As I have said in prior posts, I have been struggling lately. Some of it is internal dialogue I have about falling short of what I expect from myself, and the other is true demands that just happened, and have to be dealt with right away.
One of those minor inconveniences is bedding. I find myself with a new (to my house) overflow of linens, comforters, pillows and blankets. Everything needed to be washed, dried, folded and put away. I do have 2 linen closets in this house, but both of them were already filled and these sheets have to live somewhere until I decide what to keep and what to pass on. Of course, I am not always the most efficient folder because I have 2 closets dedicated to linens and never had to be. Well times they are a changin'.
I decided to tackle the main floor linen closet first, which meant emptying the closet, seeing if I had any widowed sheets that had lost their mate. Those were moved to my fabric cabinet to be used to line chairs for any reupholstering I am doing. (I have one chair in the basement waiting for me to make it look a little prettier). While I was sorting them I noticed what a really bad fitted sheet folder I am. I watched YouTube video after video to see how people do the magical fitted sheet folding. Obviously I am either incredibly dense or terribly uncoordinated, our possibly a combination of the two.
After about an hour of trying to insert my right hand in one corner then using my left hand to "capture " the corner beside it, then do the same with the other two corners (which are master hiders), placing both hands like I am about to clap, then folding over and pinching the corner with one hand while I use the other to straighten it into a rectangle. I never got to the rectangle part and then . . I gave up.
Well I almost gave up until I found Andrea Jean who does not care if I fold them like the experts or not. I am pretty sure I heard the angels sing when I began her video. Finally a really sensible folding plan for a klutz like me. And it only took me until I was this old to find out how to neatly organize my sheets sets.
It is amazing how many set of neatly folded sheets will fit into my closets. I am really impressed and would like to pretend like I had been doing this all my life, but nope. So thanks to AJ for her tutorial that might not have changed my life, but it certainly changed my closet.
I am putting her video here for any of you who might also be sheet challenged.
For those of you who do the incredible finger in, fold, smooth, professional method, I am impressed and am secretly jealous of your ability.
My other beef with doing the sheets is the lack of inner tags indicating the sheet sizes. Unless you have a set nearby for comparison it is hard to tell a queen flat from a king flat. For me the same goes for a twin flat and full flat. Some brands tag both sheets, some tag just the bottom and some tag none. Or maybe I lack a size relationship gene. Who knows? It still tees me off!
I am leaving with an appeal to the powers that be, to nominate Andrea Jean for Sainthood.
Have a great day and I hope none of you are stuck in the laundry room! Tomorrow__ the upstairs linen closet and figuring out what to do with extra towels! Did I mention I have about a dozen extra towels now?
Couldn't you borrow Pip every so many weeks? She could crawl inside the duvet cover and drag them out for you. Perfect for little bodies and it beats sending them up chimneys!
ReplyDeleteHahahahaha. I am overwhelmed with linens at the moment, and never knew what a truly crappy sheet handler I am.
DeleteHA!!!! I know that angst, only mine was coupled with a lack of closet space in one house. That is why, with the exception of one king sized bed in our house, (ours) the other beds are all full (also known as double.) We all have standard size pillows. I use ONLY white, 100% cotton sheets. Anything else is banned from my house. The king size sheets stay in our linen closet, the full size sheets in the hall closet. It doesn't matter where the sheets go or how they are folded, they will match any set and fit any kid's bed. The way I see it, my sheet handling is akin to my parallel parking--I conquer it by avoiding it. I'd like to say I thought this up all by myself, but, actually, a friend who worked at a B&B told me about it.
ReplyDeleteSlowly but surely I am going to all queen size beds with the exception of our king size. My issue with the sheets is they are all white cotton and I can't find size tags in any but the older sheets. Well that, and my lack of folding skills.
DeleteThe way that sheets arrive from the factory in plastic bags, folded into tiny neat rectangles -- and then can never fit into that shape again -- has always been a mystery to me. Then I met a woman who once worked in a textile factory, and she had a closet full of sheets folded like new. Will wonders never cease? Well, they cease when the sheets get to me!
ReplyDeletebe safe... mae at maefood.blogspot.com
I know there is a way to fold them like the factory, but even watching others do it still evades me.
DeleteEffing genius.
ReplyDeleteAnd I will now have to get into the linen closet and restore some order.
Thank you and Saint Andrea Jean. And yes, I watched those videos and failed too. This seems quite possible even for a klutz like me.
This is a game changer for me, though I might need refresher courses every time I fold sheets. Folding them is the primary reason I wash, dry, and put them back on the bed so I can avoid all the nonsense that comes with the task.
DeleteWhen I was growing up, all our bed sheets were flat! I didn't know there were things called fitted sheets until I came to this country! I have a cousin who will still use only flat sheets on her beds. My daughter, on the other hand, doesn't want any flat sheets! I have never learned how to "properly" fold the flat sheets - I just sort of roll them up and call it done! I tried storing the entire sets in a pillowcase, once, and didn't like it. I do store my extra quilts and blankets in old pillowcases, however!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a kid we had only flat sheets and learned how to make the corners using what Mom called a hospital fold. I do remember having to redo them every morning because I was a sleep time mover and groover.
DeleteOMG that is fantastic. I hate fitted sheets and have never learned that corner, corner, corner...ad infinitum trick so they always end up messy. I think I might just take another run at the linen closet.
ReplyDeleteI imagine all the sheets, blankets, towels, came from your mom's. When we cleaned out my parent's house, we donated a lot of them to a local shelter as none of us needed them. I did take my favorite towel which promptly fell to pieces after I used it a few times.
Take care, stay well.
I tried and tried and failed and failed and finally gave up. This way works perfectly fine for me. I am going to have to decide what to keep and what to give away, but until then it all has to live somewhere!
DeleteYou go Anne! Glad you are getting things done. The way AJ folds sheets is how I do it but don't remember if I saw it somewhere or just did it myself to disguise the fact that I couldn't fold them and so my closets still looked nice. My mother did it the "right" way and I could never get the hang of it. I never thought to put in all in the pillow case though, I'm going to do that when I get to my linen closet. I usually just wash sheets and put them back on the bed so I don't have to deal with all the folding to begin with lol! Oh and I only have two beds in the house now, ours and the guest room, both are kings. Any other sheets I have will go to my fabric shelf or to the thrift store, it will probably clear out at least half of my linen closet!
ReplyDeleteUntil these bonus linens appeared I did exactly the same and have not folded sheets in, well in forever. I am not putting them in pillow cases though. That just felt like overkill to me. The neat little bundles are good enough for me.
DeleteI was looking for magic. That is exactly how I folded my first fitted sheet. I saw others fold sheets on tv and it was just stupid. So, I suppose I am doing okay. I am so relieved...lol. I have never had a sheet set that did not have tags on all sheets. My problem is trying to figure out the ends of the sheets from the sides when there is elastic all the way around!
ReplyDeleteOkay, mine are not so neat but, they are squarish. It is good enough for me.
DeleteI don't have any trouble telling which is the end and which is the side. My sheets seem to run about 50/50 tags vs tagless.
DeleteMy sheets are in nice rectangular bundles now! I have never had them so neat.
DeleteI learned to fold fitted sheets in a Nursing 101 class. We did it with two people. Since I don't have a second person, I never folded a fitted sheet properly again. I don't have many sheets, so it's not a problem. However, I have too many blankets, comforters, bedspreads, and afghans for the limited linen closet space in my house. Perhaps a few items are ready to go to Goodwill.
ReplyDeleteLove,
Janie
DeleteYep I am getting many of these ready for Goodwill!
I am sheet challenged!!!!!
ReplyDeleteLove that!
I have a hamper that i put my "folded sheets" in.
This is genius!
Thanks for sharing.
Obviously I am, no was, in the sheet challenged camp. Now I have these neat little bundles that take up so little space.
DeleteOh Anne, I love linens. I love old linens,I love new linens,I love antique linens. I am a linen snob. You have seen me clean and reclean my linen closet over the years. Well now that we are in this smaller house, I have no linen closet. So it is two sets of sheets for each of the two beds. I have a few extra pillows and blankets for sleep over guests on couches. My twin who I hope you can meet someday when Slugs and I venture to the DC area and you come over (I have this dream plan) actually ties her sheets up with ribbons in sets in her linen closet. She perpetrates her shoes in clear boxes with labels, she is so much fun but we can kill her after she shows us her closet.
ReplyDeleteHahhaha! Nothing like a death from neatness!
DeleteI am on board with the meet up. I have a new car and I like to drive!
When they started putting elastic most of the way around a fitted sheet is when they became hard to fold for me. I, too, saw Martha Stewart magically fold a fitted sheet but could never do it myself. Good luck deciding what to keep and what to go.
ReplyDeleteSo many things are going, but they have to be homed until I can make decisions!
DeleteTank you for the Andrea Jean video. I'm off to check it out.:)
ReplyDeleteShe is a brilliant, nonjudgmental tutor. She managed to teach this old dog a new trick
DeleteThat Andrea Jean video is really worth watching. Even for people like me, who don't have that many bed lines, and have more than enough closet space. So we always fold pretty sloppily and toss them in the closet. :-)
ReplyDeleteI have spent my entire life with messy linens. Now they are so neat that I almost hate to give them away, but I am going to anyway
DeleteI'm hopeful the video straightens me out. I just roll the fitted sheet into a ball and call it done. Celie
ReplyDeleteAnimal rescue groups may appreciate your extra linens. :)
ReplyDelete