Make Your Bed
I was told recently, “You’re the only person I know who makes their bed every day.”
“Making your bed is a step that’s quick and easy, yet makes a big difference. Everything looks neater. It’s easier to find your shoes. Your bedroom is a more peaceful environment. For most people, outer order contributes to inner calm.” Gretchen Rubin
The revelation surprised me! How can people exist and function and not make their bed every day?
I have to admit as a child I didn’t like to do it. I had a small room, one side of the bed was against the wall and made the task difficult. One day my mom told me, “You have such a small room, if you make the bed your room will be about 75% clean each day.”
Now I didn’t have the tidiest of rooms, and it’s not that I really wanted it to look messy. I did want a clean and tidy room. I had to admit, she was right, mostly the room looked clean if at least I made my bed.
I have to agree with this gal, “Because making my bed is one of the first things I do in the morning, I start the day feeling efficient, productive, and disciplined.”
That’s really not a bad way to start your day.
I wasn’t surprised when I gave my daughter the book Adulting: How to Become a Grown-up in 468 Easy(ish) Steps
Do it every morning, first thing when you get out of bed. You’re right there, anyway, and it takes 45 seconds, max. Then, repeat that action every day for the rest of your life seven days and see how it treats you.
When fully made, your bed should feature, at minimum:
- A fitted sheet;
- A topsheet, tucked in on three sides;
- A comforter, hopefully covered with a duvet, which is easy to launder and;
- Assorted pillows.
When you make your bed, you have as a nice, clean plane in your bedroom that you can then lay out clothes or whatever on. The whole room looks neater (fact: it’s impossible for a room to look clean with an unmade bed).
Then at night when you are tired, you’ll walk in and your bed will be made. When you slip beneath the sheets, it’s a pleasurable experience. Not like when all the sheets are bunched up and you get tangled in them and feel more like a strung-out junkie than the situation really warrants.
How about you? Am I the only one or do you make your bed each day?
