Joan Wilen and Lydia Wilen
Joan Wilen and Lydia Wilen are folk-remedy experts and home tipsters based in New York City. They have spent decades collecting “cures from the cupboard” and are authors of several books, including Secret Food Cures.
Fitted sheets spares the bed maker all manner of folding and tucking but have the drawback in few people knowing how to fold a fitted sheet.
Fitted sheets are the standard sheets found on the shelves of most home good stores. These include one under sheet with sewn corners and a stretchy elastic band that pulls it taut around the mattress. This spares the bed maker all manner of folding and tucking but has the drawback that few people know how to fold a fitted sheet.
The result is often one neatly folded sheet and one poofy wadded lump of a sheet. In this excerpt from Household Magic by Joan and Lydia Wilen the authors share a folding fitted sheet hack that makes putting your bedding away neatly much easier.
If you have warm, hardly wrinkled, fitted sheets that you want to put away neatly, we’re hoping this helps.
There are a few ways to fold fitted sheets, but none of them seem simple when you read the instructions. (If only this book came with a video!) The secret is to work with the sheet as you read the instructions and, sooner than later, you’ll figure it out…or discover an even better way of folding the fitted sheet (in which case, please let us know!). Here goes…
Begin with the sheet inside out, then spread it on a bed with the pocket-sides up. (Tall people can do the folding while holding the sheet up in front of them. We find it easier to work with the sheet while it’s on a flat surface.)
Place each hand in each of the top corner pockets. Bring your right hand to your left, and fold the corner pocket in your right hand over the one in your left hand. If you did it correctly, the corner on top will be right-side out. Keeping your left hand in place, use your right hand to reach down to the remaining two corner pockets and tuck the corners into each other. Next, fold these corner pockets over the first two that are in your left hand.
All four corner pockets should now be tucked inside one another and the sheet should be folded in quarters. (Bonus points if you got it right on the first try!)
Put the sheet on the bed again, and fold the pocketed side over the flat part of the sheet. Now you should be able to fold it neatly to the size you want it to be without any elastic corners jutting out.
For additional tips and other advice for you and your home, purchase Household Magic from Bottomlineinc.com.
