she is magic!

Damn! I was really hoping this was going to solve a long lasting problem in my linen closet, but no. This is exactly how I fold my fitted sheets and the absolutely NEVER turn out as nicely as hers. What am I doing wrong?!

One of the biggest challenges of my life? I think not.

Helpful folding technique? Absolutely. Now if I just had an extra table sitting around to use just for folding laundry, life would be easier. Well, at least I can use my bed :)

Sorry but I've been doing this since I was 5 or 6. No magic about it. I'm always pretty shocked that people don't know how to fold sheets.
ajh- I think the trick is setting the almost done sheet down on a flat surface to smooth the corner part and then finish folding. I can get the sheet smoothest when I do this but usually I just hold the sheet against my body for the last part and it doesn't get as smooth but it is faster if I don't have table nearby.

I'm impressed!

If only this were the biggest challenge in my life.

OH MY GOD!!! I have never see this done before. I am going home tonight and redoing my entire linen closet. I am serious!!

Wow! I'll have to try this tonight.

Yeah, I've been doing this for years. Maybe I was lucky to have a grandmother in the dry cleaning business who taught us all the tricks for this stuff. And yes, people do dry clean sheets. >.<

i find it easier to tuck corner 3 and 4 together, and then tuck them both into 1 and 2 as a group. but whatev :-) and yea, I WISH this was the biggest problem in my life.

Its true, I am one of those losers that has a whole shelf dedicated to 5 or 6 wads of fitted sheets. This is magical.

Ok, so I just tried this method 4 times and my sheets are a still a mess. I tried it 3 times with a queen and once with a twin (not even going to try and tackle my Cal. King sheet!)
MY sheets have alot of elastic around the edges as well as at the corners. If you notice in the video, her sheet has little elastic around the length of the sheet allowing her to easily smooth and removes any wrinkles. In my sheets I cannot "slide down the edge" because the elastic bunches up the sheet hiding the edges.
I'll keep trying. But it would be nice if the sheet in the video was a new one.

Yay, I've been doing it the right way!

But, I have to say this woman isn't as magical as my late MIL, who taught me this same folding technique. She was only 4'11", and could fold a king size fitted sheet perfectly without ever having to lay in on a flat surface during the process. It was truly an amazing sight to behold, and something I've never been able to pull off.

I don't know how this is all that revolutionary, it's pretty much exactly how I was taught to fold sheets back when I was a kid.

i think i love her.

This is nothing new. This is how I fold my fitted sheets, which I learned from my Mother, and she learned it from her Mother.

Where has this lady been all my life? Brilliant!

W.O.W. That's so cool! For all you haters that say you've done this before, sorry if everyone who is astounded did not have Martha freaking Stewart as a mom or aunt. And about the quip about it being one of the biggest challenges of your life? It's called being facetious.

Apparently some of our parents and grandparents have been slacking, because no one has shown me this trick before. Brilliant!

I figured this out on my own 35 years ago. And I put together corners 1 and 2 and then do 3 and 4 by themselves and then put them all together. I actually end up with a neatly folded sheet 1/2 the size of her finished sheet. And I, too, have a California King bed.

My mom used only flat sheets to save money and space, so it was a girlfriend who taught me how to fold fitted sheets many years ago. It is neat and easy although my husband's never gotten the hang of it, perhaps because I do most of the laundry. I'll check out this lady's website--thanks for the tip.

This is the best post you've ever had on AT. SOO HELPFUL!!!

Domestic Sorceress is a great name for an all-girl metal band.

I do two sets of corners and then combine, but it never looks that good in the end. And no matter how many times I show my husband he still refuses to give it a shot.

It's much easier to do it at the laundromat than at home though, so once we get en suite laundry I have a feeling it will just get worse.

Yup, like a couple of other people, I do it the exact same way and they still don't turn out like that. I think the comment about the elastic is spot on.

All this time and I never knew.. that so many people were positively flummoxed by a sheet.

Yep, figured this one out on my own a gazillion years ago, too. When I was a kid we didn't have fitted sheets so this came a little while after I left home. It can be done a bunch of different ways but it always turns out the same. Even with those elastics that run all the way around, just takes a bit more effort. Keep trying, burnttoast, it'll come. Or not, my husband never got it. (Personally, I prefer folding it lengthwise. Then I have a crease to follow when putting on the top sheet, which also has a lengthwise crease. Easy to match up, Even Steven.)

I wasn't even looking for an answer to my fitted sheet problem (I wad them like the mess she has on the table) but when I saw this video I immediately felt less anxious! I can't wait to go home and fold my sheets!!

Yeah, but that's a pretty loosely wadded sheet in the video. I bet if she'd really applied herself, she could have easily crammed it into the tiny semi-triangular space between the emergency gift bag and the small metal table fans that inhabit MY luxurious hall closet.

I kid, I kid. I'm intrigued and eager to try this method in February when I wash the sheets again.

I wonder: will the next linen closet revolution involve rolling the sheets, a la recent flight attendant slideshow meme.

What? This is great! I've never seen this technique--only the folding lengthwise technique. Best tip I ever got though? Once you've folded your fitted and flat sheet and one of your pillows, tuck these inside of the second pillow case. Voila--your sheet set is always together and ready to go. I store extra sheet sets underneath each bed in this way in a tupperware.

I guess I never realized that this was a challenge, but I guess I see that now. I ran a laundromat in high school and college, and I did laundry allllll day. Fitted sheets were a welcome change from folding baby clothes, gnarly unmentionables, and cardigans.

lotusmoss, I do similarly, with other rooms, as well, and so don't need a linen closet.

I just tried this several times with my Cal King fitted sheet that has elastic all around the edges. It's bulkier and the edges are nowhere near as sharp as the sheet in the video :(

Jason Kottke is a wonder of a person. I read his weblog everyday. It's amazing what someone can accomplish if they really want to. And the sheet thing is awesome...I usualy jus grab corners and then roll it up around my arms...

I was taught this as a youngster, but nowadays the sheets often have elastic all around the edges -- it's much more difficult, if not impossible!

I think its easier and you still have a nicely folded looking result if you tuck the two bottom corners into the top two corners, then start folding all sides inward, the do one complete fold and continue as she showed..all done on a flat surface. I have king sheets and her method will not give me as nice of a fold and end result as the way I've been folding.

Now if you are folding a twin or double size fitted sheet then I can see using this method.

holy moly this is great. i now feel incredibly silly for never thinking of this on my own. thank you jill!

OMG, she is amazing...i can't wait until I go home tonight to try this trick.

Because my mother was a not Martha Stewart nor did she spend a lot of time doing laundry, no one in my family learned how to fold a fitted sheet. This woman is awesome! Thank you for posting this! I'm going to make my boyfriend practice with me tonight when I go through the linen closet and actually fold all the fitted sheets instead of balling them up and throwing them in the back.

Awesome!! I never bother with folding fitted sheets (or any to be honest). I usually ball them up and put them in a matching pillow case...This would look a million times better!
Thanks!

Um, is it cheating to only have one set of good sheets that never need folding -- remove, launder, replace? (I actually have folded sheets this way forever, too, when I have extra sheets! And I do have emergency spares that are old...)

This reminds me of awizardly way to fold T-shirts that someone showed me once, and I guess I have forgotten. As I recall, you grab the shirt at two specific places, flip it around in a certain way without letting go, and it somehow comes out a nice flat rectangle. I think it's just as easy to fold in half and half again, but you do get a crease down the center this way.

Wow, her sheets come out of the dryer a lot less wrinkled than mine do.

I think the secret is in the triple fold. I am a long time devotee of the triple fold and here she used the rare and wonderful double triple fold.

You all DID notice her triple folds, yes?

Honestly, it's the little things in life that excite me, and this video is definitely one such thing. I could never figure out how my mother folded fitted sheets so impeccably; now I know.

Am I the only one who thought her "one of the biggest challenges in your life" comment was made tongue-in-cheek? She could not have genuinely meant it.

My sheets have full elastic, but this still works to a degree. I just have to fold them in farther to get the edges as linear and corners as sharp as possible.

@marcellah & anniekins - couldn't agree with you both more! Amen! Ignore the haters. If we had the time and inclination we would have figured it out too. :)

@lotusmoss - great idea! I had some other organizational scheme going on but this is much better. Thanks for sharing!

AWESOME! i have one on top of my closet waiting to be folded

Ok, am I the only one who watched the next video that came up afterward?? That Japanese t-shirt folding technique is the business! I've never seen this done before and I am SO looking forward to putting my t-shirts away now (they just came out of the dryer) OMG it's like magic! Oh, and I'm happy to report that my mom taught me to fold fitted sheets in this manner when I was a little girl. Thanx mom :)

My mom never folded the fitted sheets like this, but I always loved doing it, I figured it out after unpacking some new sheets many years ago. Even now, with elastic all around the edges as many people have pointed out it still works. I am always surprised when people come up to me in the laundry and ask me to show them how I do it.

Ty.M4change -- yes, that really is like magic!! Thanks for the heads up. The English version that comes up second takes the mystery out of it. I'm pretty excited now too!

genius! Thanks for sharing! I'm going to practice this ASAP

I think i have to show this video to my hubby. Poor man cannot fold a sheet. I tried teaching him to no avail. But I am so anal about my sheet folding, I do it so I can lay it on the bed, and unfold it as I change the sheets so I make sure it's even on all sides. That and I organize my closet by color and length of sleeve. LOL

Thanks to working countless summer jobs at local hotels, folding fitted sheets is a total breeze. About the only good that came out of those jobs. ;) I started out rough though, so for those who aren't getting the greatest results, trust me - you'll get better with practice. :)

Like a few others have mentioned, I also find folding corners 3 & 4 together and then matching them to 1 & 2 much easier.