Tired of all the Facebook memes making fun of the difficulties of folding a fitted sheet and the dangers involved in it (apparently you might even become a ghost failing at it!) here is my fool-proof method. And no, you don’t need anybody to help you with this task, you can do it alone. You are more than enough to subdue a fitted sheet and force it into submission, sorry, into a a neat and pleasant shape that fits perfectly in your wardrobe, drawer or wherever else you want to store it. You are welcome!
Getting from this to that …
Sorry, living alone I hadn’t anybody to take the photos of me doing this, so you can only see the steps the sheet went through, but not my hands 😉
And now my easy to follow steps:
- Take sheet out of the dryer or from the clothes line/rack and give it a firm stare – telling it “I will get you in a neat shape!” Reassure yourself that You Can Do This 😉 Take a deep breath and JUST DO IT. And then follow the following steps …
- Find a flat surface that is at least half as large than your fitted sheet, your bed is ideal, but any flat surface will do, in a pinch even the kitchen table and, with a bit of practise, your ironing board (finally a use for that one!).
- Place fitted sheet upside down and short side up, meaning with the surface that you sleep on now touching the surface you are folding it on and the shorter side of the sheet on top.
- Gently stretch the top of it until nicely horizontal by placing your hands inside the corners and stretching it. Don’t worry about the lower part here.
- Turn the lower corners inside out and THEN tuck into the pockets of the upper corners. That’s the whole trick, the rest is easy-peasy!
- Stretch, again, the horizontal top (now with your hands in the corners formed by both ends of the sheet) until it’s nicely straight.
- Now gently, whilst keeping one hand in the corresponding corner, pull down each side.
- Gently stretch lower end of half-folded sheet until it’s parallel to the top half and extended to its maximum.
- Now you have trapeze shape. Keep your one hand in the top corner made up by both sheets ends end fold the lower half in just a notch narrower than the top half. Repeat on the other side.
- From here you have two possibilities, the folded and the rolled one.
A) Folded: You should have by now a perfect rectangle that you can fold up anyway you like and that fits your storage space.
Getting from this to that …
B) Rolled: Fold your sheet in half and roll it up for space saving storage.
You see, folding a fitted sheet is really easy and if we ever meet in person, I am more than happy to give you a free one-to-one personal workshop on how to do this. Until then you are welcome to buy me a coffee, you know to whom it will go to anyway: https://egeria.house/santiago-day-neighborhood-pantry-fundraiser/ And any further questions, just leave them in a comment below 😉
Oh, and pat yourself on the back/shoulder, you have finally conquered the fitted sheet folding quest!
PS This blog post is the result of some hilarious exchanges on Facebook about this, expect more silly but hopefully useful blog posts like this in future …
Interesting, but I fear I am too old and set in my ways to change the way I deal with laundry.
When sheets have dried on the clothes line they’re bundled up and stuffed into a drawer until needed.
I volunteered at an albergue several years ago and my fitted sheet folding had them all in awe. Same method as yours. After a week I was asked to demonstrate it but you can’t teach old dogs new tricks. Most volunteers continued to screw them into a loose lump and throw them into the cupboard.
I would add that if drying the sheets on a washing line it helps to hang them straight.