Professional home organizers are happy to say that the simple act of making your bed every day can go a long way in keeping your space tidy. And damn, they’re right. Even if you still have half the floor covered in dirty laundry, a neatly made bed can change the look of a room in just minutes – although, yes, you should still consider doing laundry at some point.
How to make a bed in 7 steps
To build the habit of making your bed every day, it helps to start with a properly made bed. Here, Katie Dills, brand president of The Cleaning Authority, explains her bed-making process, including how to wrangle fitted sheets without giving up.
How to put pillows on the bed
Is there such a thing as too many bed pillows? Not if you arrange them correctly. Here’s how to do it like a pro.
Feel free to experiment with the arrangement of decorative pillows in front of standard pillows. And remember: Karate chopping pillows is a personal preference, not a requirement.
An alternative way of laying flat sheets on the bed
Not everyone is a fan of the hospital corner method, aptly named because that’s how beds are made in hospitals. This includes my husband, who complains that the fitted sheets “suffocate his feet”.
Well, I happen to be in team hospitals a lot. That’s how my mom taught me how to make my bed and old habits die hard. But to make my husband happy, I tried laying the sheet over the bed and just adding the comforter without any tucking. Aside from feeling just plain wrong, the sheet never stayed put. Every morning, one of us had to make the entire bed.
So I came up with a solution that works for us: I tuck the bottom of the sheet in and make hospital corners on my half of the bed. I let his half of the bed “fall out” as I call it, which makes him and his legs happy. To make the bed the next day, all one of us has to do—yes, we compromise on this task—is smooth the bottom of his side of the bed, which only takes a few seconds because my side is still nicely tucked in.
Not a fan of hospital corners either? No problem. Dills says they’re optional—especially if you like the more relaxed look of your made-to-order bed.
“The key is to set up the bed in a way that’s comfortable and visually pleasing,” says Dills. “However, if you like a clean look and prefer to be snug in bed at night, then hospital corners are an easy decision.”