The only time I make my bed is when I change the sheets. That’s once a week, and I only make it then because my mother instilled it in me.
Not making it everyday saves time but more importantly airs everything out and deprives bacteria of moisture. That, makes it less stinky and lets my bedding last longer.
I sleep hot, it doesn’t matter what the ambient temperature is. Vermont in winter? Heating is off in my bedroom, and I have a leg out.
Edit: seems like this isn’t unpopular. It was a random thought that popped in my head. Everyone I have explained this to thinks it’s weird.
I understand the tidy thing, everything else in my bedroom is quite tidy, my life really, with the notable exception of my thought processes.
Counter argument: A tidy looking room makes me happier. Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time, ergo, making your bed is not wasted time.
If your house is the reflection of your mental state, then the other way around is also true.
I don’t think your home is a reflection of your mental state…
looks at home, it is trash
Oh. Maybe you’re right.
No, that is what having kids is like.
I understand the tidy looking bit, in the rest of my room you won’t find dust, cobwebs, or dirty clothes. I just never make my bed. Most people I know think that is weird. Partners are generally unimpressed (too lazy to make his bed).
I won’t try to change your mind, that would be hypocritical of me…you just have to find a partner who cares equally.
Or DOESN’T care equally.
I remember an ex got mad one time because I “never make the bed, but still get to enjoy it”.
I said “What? Why do you keep making the bed?”
She said “because it looks nice!”
Ok…
Care equally and doesn’t care equally is the same.
1 =1 and -1=-1 it’s still equal.
Ugh. Now we’re getting MATH involved? Alright, hold on…carry the 2…adjust for inflation…and done. 2+2=potato.
…wait a second.
When I got sober, the first thing my sponsor told me to do every day was to make my bed. 15 years later, I still make my bed and all else follows.
My tennis coach called it a ritual. Something you do to clear your mind right before an important thing. Sounds like AA helped make it your bed. And the important thing is your life 💜
Yes it did!
That is wild. Of the many things I don’t understand in life, this certainly is the newest one.
Congrats on sobriety!
It’s replacing one habit with another. That’s why you’ll never find a denser concentration of cigarette smokers and coffee drinkers than at an AA meeting.
Its apparently a good thing for people suffering from depression too. You get up and make the bed immediately. Not only does it discourage you from crawling back into it and laying there all day, but you started the day with 1 productive act. If you follow that with showering, brushing your teeth and getting dressed thats 4 productive things in a row first thing in the morning.
Maybe it is the ability to instantly have a sense of life structure where there isn’t one? Simplicity?
The only reason I make the bed every morning is because we have dogs that like to lay on it when we aren’t home and there is nothing worse when you are crawling in bed at night and finding dirt or sand all in it.
May my dirt and sand form a tidy pile upon the making of my bed
I feel this. I started to make my bed because my cat would lay on the sheets. Whatever, some cat hair. But then I would start to feel kitty litter in my bed at night as I rolled over. Made it faithfully every day after that!
When the pandemic hit, I went from never, ever working from home to being at home as close 100% of the time as you can get (we even had all our groceries delivered). It would have been very easy for me to just roll out of bed and turn on the computer in the morning, but I decided it was probably better for my mental health to continue getting up, showering, shaving, getting dressed (even if just in sweats or shorts), and making the bed. I was in that mode for almost two years before a partial return to on-site work.
I don’t think that’s necessary for everyone, but I do think it helped me keep a good mental state during a tough time. So I’d think this is broadly true: for some people there’s not much point and for others it’s an important mental health practice.
The only reason that ever convinced me was the opinion that it simply feels nicer to get into a made bed at the end of a long day.
Different strokes, I like to roll in. The worst for me is getting into a hotel room and needing a crane to get the sheets off my feet. First thing I do in hotel rooms is unmake the bed.
Hotel made beds, and setting the duvet and pillows square are 2 very different levels of being made, imho.
I have been going through a prolonged breakup and have been very depressed, so it has been hard to be motivated to do anything. Making my bed every morning is a task I set myself to accomplish and it makes me feel like I can set a task and complete it. It also has the double benefit of allowing me to end my day with something that looks nice and not as disheveled as I feel.
I do similar things, you will never find unwashed dishes, my towel is hung up, the fridge is clean. The bed doesn’t bother me at all because I see it as a positive thing.
Some people have trouble finding the motivation to do much of anything. Making your bed is the (alleged) cure.
It’s easy. It’s a nothing burger of a task. But, you do it first thing, and you start your day off having completed a task.
The thought is that completing just one simple task is going to predispose you to a day of doing something more consistently than starting your day off doing nothing.
I think I was overlooking that. Actually, I know I was.
For me it isn’t about not doing a task, it’s a task that is counterproductive (to me).
Yeah, same. I don’t do it. That’s just the logic behind it as a “good habit,” gets you in the habit of starting the day off with a W.
I don’t think this is an unpopular opinion. I make my bed as my bedroom can be seen from the living room; sometimes I leave the door open. Otherwise I don’t care.
Unsure about the bacterial concerns you have tho. Feels like a non-issue as long as your sheets are changed frequently.
I think some people make their beds as to them the room looks untidy if they don’t, its just preference. But it is definitely a boomer generation thing, my parents were the same.
Dust mites are a real concern for anyone with a slight allergy. Making your bed literally protects dust mites from deadly sunlight and allows them to retain moisture. I don’t want to protect my dust mites. Fuck dust mites.
If you’re soaking your sheets in sweat it’s probably a good idea to hang them instead of just leaving them there. They’ll dry and air out more effectively. This comes from someone who washes all their bedding weekly though, it’s kind of a must after switching to showering at night. If I go to bed clean I want to wake up clean, and going to bed clean in a clean bed has done wonders for my sleep.
Anybody else make the bed right before sleeping in it? I make my bed everyday, but only immediately before turning my lights off and going to sleep. My bed in unmade most of the time.
b…bu…bu…but…
that’s just wrinkled blankets and sheets with extra steps
Is this unpopular? I thought it was just common knowledge to not make a bed because of the moisture.
What?
When you sleep under covers, you sweat (and potentially leak other fluids) and immediately making your bed traps any moisture against the sheets. Leaving your covers pulled down lets your sheets air out a bit. Of course you can wash your sheets, but cleaning a mattress is much trickier.
If you have a mattress pad under your sheets, and you change your sheets regularly, it shouldn’t be an issue. If you don’t, then the mattress may end up smelling of mildew and fungus.
I’ll bet local weather plays a big factor in how fast that occurs, like how clothes washers that tend to get stinky a lot faster in hot and humid locations compared to cool and dry ones.
Of course you can wash your sheets, but cleaning a mattress is much trickier.
LPT: Get a couple hygiene sheets for below the regular bed sheet. I also use hygiene covers for my pillow because that barely fits into my washing machine. That way no body liquids or other potential spills make it through and it preserves them in the long run, especially the mattress.
I go back and forth using a pillow. If I do use one I hang it up everyday to air out.
Fwiw I do both.
First after I get out of the bed, especially if I was hot & sweating, I throw the sheets off (turned over to expose the part touching me to the air) and leave it that way. As you say, this “unmaking” is the important part for sanitary reasons.
Then after like an hour make the bed, b/c of how it makes me feel inside.
Obviously your schedule may impose constraints - e.g. if you have to leave quickly after waking then make the bed when you get home?
You do you! It does look nicer when it’s made though, and it makes the room feel cleaner. (IMO)
Making the bed keeps the pollen and other allergens away from where I put my face.
Put the comforter / duvet over your pillows?
I have always heard that you shouldn’t do your bed if you’re allergic?
I haven’t heard that. I was told to make the bed (and wash your face before bed and don’t sleep in the clothes you wore outside) from a pediatric allergist. It seems to be working, but it’s not like I’m running any double-blind studies at home.
Something about sunlight kills those beasts living in your bead.
Washing your hair in the evening works for pollen allergy too btw
One of my favorite things in life is getting into a nice made bed. If I was rich, I’d pay someone to put fresh sheets on my bed every day. My wife doesn’t give a shit either way. I wonder what the venn diagram looks like of people that don’t make their bed with the argument about moisture vs people that wear raw denim jeans.
My wife is a monster she fucks the sheets up every night and will just “make the bed” by straightening the duvet. I’m really anal about sheets but I sleep in boxers and she sleeps in sweats and a shirt. If I sleep alone making the bed is just folding the sheets and comforter back from me getting out of bed. Making the bed right takes almost as much effort as putting new bedding on after my wife sleeps in the bed.
I feel this in my soul. After picking out all the hair bands, at least one earbud, the TV remote, one sock, and a pillow from the bottom most part of the bed, I may as well just put on fresh sheets.
