Everyone I know hates this job. Like, loathes it. Because fitted sheets are a wadded up ball of mess, with seemingly impossible asymmetric properties that make your entire folding experience a misery. (As if it could ever be a joy – oy.) The pillowcases are a snap, of course. They’re small, and can be tamed almost blindfolded. I don’t use the flat sheets in my sets because they’re just entirely too much work to straighten out under the duvet and stuff… I need easy. Flat sheets are fairly simple to fold though. Likewise for the duvet covers. Rectangles are wonderful. I love symmetry.
Fitted sheets on the other hand, with their smug, poofy, rounded corners make me feel like screaming. I would try and line up the edges, and FAIL, and then roll the fucking thing into a ball and fling it into the closet. Or under the bed. Or, at least I used to, until I discovered the perfect way…
I’ll keep this as simple as possible. Its not hard, I promise. In moments, your linen closet will be the envy of all your friends. Trust me.
1. First you have your wadded up ball of mess. Boo. Suck.
2. Start by spreading the ferocious thing out on a bed or flat surface lengthwise in front of you. Fold the sheet upward, corner to corner, and tuck each pair of corners into one another, like this:
3. For this next step, the goal is to have all four corners stacked over each other. Put each hand into doubled corners, as if opening your arms to hug someone, (only you have a sheet between you) then put your palms together, middle fingers deep into the corners, and flip one hand over the other, so all four corners are on top of each other. Lie your funky fabric on the bed, straighten out all the elastic edges, and try to push those rounded edges into straight edges, so it looks like a rectangle on the bed. Like this:
4. Fold your rectangle in half widthwise, so you have a skinnier rectangle, like this:
5. Fold from the lumpy corner end downward by about a third.
6. Fold the smoother end up, to make a (near) square.
Et voila! And if you fold your duvet covers and fitted sheets in a similar sequence, they will magically all be the same size for the linen closet. If you have a linen closet. In my case, the sheets share a shelf with my carefully folded jeans. Damn these pre-war houses and their lack of suitable closets!!
It’s not hard. Martha showed me how years ago, and so I now impart my wisdom to you all (especially Ali M., and Liz S.) because sharing is good. And knowledge is power.
Go forth and fold, people!! Feel free to bask in your perfect sheet-folding glory. Enjoy.
You’re welcome, Internets.
G.G.
NOTE: This is a queen-sized sheet. If folding king-sized sheets, at step 4, I would fold in thirds first, then thirds (or fourths) again. Them sheets is too gigantic for me to handle alone.
