“How you do anything is how you do everything.”
or
“Life in every breath.”
Growing up somewhere cold with usually just enough blankets, I would often need to wrap the blankets around me to fully trap the heat. When the sheets are solidly tucked in, you have to rip them out before you can wrap.
I am basically never comfortable in a made bed. If I visit a friend and the guest bed has the sheets tucked in, I have this low level subconscious response of “I guess that’s one more thing I have to deal with now.” Not that they are wrong for doing it, but it does grate a tiny bit versus sleeping at home.
Haha, I have the same feeling for opposite reasons. I grew up in a warmer environment but kept my feet against the cool exterior wall my bed was next to. Now I have to have my feet uncovered and a fan on just to feel comfortable and tucked in sheets feel like I’m trapped.
Being human, eh?
Or perhaps it’s wonderful news about literally every aspect of life, in a nihilist way. Why try in any aspect of life if it will eventually get messed up again and your efforts will definitely be in vain? There is peace in surrendering to the inevitable chaos.
I learned early in life (from ocd parenting figures) that you have to set a certain level of clean you need in your life to how much of your life is taken up by it.
I know people who spend their entire waking hours cleaning. Can’t have 1 dirty dish. Floor cannot have a spec. Lawn must be pure green grass so kill all dandelions and any “weed” (also this is terrible for the environment but anyway). All glass absolutely spotless. Its sad how much of their life they spend just cleaning, to me anyway.
I just have a rule that I don’t let things be disgusting. Do I have dishes in the sink? Yes. Is it overflowing and molding? No. I vacuum and sweep maybe once every couple weeks or if it gets visually dirty faster.
I have way more important things in life than keeping things spotlessly clean.
Making a bed? Never done once in adult life. Complete waste of time for me. washing bedsheets and blankets, obviously yes we have to do that.
Making a bed? Never done once in adult life. Complete waste of time for me. washing bedsheets and blankets, obviously yes we have to do that
Well now I’m curious - you don’t make the bed when putting on the clean sheets and blankets?
Routine is probably the most important part of building a cleaning habit. I’m very similar in that there’s a certain level of untidiness that is perfectly acceptable in my home. Gotta keep on top of everything somewhat so that there isn’t health consequences, mental or physical.
Nah. I put the fitted sheets and pillowcases on, then throw the blankets on top ha
It’s funny, I’m not a bed maker either, but when I put new sheets on I make it perfect, only to come back that night and untuck the sheets and whatnot because I like my legs out. It’s pointless, but I do love getting into fresh sheets.
Exactly what we do! I “make” the bed when I get into it, using my feed to kick out the blankets.
Ha, well thanks for answering! That’s certainly a way to do it :D
Me and the dog will mess up the blankets anyway haha we thrash around in sleep
I live with a household of people who do not make their beds. It’s hard to explain the immense satisfaction I get slipping into a perfectly made bed. It takes all types hahaha
Funny enough, this threshold for what you find dirty or gross can cause a lot of relationship strife within a household as partners may have different thresholds for this.
Generally, the partner that has a lower threshold for when they feel like things are too dirty or too messy or too gross and it starts bugging them feels like they do most of the cleaning work because they start feeling stressed and end up cleaning earlier then the other.
I just have a rule that I don’t let things be disgusting.
Some people who spend their entire waking hours cleaning believe exactly the same as you. They just have different thresholds of “disgusting”. My in-laws are like that. I’m much closer to you; where I can easily accept untidy, but not dirty.
Yeah exactly. I dont allow visible dirtyness basically. So some dust, whatever. Actual dirt or mud or food crumbs? Yeah I’ll clean that.
3 dishes in sink? Its fine. 20 dishes and sink is full? Yes we need to do dishes.
It also depends on the area. I clean my kitchen more than the basement.
They just have different thresholds of “disgusting”
My gf. She mops the floor nearly every week - and it’s always a 3 step thing of heavy cleaner, some other cleaner, then water - cleans the cooktop with water and soap after every use. Dunno if her ADHD has anything to do with that
Once a week or two for me before I got my labrador retriever.
Now once or twice a day vacuum and mop of the floor by the robo cleaner 😅
Would never do it that often if I had to do by hand.
Once a week floor cleaning and washing up kitchen surfaces after use are really, really normal levels of cleaning.
Like yeah, the floors could probably go longer than that, but not by much.
You should be cleaning the cooktop after every use. That’s basic kitchen hygiene.
Anytime it gets dirty, sure. After every use, even when it’s just boiling water for coffee or tea, tho?
No, not after boiling water, but cooking food is likely going to end up with some on the range.
It’s not necessarily a health hazard, but it can definitely attract insects. Cue Archer’s, “Do you want ants?” bit.
Kinda hard to do when the stovetop’s still hot.
Then by the time it cools down, I’m already 3 or 4 activities past cooking and forget entirely about it…
I’m definitely not saying I clean mine off every time, or even most of the time. But I know it’s something I should be doing.
No food you eat is going to touch it + annoying to clean, so ends up lower priority than other surfaces.
Know why it’s annoying to clean? Because you left the dirt on it for a while, and successive heat events from your regular cooking baked it into the surface.
Source: I do this, and when my partner or my mother cook, they easily wipe the surface off every time with a wet rag. I wait ages, and have to clean it with a scrubber and Jif.
Because there are hot bits you can’t touch for a while afterwards that stick out of it + control nobs.
I do get the appeal of inductions because of that, would still want analog controls for them though.
Induction cooktop, definitely want one at some point. I’ve seen what a proper one can do and now I’m finally okay with switching over from the beloved gas burner I’ve always thought was king.
Insects love it though.
A nod to my parents on this one: up until age 12 or so, it was just mattress, fitted sheet, and sleeping bag.
Mom even sewed little straps to the non-zipper side of the sleeping bag, which secured to the bedframe: kept my dumb ass from rolling out of bed without needing to screw around with rails.
Make the bed? Just pull the corner on the foot and head opposite the straps. 2 seconds, perfectly flat.
Eventually I switched to normal sheets and such cuz in my brain, sleeping bags were for kids!! …aka, the parents tricked me into wanting to make the bed cuz I’m a big boi, see?!
Well played mom and dad. 10/10
“Exactly, there’s so much shit you have to do over and over in life, why add unnecessary things to it??”
Jim Gaffigan likened making your bed to tying your shoes after you take them off. I do enjoy making my bed every now and then to keep things tidy, but that comparison is absolutely perfect.
Some people are experts at making more pointless busywork for themselves. My parents had a real knack of storing things that need to be used in one room and replaced often… as far away as possible. Like who the fuck keeps spare kitchen paper towels in the bedroom?
That’s exactly why you should not blindly follow things though. There is literally no advantage to a nicely made bed except that it looks nice. If that is not worth the effort of making the bed, then why would you do it?
it has an advantage for your mental health, because it helps your mood to know you have finished a task, have a routine, and cleaning.
Making my bed does nothing for me.
Having to make my bed has a negative effect on my mental health. But yes, that’s why I said to evaluate it individually.
Just a pendant here. First comment does not say that.
Just a pedant here but it should be inferred from the first line.
I can see this, for certain folks. To me, I’d be mad that I’m wasting time on something totally pointless when I could be doing anything else far higher up on my importance meter.
Doing unnecessary stuff irks me in ways I can’t describe.
Because we are smart and value time.
I can’t stand actual pointless crap that wastes our lives.
But if it makes you happy, go for it I say.
It might for you. It does nothing for me.
It doesn’t help my mental health to do a pointless task.
Contrary to what JP says mental health isn’t tied to a clean bedroom, or in this case a made bed.
This really depends on the person. For some, there’s benefit to the ritual and then again for the “tidy” bed occupying their space. For others, it doesn’t matter.
My personal opinion is if you tend to not be in your bedroom except to sleep then it doesn’t matter, but if you spend much time in there then making the bed is beneficial.
Its the routine not the time bedroom that natters
nah, fuck him. but a routine definitely is.
Routine and clean bed aren’t the same thing
no, but making the bed may be one of those mundane things that bring you into a routine!
I agree, but my point was that’s not what jp says.
ah i see now. had to look at your replies to other people to get the context :)
If those are the advantages then the same advantages could be accomplished by daily filling a cup with water, pouring out the water, drying the glass and putting it back in the cupboard. I’d argue the cup with water is far less effort and yields the same results.
i don’t know how you can make that comparison when one of those things contributes to a sense of normalcy and the other plainly doesn’t.
Because normalcy is subjective to each of us. If an unmade bed is normal in my house, then the unmade bed is what contributes to a sense of normalcy for me.
i was speaking more in relation to other people. also i don’t know anyone for whom filling and emptying glasses of water is normal.
Making your bed just means it will smell faster, you’re trapping moisture in the sheets.
When you make the bed you’re pinning all the duvet down?
Part of the reason I make my bed is to air it, with the duvet folded down, so it doesn’t smell
Jeez, how much do you people sweat at night? I’m in a temperate climate and I only sweat at night when something’s wrong with me.
You sweat constantly, you just don’t notice it. I “don’t sweat” at night, that doesn’t mean there isn’t moisture in the sheets. Your body is a semi-permeable water sac, of course there’s going to be moisture in the sheets after spending 8 hours in them.
I sweat a fair amount at night. At this point in my life, I open the window, have a fan blowing air around the room, and sleep with minimal sheets and no clothes. I still end up sweating at some point in the night.
Mine is likely perimenopause related though.
Only if you do it right after getting up
And when are you supposed to do it otherwise? After you’ve gotten home from work?
Whenever you want? I do it when I get home from work or around lunchtime on my days off.
In fact not doing it allows the mattress to dry better, after all it absorbs sweat during the night.
This is my thought. I don’t have time to go beat the mattress on the balcony, but I can leave the sheets down and the fan on.
I make my bed purely because my wife likes it that way. I’m not bothered either way, but I do it because it’s important to her.
She wakes up before I do and goes to bed before I do. I make the bed nice and tidy when I eventually wake up so she has a nice neat bed to climb into at night.
Keep being an awesome husband brother
Is a husband-brother something they have in the South?
I make mine to keep cat hair and the occasional litter rock off of the bottom sheet.
it feels nice to me anyway, a cluttered bed makes me anxious. plus tucking yourself into a made bed is such a nice feeling rather than trying to find your sheets in the mess
Lmao, some bitter sadsack downvoted the fact that you like a made bed.
crazy world we live in
Easily solved by not using top sheets.
You monster
Look at this guy with his fancy bottom sheets.
The process of making your bed confers several hygiene benefits.
For starters, we release a ton of water when we sleep, both through sweat and exhalation. A made bed dries more efficiently
Making the bed also has the effect of shaking loose skin and hair that came off us throughout the night, and casting it to the floor. This is especially true if you use the objectively correct technique of grabbing the corners and flipping your bedding up into the air so that it settles down into place like a parachute
Takes five seconds, looks nice as you noted, and has many other mental and social benefits we haven’t even touched on. For one of many examples, if I go to a guy’s place, I’m not gonna be inclined to get into his bed if he “won” the bed-making argument with his parents and stuck with that philosophy ever since
Wait what? Making the bed does the opposite. It traps the moisture in the bed, meaning it dries less, causing it to smell more. How the hell would making the bed cause it to dry better, that’s complete nonsense.
Edit: for those that don’t believe me, this has already been studied. Making your bed traps moisture. It’s honestly crazy to think that closing up a damp environment somehow makes it dry faster.
Think of it this way, if you soaked your entire mattress in water and then put it out in the sun, is it going to dry faster if you just leave it there or if you cut it open and expose all the insides?
You’re wondering why a completely flat piece of fabric with maximal surface area exposed to the air dries faster than one that’s bunched up and covering itself multiple times? Are there any other situations you can think of where things dry better bunched up rather than splayed out? Towels, swimsuits, tarps, tents?
Who mentioned smell by the way? Is your bedding noticeably smelly?
Huh? Maybe this is a country difference. If I make the bed, there’s going to be more than 3 layers of fabric on top of the sheets that were actually touching my body. There is zero chance in hell of those sheets drying faster covered up. The sheets being pulled back to expose the area that was actually touching my body is what allows it to dry.
I just counted, if I made the bed each morning I’d be trapping the bed sheets under at least 8 other layers of fabric. A comforter, a weighted blanket, and sometimes another blanket. The weighted blanket alone has 5 layers to it, the comforter 3.
How exactly are there fewer layers to trap moisture when your sheets and blankets are bunched and piled up?
I don’t know why you’re spamming my inbox with multiple replies to the same comment. I also see you’re posting a random unrelated study about dehumidifiers at other people, while misrepresenting it as a study about bed making vs. not.
You are simply incorrect about the facts, even to the point of advocating for leaving wet towels in a pile. Amazing. Beyond that I’m not particularly interested in spending any more time arguing with you over the most basic hygiene habits that indicate to others whether you are a child or an adult.
I can however empathize with the additional complexity of the task if you sleep under a four inch thick 160 pound sheet of lead along with multiple auxiliary comforters. In that situation you’re supposed to fold the heavy items up towards the foot of your bed. Best of luck to you
And I didn’t see the part about the towels, usually I don’t cover up other towels with more towels while they’re trying to dry. So yes, if that was how the towels were drying, a pile of them would dry much much faster than laying wet towels on top of each other over and over again.
In addition to letting the sheets and blankets breathe already noted, a made bed lends itself to being used for things like folding, sorting, or hanging up laundry because it is a flat surface where socks can’t get lost in folds and shirts can be laid flat before putting on hangers.
I didn’t see benefits earlier in life but now I do. By made I just mean sheets and blankets laid flat, not tucked in or anything extra. Just a few seconds of getting then spread mostly evenly.
Cleaner to lay on top of the cover if you are lounging on the bed during the day
There’s no advantage of spending half an hour in the mirror every morning doing your hair applying stucco and paint on your face, yet most people despite lacking a real practical purpose, prefer not to be seen in public looking like they just escaped the bataan death march.
A made bed airs out faster than one that’s not. The exposed bits of mattress might air out a tad bit quicker but there is no way that compensates for the area that has the bunched up duvet on it. And you mention effort. I have to shake out the duvet maybe two or three times to have it on my bed relatively straight.
This litterally takes like 5 seconds and the room looks infinitely more cared for. Nobody is that short on time.
thats completely false theres massive social benefits to having a presentable appearance. have you not heard of pretty privilege? the opposite also exists. looking like shit has a massive social cost. people will treat you worse, fail to give you the benefit of the doubt, refuse to help you, in some cases even refuse to acknowledge your existence. no one is going to see your messy bed and judge you for it, but they will absolutely see and judge your face looking like shit.
A made bed absolutely does not air out quicker. https://www.jacionline.org/article/S0091-6749(01)77320-4/pdf
The exposed bits are where you were sleeping, and it absolutely compensates for where the bunched up cloth is. And even if that bunched up cloth was a problem you can flatten that out to expose just the inside anyway, like the outside of a hard taco shell.
A nicely made bed also feels nicer and is easier to keep clean.
Distinct layers of sheets with uniform spacing between them holds and vents heat more uniformly.
If you’ve only got one blanket probably makes no difference though.
I’ve made a bed a handful of times in my life. The one time I remember specifically was when I had my first girlfriend over to my house when I was 17.
If you don’t want to make your bed, don’t do it. After 60 years of not making my bed, I’ve suffered zero ill effects.
Yeah it’s something for regimental types. I read something about some military dude priding himself on it.
I’m very chaotic (ADHD) so nope. I couldn’t function in a regimental environment anyway.
My theory of military bed making is that originally they had to grab the sheets and go on a very short notice, so it makes sense to “pre-pack” them. However, it gradually evolved into a performative art.
You could also take away the opposite lesson, that society asks people to prioritize meaningless things, so there’s no reason to follow such a vapid worldview.
Try a hammock. Always made, you can actually wash it (mattresses, ew). Good for your back, super comfortable.
Even entropy isn’t what it used to be – Solomon Short
Mao’s Little Red Book has a reminder to wipe your ass
I mean it’s a choice. I know ppl who refuse to work and collect wellfare because they’ll be poor either way.
