Dear Home-Ec 101,
Now that our teen is helping with the laundry, I would like to show him to fold a fitted bedsheet.
I usually just roll it up into a ball. (bad, I know)
Signed,
Life Skills Teacher to Growing Son
Ivy says:
The person who actually showed me how to fold a fitted sheet is my dad. My mom kind of wads them into a shape somewhat resembling a rectangle, but my dad folds the neatest fitted sheets ever. Weird, I know.
The object of making fitted sheets look all nice and neat is to get rid of the waddy end. We accomplish this by hiding it into the center of the sheets. Observe:
Gather all the little fitted ends together. Smooth out the rest of the sheet.
Take the sheet and fold ends over to make a rectangle-like object. It will not be a perfect rectangle on the end with the fitted mess, but it will be close.
Now, fold that not-so-neat end so it is in the middle of the sheet, kind of like folding a letter.
Fold the other half over the top, and you finally have a completely neat and smooth rectangle. Fold it in half again, and you won’t be able to tell your fitted sheets from your flat sheets!
Ivy,
I just wanted to let you know that your folding technique is the same one that hotels across America use as well. I never did get the hang of the fold when I would help out in laundry back in my hotel days. The housekeepers always knew when I did any fitted sheet folding. Muahahahha
My wife taught me this method, obtained from a super-secret nursing manual 😉
Actually, I think she got it from Martha, but I’d rather think it’s a nursing technique.
I’ve always been puzzled about keeping a neat looking linen closet with my messily folded fitted sheets!!! Thanks!
Nice. I had no idea. I just wad them into an approximately rectangular ball. I think the contradiction of “rectangular ball” tells you what my linen closet looks like right now! 🙂
Thanks for answering this question. I showed it to our teen and my husband. They said “Okay, I’ve got it now.” One less thing for this busy woman to do.
I have always wondered what the trick was!!
My “trick” to folding sheets:
I fold both sheets into the long rectangle (as in the bottom picture) and lay them together. I also lay the pillow slip on top (if the set still has one!) Now I have a three layered stack of linens. Now I fold them into the smaller rectangle. This keeps the set together and then I don’t have to search for the fitted vs. flat sheet, either; messing up my neat linen closet!
The rectangle will be good and fat so I also know its a set and not individuals.