The Power of Proper Bed-Making

My mom is the person who taught me the importance of making your bed and making it PROPERLY. As a young girl I would go through the house with her before family came to stay for the holidays and we would make up the beds together - changing out the summer cotton sheets for warm flannel ones. I want to share a few of the tips my mom taught me when it comes to making a bed.

First of all, have fun with it. My mother loved chores but in order to get us to help out with any sort of willingness she would have to get creative. She taught me to use swimming strokes as a way to “fluff” the mattress - an activity that was not necessary for bed-making but very necessary for fun-making. We would put on the fitted sheet and then smack the bed repeatedly as we chanted “doggy paddle doggy paddle”. Then we would smooth out the sheets with both arms and chant “breaststroke breaststroke”. You do this enough times and it becomes impossible not to relish in the silliness of the action.

Secondly, my mother taught me that you always put the flat sheet on upside down so that the pattern will be visible when you fold down the top over the blanket. What is the point, she would ask, of purchasing beautifully patterned sheets if you don’t get to see them every time you make the bed.

Lastly, my mother had a wonderful trick for optimizing efficiency when it came to symmetry of the blanket on either side of the bed. She would sew a tiny “X” in the exact middle of the very top of the blanket, knowing that the top sheet would be folded over the blanket so that the X would never be revealed. This made it easy to identify the middle and keep it even on both sides.

Making my bed has become a ritual that allows me the time to remember her each day. I have found that chores are less of chore when you can imbue them with meaning and memory.