As a stay a home mom with over 13 years of housekeeping experience, I have learned quite a few tips and hacks along the way.
Some lessons have come by trial and (lots of) error, like how chicken pot pie expands in the oven and makes a huge, burning mess unless you put a baking sheet beneath the dish (or less filling in the pie shell).
Other lessons I have learned from my mom, mother-in-law, and grandmothers, like how to put the sheets on the bed in a way that is visually appealing, how to make jelly, and how to keep my home tidy.
Still more housekeeping hacks have come from friends who are kind enough to share their secrets with me.Ā One such hack that I learned from a friend years ago is how to fold fitted sheets.
As I unpacked a box after our 3,000th move, a friend of mine watched with pity/judgement/confusion as I wrestled with a fitted sheet for a couple of minutes before giving up and punching it into a ball-ish type pile.
I mean ultimately, who cares, right? It never killed anyone to sleep on wrinkled sheets. However, it DOES drive a woman crazy to know that her three year old could effortlessly duplicate that mess.
Why is this so hard?!
Let’s get back to my friend, who calmly took my wadded fitted sheet and said, “Let me show you how to do this right. This is going to change your life.” In just a minute, she showed me this efficient, space saving method of sheet folding that I still use today.
I would love to pass this fitted sheet folding hack on to you, and hopefully save you from the wadded sheet-balls that quite possibly occupy your linen cabinet.
How to fold fitted sheets like a pro in 5 quick steps:
1. Lay the sheet out, elastic side facing UP
2. Grab both corners on one end and flip them inside out.Ā Tuck those corners inside the opposite corners of the sheet.
The side you just tucked in should fit exactly inside the top half of the sheet as the photo depicts.
3. Flip one corner inside out and tuck it under the remaining corner
Up to this point you may have felt like you were wrestling a parachute, but your sheet should be much more manageable from this point on.
You should now have a square diamond square-ish in front of you.
All of the corners are tucked in, and nothing is sticking out beyond the edges of the sheet. Almost there!
Ā 4. Fold each side in toward the middle and then in half
This is where we say good-bye to those rounded corners that make us crazy. Fold each side once towards the middle of your square-ish. Then fold that rectangle in half to create a long rectangle.
5. Finally, fold the sheet into thirds
Last, fold one end of the rectangle to the middle, and once more to the end. Now you have a perfect, little, tightly folded square of a fitted sheet that you just owned like a housekeeping boss.
See how pretty it is! I can’t say that it changed my life, but I can say that I don’t hate my fitted sheets anymore.
The more you practice, the easier it will get. I actually hold my sheet up when I fold it now that I have the method down pat, and it only takes a minute or so to fold the whole thing. Don’t think you always have to lay the sheet on the bed or floor.
No more wadded fitted sheets for us! And just so you know, getting excited about things like this means you are a full blown adult so you should just go ahead and own that, too.
These instructions work on all sheet sizes, but the last two steps will look a little different based on how much fabric you are working with.
What housekeeping hacks have you learned along the way, and from whom did you learn them?
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