About Bed Making

It might seem like an over-rated task only your mother cares about, but making your bed is rewarding and gives you a sense of calm when you come home at the end of the day. It's not complicated, so take five minutes and make your bedroom look good. If you really get into it, you can start discussing which way the top sheet should go and how to line up pillowcases.

Significance

Bed making habits go back to our childhood for most of us. "Make your bed or no breakfast!" may still ring in your ears every morning, so you sleepily pull the sheet somewhat straight across the bed and throw the comforter over the remaining wrinkles, tossing the pillows so they land somewhere close to the headboard. Done. There's more to bed making than the echo of childhood, however. It's not a complicated process, but it increases cleanliness, gives you a sense of ownership and makes your bedroom a calm, welcoming space at the end of the day.

Benefits

While you sleep, snuggled down in your bed, you are also losing dead skin cells, fuzz and lint from your pajamas, dirt and oil from your hair and random little specks of dust and grime that have attached themselves to your hands, face and feet. Of course, all of these usually occur in tiny amounts; you don't wake up covered in piles of dirt. But over the course of a few nights, there is a significant build-up in the bed covers. If you make your bed every morning, however, starting by pulling off the top cover, shaking it and the top sheet off and brushing off the bottom sheet on your bed, you prevent the grime from building up and keep your bed fresh and clean. Choosing to take five minutes every day and make your bed propels you from those lazy, college-dorm days to adulthood; it gives you a sense of responsibility and ownership. When you come in at the end of the day and see a neat room and a clean, fresh, well-made bed, you gain a sense of order and calmness that can help you regain stability after a hectic day.

Time Frame

Making a bed really isn't complicated, and unless you have a complex pattern of arranging many throw pillows, it doesn't have to take you longer than a few minutes every morning. Start by throwing all the covers to the foot of the bed; brush off the bottom sheet and make sure it is tucked in well at the corners. Shake off the top sheet, spread it out and tuck it in at the foot of the bed. Replace your comforter, quilt or blanket, then arrange your pillows at the head of the bed. You're done. Go eat breakfast.

Theories/Speculation

Though bed making doesn't have to be complicated, there are plenty of ways to make it so. Arguments about the proper way to make a bed range from which way the top sheet should lay (right side up or wrong side up so you can fold it down and display the right side) to which way the pillow cases should be placed (open edge on the outside of the bed or toward the middle) to whether one should even use a top sheet at all.

Expert Insight

Martha Stewart offers a bed-making procedure (link below in Resources) that directs the bed-maker to make hospital corners with full instructions as to how to do so. Sarah Aguirre, an expert on housekeeping, offers a step-by-step guide to bed-making that provides tips for purchasing linens and tells the bed-maker exactly how to place pillows.

Resources

• Martha Stewart: How to Make a Bed
• Sarah Aguirre's Guide to Bed-Making