Let’s talk fitted sheets. They’re the pain of all laundry-folding experiences, right?
If you see the memes about fitted sheets, and I’m sure one will describe your process to a tee.
Luckily they don’t have to be a battle anymore. I once hated folding fitted sheets, and I hated storing my sets of sheets because my closets would appear frumpy.
But one day as I was folding a fitted sheet, it clicked how easy they can be to fold. I also picked up a tip a few years ago about a neat sheet storage hack.
Are you interested in tackling this laundry issue and adding additional organization to your life?
Here’s how you can show your sheets who’s the boss:
Folding a Fitted Sheet
My kids throw hissy fits about folding fitted sheets, and I dare say a few adults have had meltdowns over folding fitted sheets which may or may not have ended with the sheet being wadded up and thrown to the corner of the closet.
Those days are over starting now:
1. Treat It Like a Square
The biggest issue people have with fitted sheets is it’s a square with rounded corners. At first glance, you can’t help but wonder what you’re supposed to do with this funny shape.
The design makes sense for its purpose, but it doesn’t make folding it easier. When you begin to fold a fitted sheet, you must treat it as a typical square.
Don’t try to fold it where the elastic corners are. Instead, reach above the corners. When you do this, it will form more pointy corners and give you a great place to start.
When you have your top two set of corners made with your fingertips holding on to them, you’ve conquered the hardest part of folding a fitted sheet.
2. Fold It Hotdog Style
Once you have your fingertips holding onto the self-made top corners of the fitted sheet, fold it vertically or hot dog style.
The bottom part of the fitted sheet will follow suit. Don’t spend a great deal of time worrying if the bottom two corners are lining up yet.
Make sure your top two corners are aligned, and you’ve succeeded with this step.
3. Hamburger Style is Next
The next step in the process of folding a fitted sheet is taking the vertically folded sheet and folding it in half again.
Only this time the sheet should be folded horizontally. This is also known as hamburger style. When it’s folded in half, make sure your corners have all met, and everything looks like a neat rectangle with rounded edges.
If your fitted sheet has made it to this point without being a mess, you’re home free.
4. And Again
Once the fitted sheet has been folded in half, lay the folded sheet on a surface. I use my bed sometimes, the dryer, or my couch. It all depends where I’m folding laundry.
When you lay it out, take the time to adjust the sheet to where all the corners are aligned. When everything appears neat, fold the sheet horizontally again.
This may be the end of the road for you depending upon what size sheets you use. I fold everything from twin size sheets to king size in my house.
With my king sheets, I’ll have to fold them one more time horizontally. At the end of the process, the fitted sheet should look like a nice rectangle.
By following these few steps, your fitted sheets should no longer end up as a wadded mess on the closet floor. Hopefully you won’t get quite as frustrated on laundry day either.
Sheet Storage Hack
If I’m honest, I don’t remember where I learned to store my sheets this way.
It all started when my husband and I moved to our second home with three kids, and we had little storage.
The little bit of closet space we had was a mess, and our sheets didn’t help. One day this hack made its way to me somehow, and I began using it.
I didn’t pay much attention to it (besides the fact it helped cut down on closet clutter) until I was folding laundry in front of my mother-in-law one day.
She raved about how great an idea it was and how she was going to share it with everyone she knew.
Since she thought it was great all those years ago, I’m going to assume a few people in the world don’t know about it and continue to spread this awesome hack with others:
1. Fold Your Sheets
The first step to this hack is you must fold your sheets, and it’s important to fold a fitted sheet neatly because the neater your sheets are folded, the more compact the hack can be.
Be sure to fold your top sheet into a nice square or rectangle. Do the same for your fitted sheet, and take one pillowcase and fold it neatly.
Notice I’m leaving one pillowcase out. It’s done intentionally, because it has an important job, but be sure the pillowcase is smoothed out and looks good because this is what you’ll see in your closet.
2. Make a Package
When you have each part of your sheet set folded, neatly slide them into the one pillowcase remaining. Be sure to slide them to the bottom of the pillowcase where the end is sewed together.
Add the next item of your sheet set and continue until each piece is slid into the farthest end of the pillowcase.
Be sure each item is neatly stacked on top of the other inside the pillowcase. When every thing is in place, fold the open end of the pillowcase over the folded end.
It should be folded up like a neat package. From there, slide it on a shelf in your closet or into a drawer.
The next time you change your sheets, pull the linen package out, flip open the pillowcase, and everything you need should be all together in one neat place.
This should help you to have an easier time when doing laundry and also help you to keep your sheet sets better organized while keeping your closet space neater too.
Learning how to fold a fitted sheet properly and using this sheet storage hack has helped me tremendously over the years.
Plus, it makes changing my sheets less of a hassle because I’m not chasing pillowcases down in the process, and everything is less wrinkled which seems to make the sheets easier to work with.
Though laundry isn’t a simple task (especially if you have a larger family), there are simple things we can do to take some of the load off. Hopefully this will be one way for you.
