said that folding a fitted sheet is one of the biggest challenges that you are likely to face in your life. She must lead a rather sheltered life.
This is the great thing about the internet. In the bad old days, such helpful bits of knowledge would have stayed within just a small group. Now closets all over the world can become neater.
While I am aware that fitted sheets were once neatly folded, as in they came in a packet that way, my linen cupboard is big enough to find a home to crumpled messes. Thank you though for the thought that it is indeed possible to return a sheet to that magical packeted state, but chaos in a closed drawer doesn’t upset me. 😉
Mano,
Here’s a manaround that I learned in Navy boot camp.
We were issued three of every article of clothing and were expected to keep all the clothing in our locker perfectly folded and placed. Here’s how our company commander showed us to do that with little effort.
We took the pants, shirt, undershirt, briefs and socks that we wore on the first day and sent them to the laundry.
When they came back we used an assembly line and four irons to take the entire company’s clothing and perfectly press, fold and press again a perfect uniform set that went into our lockers, never to be touched again until we graduated.
For the balance of our time in boot camp we alternated the remaining two sets of clothing, putting a clean set on each morning and putting the previous day’s clothing in the laundry (we had daily laundry service) so that we were always certain that our lockers were fit and ready for any inspection.
I’ve carried that habit forward as regards to sheets. I keep three sets. One set I keep in the original package in case of accidents or tears and alternate the other two sets weekly so that one set is on the bed and the other in laundry hamper.
This way I never, ever have to fold a sheet.
I guess I did learn at least one practical lesson from the Navy. : )
Jeff
Well, possibly worth a Nobel nomination but not the Nobel.
Yeah. I figured out that fitted sheet along time ago.
What about replacing the duvet cover?
@chigau, No. 4
The roll-unroll method works best, I’ve found.
Cheers,
Jeff
Is there any sleight-of-hand here? Like when the fully baked soufflé comes out from under the counter on those cooking shows?