The fitted sheet is a worthy adversary, but it can be overcome by training and strict discipline. Find the inside of any one corner of the sheet, and place it on any one corner of the mattress. Then, still holding the sheet edge, go off in either direction. There are only three possibilities: (1) Good fit! Corner of sheet and corner of mattress arrive together. (2) The corner of the sheet arrives, but not the corner of the mattress. (3) The corner of the mattress arrives, but you still have leftover sheet.
In case (1) really, it's all over but the shouting. In either case (2) or case (3) move your original sheet corner to an adjacent--NOT DIAGONAL--mattress cover from your first pick. Then go back off in either direction. This time it should work, and the fitted sheet will acknowledge defeat.
Hey! Eleven years Air Guard, Fourteen regular Army and a widower living alone for 30+ years now. Give me a bed accessible from two long sides, and I can still produce hospital corners. But you can't show fear: let the sheet know you're in charge.
Oh hospital corners. I liked them. I learned how to do them when staying in hospital a few times. Mostly I was mobile then and used to help the nurses make my bed so I learned how to do it. But it’s no good for kid’s beds, they just wriggle around, pull your carefully folded hospital corners out and end up lying in a tangle of sheet trapping both arms and legs. And then I had to do it all again. My boys are old enough that fitted sheets were rare things when they were small.
Putting them on the bed is OK. Folding them up to put them away is impossible. Mine are in the under bed storage. Roll into a ball - lift bed up - throw ball in - push bed down and no one knows.
If you keep the same hours as Karin, I hope shouting, 'Fire trucking sheet, sheet, sheet' (pun intended) did not wake the neighbours. My suggestion is to give in gracefully and just wrap the sheet around you and jump into bed (instead of next week).
I manage them by running my hands round the edge until I get to a corner, grab hold of that in a fist of iron then keep going until I get to the next corner, then spread out hands to see how long it is between the two and guess whether it’s the long or the short side. Easy on single beds but doubles? King size? And just try super kings! I had to do those when working, I still do the odd bed change there now and guess what? The thoughtful manufacturers of some of them have put a label on which says ‘short side’. What a blessing, the person who thought of that deserves to become a millionaire.
But how will I ever manage now my grandson is sleeping in his very high bed at last? I can’t even reach the top, let alone over the side bars to touch the mattress. I think I’ll have to get the grown up son to lift the mattress down and put it back up again. It’s very lightweight. And Luka will have to organise the rest of the bedclothes when he’s up there. He’s old enough now at nearly 6.
My fitted sheets have seams at the corners. I pick it up by 2 adjacent corner seams and stretch my arms out. If it is reasonably taut between the two, I have a top end. If it sags a lot, I have a side and have to change the corners. This is for a double bed, it might not be so good on a kingsize.
OK - I have the beginnings of a plan. Find two short corners - you know what I mean. Find the other two short corners and put those inside the first two. Assuming I'm not actually inside the sheet at this stage - and depending on what sort of shape that makes - I shall ... proceed accordingly. Can someone check in at some stage to make sure I haven't been enveloped and am actually in another dimension, please.
I recall being entranced by a video where a shirtless and very ripped young man FOLDED A FITTED BEDSHEET INTO A NEAT SQUARE! With everything tucked in.
The magic that young man performed with his hands!
When I’m making the bed, my cat skids over the fitted sheet to smooth it down and then deals with any further resistance by pouncing on the invisible monsters lurking on each corner.
I bet Vortigern does that for Mrs Mack. Or does she prefer hospital corners?
Yep, then folding it again and put all four corners inside each other. How flat it can then go depends on how tight the elastic is. I can’t win with the new really tight ones, I can’t make them go even remotely flat, but they don’t move after you’ve forced them onto the mattress. And you need a crane to get them off again. Does anyone else know how to flatten those hugely gathered sheets to put in the airing cupboard?
The fitted sheet is a worthy adversary, but it can be overcome by training and strict discipline. Find the inside of any one corner of the sheet, and place it on any one corner of the mattress. Then, still holding the sheet edge, go off in either direction. There are only three possibilities: (1) Good fit! Corner of sheet and corner of mattress arrive together. (2) The corner of the sheet arrives, but not the corner of the mattress. (3) The corner of the mattress arrives, but you still have leftover sheet.
In case (1) really, it's all over but the shouting. In either case (2) or case (3) move your original sheet corner to an adjacent--NOT DIAGONAL--mattress cover from your first pick. Then go back off in either direction. This time it should work, and the fitted sheet will acknowledge defeat.
Hey! Eleven years Air Guard, Fourteen regular Army and a widower living alone for 30+ years now. Give me a bed accessible from two long sides, and I can still produce hospital corners. But you can't show fear: let the sheet know you're in charge.
Oh hospital corners. I liked them. I learned how to do them when staying in hospital a few times. Mostly I was mobile then and used to help the nurses make my bed so I learned how to do it. But it’s no good for kid’s beds, they just wriggle around, pull your carefully folded hospital corners out and end up lying in a tangle of sheet trapping both arms and legs. And then I had to do it all again. My boys are old enough that fitted sheets were rare things when they were small.
Putting them on the bed is OK. Folding them up to put them away is impossible. Mine are in the under bed storage. Roll into a ball - lift bed up - throw ball in - push bed down and no one knows.
If you keep the same hours as Karin, I hope shouting, 'Fire trucking sheet, sheet, sheet' (pun intended) did not wake the neighbours. My suggestion is to give in gracefully and just wrap the sheet around you and jump into bed (instead of next week).
I manage them by running my hands round the edge until I get to a corner, grab hold of that in a fist of iron then keep going until I get to the next corner, then spread out hands to see how long it is between the two and guess whether it’s the long or the short side. Easy on single beds but doubles? King size? And just try super kings! I had to do those when working, I still do the odd bed change there now and guess what? The thoughtful manufacturers of some of them have put a label on which says ‘short side’. What a blessing, the person who thought of that deserves to become a millionaire.
But how will I ever manage now my grandson is sleeping in his very high bed at last? I can’t even reach the top, let alone over the side bars to touch the mattress. I think I’ll have to get the grown up son to lift the mattress down and put it back up again. It’s very lightweight. And Luka will have to organise the rest of the bedclothes when he’s up there. He’s old enough now at nearly 6.
My fitted sheets have seams at the corners. I pick it up by 2 adjacent corner seams and stretch my arms out. If it is reasonably taut between the two, I have a top end. If it sags a lot, I have a side and have to change the corners. This is for a double bed, it might not be so good on a kingsize.
OK - I have the beginnings of a plan. Find two short corners - you know what I mean. Find the other two short corners and put those inside the first two. Assuming I'm not actually inside the sheet at this stage - and depending on what sort of shape that makes - I shall ... proceed accordingly. Can someone check in at some stage to make sure I haven't been enveloped and am actually in another dimension, please.
I recall being entranced by a video where a shirtless and very ripped young man FOLDED A FITTED BEDSHEET INTO A NEAT SQUARE! With everything tucked in.
The magic that young man performed with his hands!
How? How did he manage it? Or did you not actually pay much attention to the sheet?
The answer is a cat.
When I’m making the bed, my cat skids over the fitted sheet to smooth it down and then deals with any further resistance by pouncing on the invisible monsters lurking on each corner.
I bet Vortigern does that for Mrs Mack. Or does she prefer hospital corners?
Oprah agrees with you
I can sometimes manage a fitted sheet, but duvet covers? Argh!
I think he started by putting the corners of one end in the corners of the other end.
Yep, then folding it again and put all four corners inside each other. How flat it can then go depends on how tight the elastic is. I can’t win with the new really tight ones, I can’t make them go even remotely flat, but they don’t move after you’ve forced them onto the mattress. And you need a crane to get them off again. Does anyone else know how to flatten those hugely gathered sheets to put in the airing cupboard?