When you live in a 400-square-foot apartment, the bed occupies a serious amount of square footage, and an unmade bed can make everything feel like a disaster. I can't deal with it, but I also tend to be rather messy, so I needed a trick to make sure the bed gets made every single day. I make it before I even get out of bed.
There's a good chance you're going to laugh, or question my I.Q., but I've been doing this for years. While I'm still warm and cozy in bed, I grab the top edge of the comforter and top sheet and shake and fluff them out until they're straightened. This is also very, very fun, like being in one of those parachutes we had in preschool. When the bedding is perfectly arranged with the top hem of the sheet folded neatly over the comforter, I slide out the top. Then I fluff up the pillows, and voilá! Perfectly made bed in seconds, with most of those seconds being spent in bed. My system is a bit tougher when there are more blankets involved, but it still works, as I found when I lived in colder climates.
Do you have any bed-making secrets, and more importantly, do you have any secret housekeeping methods that nobody else knows about? I'm pretty sure that no one has ever seen me use this particular maneuver, so you guys are the first to know. But it works!
Further Motivation to Make Your Bed:
• Make Your Bed! For Productivity, Profit, and Peace
(Image: Bedroom from Dan'l's Caretaker's Apartment - Small Cool 2012)
Dirty Little Secrets of Tidy Families
Hillary & Michael's Refined Roost
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Sprout Side Table
Kitchen Before & After: A Cookbook Author Transforms His 1950s Kitchen
Recipe: Ham, Cheddar & Chive Egg Bakes
Hm... I might have to try this as I'm making more of an effort to make my bed. This AT post inspired me:
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/make-your-bed-it-just-might-make-you-productive-profitable-and-peaceful-173046.
i do just the top comforter! LOL
I've actually done this myself but only can do it the first couple of days after I change the sheet...after a few days it's kind of impossible because everything gets stretched out too much and not tucked as tight as originally done when changing the sheets.
I do that too! I straighten everything out, fold back one corner to slide out and then pull it back and straighten out the pillows. Only really works when I sleep alone. BF tends to mess up the sheets more and requires a full bed making.
I totally do this every morning...except I slide out the side instead of the top.
Super cute post...I hate making the bed but AT has inspired me to make it a good practice, and this might be the ultimate incentive!
Great idea!
I find it easier if you just do it when you first hop out of bed in the morning. I have a duvet, 3 euro, 2 regular, and 1 decorative pillow. It takes about 2 minutes to do. I love the look of a nicely made bed, even though I don't use any of those pillows for sleeping!
In the past 5 years, I have only left the house once with an un-made bed, and it was to go to the hospital!
Good idea! I hate making my bed, but after numerous AT posts about the merits of a neatly made bed, I timed myself. Top sheet, blanket, spread (yeah, I'm old school), 4 (yes 4!) shams, took me 2 1/2 minutes. I have no excuse now.
I can't relate. I've always made my bed every day since I was little. But then I'm a little bit compulsive.
I used to use your method when single. It was fun .
Now my husband makes the bed as soon as we are up, he also buys all of the linens, and changes the sheets 3 - 5 x weekly -- I can't complain about a neatly made fresh clean bed -- on those very rare occasions he's running late and doesn't make the bed I do it, just because it looks so nice.
Studiostarter-- thanks for that link !
Okay, you are adorable!
I do this all the time. Girlfriend laughed so hard at me the first time she saw me doing it. Great little article.
I am also a bit compulsive when it comes to making my bed. Getting out of the bed, is the only way that I can be fully awake before hopping into the shower. My routine has always been, slide out of the bed, tug the sheet nice and neat, then lay the comfortable on top of it.. fold up the blankets and place them at foot of the bed, then I start piling up all the pillows.. yeah 4 regular pillows, one body pillow and 3 little decorative pillows..
wow, I get tired just by typing this.. haha. I felt like my day wouldn't start out right if my-making-bed routine wasn't completed. weird, eh!
I do that too, every morning
*comforter, not comfortable.. although they are comfortable..
I was taught that you are supposed to let the linens breathe for a while before you make your bed - as in flip them to expose as much of the fitted sheet/mattress as possible (I don't use a flat sheet, so nothing is tucked in). Not sure how true any of that is but for that reason I can't make my bed while the sheets are still warm.
Most of the time, they end up staying in that position, but it still looks neat so I'm fine with it.
So, when do you all air out your bed??!! You've sweat at night and it's all in your linens and pillows!
Can you please tell us where you got the brass spider lamp? I've been looking for one like it for quite some time!
I do that too!! But I sleep with 2 pillows on each side of me and leave them there for my next sleep unless I'm expecting visitors. Then I pile the 6 pillows at the top of the bed to make the bed look more conventional through the open door.
I have to leave the door open because the cats need to go hide under the bed when people are visiting.
Silly things
Living in less than 500 sq feet - I understand how making the bed can make a world of difference...if only i could teach my dogs to dust while i am at work....
I try to make my bed every day, but I have a hang-up on letting it air out first. In fact, sometimes I let it air out for a good 12 hours... ; )
This post made me smile remembering the brightly colored parachutes from gym class in elementary school. Tomorrow I'm going to make my bed this way. (I make it by "traditional" means every morning)
Hmmm, maybe the parachute trick (ahhh, grade school field day!) would inspire me enough to actually make my bed.
I'm a neat freak but I rarely make my bed. Only when I'm having company!
I do this. It's easy when you only have a duvet! Tuck in the corner that's nearest to the... corner, hop out, straighten out the end, straighten out the side I get in, straighten up the pillows. Takes, what, thirty seconds?
I'm all for making the bed, but I have to let the sheets/blankets air out before I make it in the morning. People sweat at night and that moisture gets trapped under the sheets otherwise and can seep into the mattress. I let everything air out while I'm doing my morning ablutions and make it right before leaving home.
I believe this requires a video. :-)
I need a way to make the bed with my sleeping husband still in it! It makes me sad that I can't make my bed every morning.
After years of making the bed each morning when I lived alone, I started living with my fiance and I don't know what he does but he literally tied the sheets in knots.
So we modified our bedding and now use several duvet covers on our conforter and a fitted sheet, with no top sheet. A simple fluff of the comforter makes the bed, and no more twisted sheets. In the winter, we throw a wool blanket on top of the comforter for extra warmth.
Three years in and this system is working perfectly for us. I can even get him to make the bed (most days!). Rotating the duvet covers lets us wash them with the laundry, and our eco impact is less washing one well sheet with each rotation.
*one LESS sheet with each wash. Pardon the typo!
in college i would make my bed to where the bottom part of the bed sheets and comforter were tightly tucked in. when i got out i would pull the sheet and comforter up taunt and voila, the bed was quickly made. for college dorms, that was neat.
now, i will take the time to make the bed properly, maybe not right away but always before bed that evening, sometimes right before bed.
My mother did this for years, However, she also said the quickest way to clean your bedroom when company was on the way was to SHUT the bedroom DOOR!
This is a great idea that I will have to try. I am particular about keeping a tidy nest, however, the bed is always a mess. Even when I attempt to straighten it out and fluff up the pillows my dynamic duo always gravitate to my bed and annihilate it again, I always surrender to it and make peace with the rest of the place.
no top sheet - just a duvet cover which gets changed regularly along with the fitted bottom sheet & pillowcases. Making the bed takes seconds. When it is really hot, I sleep on top of the duvet with a thin cotton blanket as cover - just a quick smooth out, pillow fluff, and folding the blanket in the morning.
I never make the bed, but agree with @Cynthia Myers about closing doors on messy rooms. Out of sight, out of mind. In the kitchen, I would recommend having the biggest, deepest sink that space allows, so you can leave dirty dishes in there to soak, out of sight.
@HHRI, I agree. Folding back the top sheet and/or duvet and airing out before making is really important to keep bed linens drier and cleaner. It's the last thing I do before I leave for work, so that gives it a good hour to aerate. Two "musts" for my little nest are a made bed and no dishes in the sink!
Sounds like someone's been reading her flylady. Yay you!
I love this method, but since my daily bedmaking involves evicting as many as four chihuahuas, I'll probably have to stick to the old-fashioned way.
I thought I was the only one who liked to make the bed! My boyfriend can't make a bed to save his life, and all we have is a comforter and a bunch of standard pillows. I mean, come on!
This would not work for me. :( I toss and turn so much in bed that the fitted sheet tends to come off in the middle of the night. Ha ha. Truth be told - I only make my bed when company is coming. :)