Making The Bed

[goldensmom]

Do you make your bed everyday? I do, my mother did, I did as a child and as a single adult. My husband gets up at 5 and I at 5:30 during the week so I make the bed. On the weekends I get up at 5:30 and he sleeps in, rolls out of bed and later I make the bed. I wash and change the sheets every 5 or 6 days. This morning I got to thinking, there are 2 people who sleep in this bed every night but only one does any bed upkeep so I’m not doing it today but then I did. Question: do you make your bed everyday? If so, why? If not, how do you get yourself to not do it…just not important? Too much work? Other?

[cdttmm]

We make our bed every day. We have three dogs and two cats so we make our bed and then cover it with an extra duvet cover to catch the pet hair. I much prefer getting into a made bed at night vs an unmade bed, which probably comes from making my bed every day as a child/teenager. IIRC, I even made my bed most days when I was a college student living in a dorm room!

[catherine]

DH gets up later than I do. If I'm really busy, or on the road, the bed might not get made that day. But I do really prefer to make it, so I'll do it if I'm working from home that day. Typically I put in 4 hours early in the day in my home office, and then, around 11 am or so, I'll do a few minor household chores like making the bed and kitchen dishes and maybe a load of laundry. Main reason to make the bed--it just makes going to bed at night that much more pleasant!

[Kestra]

Never because I want the sheets to air out.

[jp1]

As a kid I was trained to make the bed. As an adult living in a studio apartment where the bed was a futon I made it every day because I wanted to come home to a couch, not an unmade bed. Since moving in with SO 8 years ago we never make the bed. I find that I don't care since we only go in that room to use the bed. If I had to look at it all the time I was home I would have to make it.

[Stella]

I make ours and I have our kids make theirs. I find the bed being unmade to trigger the Broken Window Effect. Well, it's already messy, so who cares if I throw stuff on the floor? Mom cares. So, beds are made daily and the rooms stay tidier for it. That goes for our room too. We are not immune from the broken window effect.

[Miss Cellane]

Most days, I make the bed.

For one thing, it keeps the cat hair out.

For another, it just looks nicer. In a one-floor house, I pass by my bedroom multiple times a day. Seeing a messy bed tends to make me messy in other ways. Seeing a neat, tidy bed makes me neater throughout the house. The one time I didn't make the bed every day was when I was living in a two-story house and the bedroom was upstairs. If I didn't make the bed, I didn't see it again until bedtime. In that house, an unmade bed didn't affect me as much.

And there's the "niggle effect." You know, every time you pass the unmade bed, you get a little niggling thought in the back of your mind, that you haven't made the bed and you ought to. Niggles take your attentions away from the important things you should be focusing on and distract you. Eliminating the niggles makes for a more pleasant day.

My bedroom is fairly near the kitchen. Most mornings, I put my bowl of oatmeal in the microwave. In the 2.5 minutes that it takes to cook, I can make the bed and pull up the shades and, if necessary, put away any clothes I left on the trunk at the foot of the bed the night before.

When your bed is made, you also have a place to work in your bedroom. Some place to sit and read, or fold laundry, or dump the contents of a dresser drawer to sort through them and declutter a few things. When the bed isn't made, you can try to do these things, but it's harder.

And if you are like me and have a cat who in a former life must have been a drill sergeant and who insists that he cannot recline comfortably on a wrinkled-up bed, you make the bed just to stop the meowing and pacing that occur with an unmade bed.

But the most important reason I make the bed is that I sleep better at night in a bed with tucked-in sheets. I've tried sleeping just under a duvet, and found that doesn't work for me. A foot will poke out, and if it's winter, that means that I'll get cold and when I get cold, I wake up. If the sheets and blankets are tangled, I get tangled in them when I move during sleep, and then I wake up. So making the bed helps to ensure that I get a good night's sleep--everything stays covered and warm, I don't get tangled up in the bedclothes. If I don't make my bed in the morning, I've been known to make it just before I get in it at night, because I know I'll sleep better.

[catherine]

But the most important reason I make the bed is that I sleep better at night in a bed with tucked-in sheets. I've tried sleeping just under a duvet, and found that doesn't work for me. A foot will poke out, and if it's winter, that means that I'll get cold and when I get cold, I wake up. If the sheets and blankets are tangled, I get tangled in them when I move during sleep, and then I wake up. So making the bed helps to ensure that I get a good night's sleep--everything stays covered and warm, I don't get tangled up in the bedclothes. If I don't make my bed in the morning, I've been known to make it just before I get in it at night, because I know I'll sleep better.

I'm the opposite: I DON'T like tucked in sheets. I remember sleeping in a friend's bed one time. She was REALLY particular when it came to cleanliness (she took it upon herself to wax the vinyl floors in her dorm room at college for instance). Her bed was SO tightly made I almost got cramps in my toes. I felt like a mummy!

I like the sheets out because during the night sometimes a get hot and sticking a leg out briefly normalizes my body heat.

[SteveinMN]

Here it is yet another instance of the person caring more getting the job (see "Scorekeeping" thread). DW likes a made bed. I don't care since it's not a room I spend much time in nor do I pass its open door all the time. She makes the bed. Most days.

[CeciliaW]

I don't make the bed and I hate tucked in sheets. I have a top sheet and a quilt. Sometimes I'll pull them flat across the bed and sometimes I don't. It doesn't matter one way or the other. I shut the door to keep the cat out.