Dec 9, 2008
How to Fold a Fitted Sheet: A Video Tutorial
It wasn’t until I was about twenty-eight years old that my friend Shannon taught me how to fold a fitted sheet. I was over at her house when she was folding and I made a comment about how I hate folding fitted sheets. Mine always ended up looking like a balled-up mess.
She promptly passed on her sheet-folding wisdom, changing my experience forever. Now I look forward to the fitted sheets!
If I only I could figure out a trick for flat sheets. Aside from getting extendable arms, I’m not sure there’s really a solution.
Oh C’mon……who folds their sheets let alone a fitted sheet??? Dry it and slap it on the bed….the rest get rolled up in the closet.
This was the most valuable lesson I learned when I worked at a bed and breakfast in high school. I called it, “making paws”. :)
When I was a kid, I generally convinced one of my brothers to help me fold sheets. It was definitely faster with two people than one. We also treated it like a game- sometimes we would pretend flat sheets were flags.
Now my only sheet “trick” is using a pillow case to store the rest of the set so it stays together.
That is a very helpful tutorial. I always just ball up my fitted sheet because it is so frustrating trying to fold it neatly.
ps: You look super cute too!
thank you! My wife will be happy. She can just do it. I’ve tried watching her, but something just wasn’t clicking. I think this method is slightly different. My apologies to my wife if this is the exact same way she has showed me.
This is how I do my daughter’s cribsheets, but for the rest of us, I wash ‘em, dry ‘em and put ‘em right back on the bed…no folding necessary.
Thanks so much, Molly! I always dread folding things. I can’t wait to try it out.
Neat-ish! What a wonderful word!!!
Thanks for the fun tutorial…and the glimpse of darling Morrow at the end! Though I usually am of the “wash, dry and put right back on the bed” club, I am going to have to practice this today, just so I can say that I know how!
Neatish
That’s my method too, but I use fewer motions. At the point where your arms are spread (while you have your hands in each corner), just bring your sheet-covered hands together (palms together, like praying!) and then flip one wrist up, tossing one corner over the other. Also, the last part of the folding- after you’ve made a neat square- is much simpler and the sheet stays together more neatly if you work on a flat surface (the top of the dryer, a bed, the floor) . Easier- for me, anyway. :-)
I always knew there had to be a solution, but never knew what it was until now! I am going to have to get a sheet a watch the video step by step again!
Thank you Thank you! I knew 1/2 of the process, but it never seemed to work completely! But that’s because it was only 1/2 of the process =) Now I can’t WAIT to go home & try this out!
Thank you!! I’ve had some printed instructions I snagged from a Martha Stewart magazine, but they were never very clear. My sheets will be quite pleased from now on! ;)
Thanks for the lesson! I’m going to have to try it out tonight.
You are too cute!
My mother-in-law taught me a method of folding the fitted sheets, but really it still isn’t possible without two people. Your way looks so much better! Thanks for sharing.
Also, love the shot of Morrow!
I had no idea. no idea. you have opened my eyes.
and i loved the ending :)
shut up! now I need to go get my balled up sheet out of the closet and refold it.
You make it look so easy. I’m going to try it today, but I’ll bet that I won’t get it right even the first five times! Thanks for the video. I have always wondered how to fold a fitted sheet.
You are supposed to fold fitted sheets? I am not watching the video. Ignorance is bliss.
Corey
Surely people have company on occasion and have to fold “extra” sheets to keep in the closet? It seems impossible to me to completely avoid having to fold sheets once in a while…
Do you need the hoe-down music in the begining to make this work???? I send all my company to hotels…..much easier than folding the sheet.
Seriously . . . did you iron that sheet before you folded it . . . if you did . . . you’re killing me!!!!!!
Thanks for the tip!
Amen. This so simple. Yet such a huge help. These little things are the things that can frustrate us on a daily basis. Thanks for taking to time to help us with the little things!
so funny I was just telling my husband: “if only I knew how to neatly fold these fitted sheets” and now I know! I will now go try it!
Awesome! This is one of those great “secret” tricks that seem to have been lost when feminists banished housekeeping know-how as necessary life skills. Thank you!
too cute!
and, you have changed my life. i seriously never would have figured it out.
and, where did you grow up? i like your vowels. (that’s a weird thing to say, isn’t it?)
This is amazing! I literally taped a Martha Stewart episode once because she supposedly showed how to do this, but I watched it about 3 times and still messed it up, and ended up telling Martha to suck it (who hasn’t done that?). Your way was MUCH easier to understand.
I was ashamed to admit this, but now after 20 years I am just grateful to say that my husband was the one to show me this little trick! He also is the one who packs the family and any other chore that involves getting the most stuff in the smallest space. Just one more thing I love about my guy!
Oh. My. Goodness. I don’t have time to watch this right now, but I am so excited you put this on here. I have been wanting to learn this trick ever since I got married. All our fitted sheets are currently stuffed in a ball in our linen closet. I actually almost once bought a $40 Martha Stewart book because it advertised that it taught you how to fold a fitted sheet. This is like a Christmas present in the blogging world…thank you!
molly, you just changed my life forever. thank you!
Hi – I don’t think I have ever commented before, but I can’t resist a big thank you! This is one of those problems I naively didn’t realize there was a solution to! After some practice and (re-watching the video), my linen closet is going to be looking much better. =) Thanks!
I think my favorite part was the fun, banjo background music to the tutorial. Excellent choice.
It’s soooo funny, Molly. I was JUST folding a fitted sheet today (my method is kind of the opposite of yours — but it ends up the same) and I wondered if I’ve ever taught my kids how to fold them (I learned in my 20s or so — at a MOMS meeting). I actually had the thought cross my mind that now that some of them are away at college, they’ll probably learn it from a blog. And now you did the blog-instruction! Very good! I’ll be sending them YOUR link so YOU can nag them! I hope there aren’t lots more things they’ll have to learn from blogs instead of from us. No — I actually hope they’re learning however/wherever! Thanks.
Molly,
I do something similar to fold my sheets, but it was SO worth it to see you on this tutorial. You were too cute and did such a great job. I look forward to More types of tutorials in the future.
The best part was Morrow at the end!
~jane
oh molly, i feel like this post was specifically for me. are you sure you didn’t hear me say profanities as i balled up my fitted sheet the other day?
i’m looking forward to laundry day when i can have “folding my fitted sheets with molly” time. thank you, friend!
Very helpful and hilariously cute! And by hilariously cute, I mean the fact that Morrow is hanging out at the end. It’s sort of like he was just chillin’…watching you the whole time, with that big grin on his face :).
It’s like sheet oragami!!!
I am with the first commenter… LOL I am content to let mine look like a messy ball in my linen closet.
But how sweet of you to show us!!
That’s great. Now someone needs to make a video to show my kids that folded laundry is meant to put in drawers, not left out to be a cat bed.
Molly, you are so cute…I loved watching this, but I’m pretty sure I’m still going to ball my sheets up and throw them in the closet!
Yes! I saw this performed once on Oprah but could never remember how it all went. Thank you for the demonstration (and also for the cute, drooly Morrow bonus at the end)!
Instructions for folding sheet — excellent.
Cameo of Morrow — Priceless — should have been longer.
I am a new woman because of this video. I will no longer be embarrassed with the way my folded fitted sheets look in the closet again!
Great video! you did look adorable! way to take time out to enlighten others! My mom taught me how to fold sheets when I was young. It really does tidy up the linen closet. But she has a different twist you might like. put both hands in the in two paws the on a long side only right side of the fabric touching your hands and wrong side facing out. now bring them together at “praying hands” and fit inside of each other. do that to both ends like you did and then fit inside of eachother just how you did. eliminating the flipping in and out of your hand. Okay so now you have your squareish rectangle depending on the size of sheet you are folding. Fold it into thirds or half (depending how wide you want it to be on your shelf) (into halves for a queens size) the long way. Now you have a long strip like a skinny bookmark. At the elastic end start folding toward the other end. flip. flip. flip. three flips for a queen flat. almost looks like a folded bath towel.
Now for the flat. fold in half like a book. and get it down to that skinny book mark shape the same width as your fitted. now put the previously folded fitted sheet on top of one end of your flat book mark and flip flip flip. It makes a big folded package of sheets.
Now the last sneaky part is to fold both matching pillow cases separately and lay them inside the big package on the top layer. Wa La! now all the set is together inside there.
this probably makes NO sense! that’s why your video was awesome! good job!
Your story is nothing short of amazing. Thank you for giving us a glimpse of the life you live!
Also, I guess I am just lazy when it comes to folding fitted sheets because they look like a ball when I am done with them and I am okay with that haha!
-Shawnee
Hahaha this is GREAT! I usually just ball them up! Now I want to fold sheets!!!
Oh, I’m afraid that technique is lost on me, even with the good tutorial. I am fold-challenged! Everything gets rolled up and put inside one of the pillowcases from the set. Ta-da! :)
Sweet! I will have to try this. I always end up with a ball of sheet in my closet and it looks messy. Hopefully I can master this new trick! Thanks for sharing!
I have you beat! I am 35 years old and I just learned that trick a few months ago :)
Oh, and one has to be careful when reading comment #37. I thought it said something else at first!
I was so amazed that I posted the video on facebook!
Thank you, thank you, thank you! Now I need to get about four balled-up sheets out of my drawer…
I am a single guy and that really helps (and I am 30 now and I wish I learned it way earlier!). Thanks!
When I watched Martha Stewart do it last year, it truly changed my life. I know you know exactly what I’m talking about!
amazing. helpful. and adorable :)
This will make my linen closet look so much nicer!! Thanks!
By the way, I posted pictures of my paper snowflakes on my blog…I decorated my hospital room with them! Thanks for all the ideas!
Thanks Molly! This is so wonderful. I was just folding (or rolling into a ball) a fitted sheet the other day and thinking…”there has to be a better way to do this”…and here it is! This will revolutionize my sheet folding. I’ll have to watch this video everytime I do it…but I will have pretty sheets! :)
I totally failed on a crib sheet. (I’m not even TRYING a king size…) I guess I’ll have to keep watching it a few more times.
Just used your tutorial to fold a beautiful fitted sheet! I’ve never seen it look so nice and neat (usually a big ball). Thanks!
Thank you! I tried to read Martha Stewart’s directions awhile ago but they didn’t make sense. My flat & fitted even ended up the same size – the linen shelf will never be the same! :o)
I love the soundtrack and the endorsement by baby Morrow:)
I guess I do 2 blogs now.
I think that time spent folding sheets can be better spent posting to blogs.
You are hilarious ; ) I’ve been to one house that had nicely folded fitted sheets. I could not figure out where their fitted sheets where….kept looking and looking until I realized they were folded just as nicely as the flat sheet. I was amazed! ; ) This would take me some practice, I think! ; )
NICE.
You know I tried to learn this method from Martha Stewart…no dice.
Quite frankly I’m just to darn lazy to learn this fine art, and thus my sheets continue to get rolled up in a funky ball and shoved in the closet…they aren’t that wrinkled once they get stretched out on the bed :)
I just tried it on my son’s sheet!!! It worked perfect! Thank you for the tip. I pulled up your blog to watch and do it with you! I will never have a wrinkled up fitted sheet mess again!
Don’t worry. I was 28 too, and I was shown by a 14 year old girl that was serving me by helping with the laundry I was backed up on (a whole other story). Talk about a humbling experience.
I worked for two summers in a luxury hotel, so I learned early on. The way we learned was even easier than the way you are doing it. It is like a few others said here – instead of switching your hand around from one side to another and tucking inside, you put your left hand in and fold your right hand corner over on top.
But then, it gets even easier. Instead of trying with one hand to get the other corners together, folded, and tucked in, do this – Switch your hands – in other words, put your left hand in your two folded together corners, and take your right hand out. Now you have two nice corners and two loose ones. Then, run your hand along the side of the sheep which is farther out from yourself, and put it in JUST ONE loose corner. Bring that up, and fold it over on your right hand. then do the same with the other loose corner. Then shake the wrinkles out of the sheet, lay it down on a flat surface, and fold the thing in half and then in thirds. Nice, neat package.
It just saves the one handed trying. It means putting the corners on the “folded hand” one at a time, which is really easier. I know. I had to fold over twenty a day, and without a wrinkle!
Oh no! I thought I fixed that – SHEET, not SHEEP!! Leave the sheep alone, they stink.
I had a similar revelatory experience via my husband when we first got married. One of the many brilliant things he brought to our marriage. I may be OCD when it comes to “everything in it’s place” but I always feel a sense of accomplishment when I fold my sheets now.
Oh my goodness, the fitted sheet! THank you Martha, I mean Molly, what a huge help! I’ve always had trouble folding this one and usually just ball it up. This is fantastic.
I am going to have to try that out! I work one night a week at a salon and our poor masseuse gets her fitted sheets folded back so poorly, I just stuff them in her cupboard out of embarrassment that I can’t figure it out! So thank you for the tips! :-)
Unbelievable! Thanks you!
This is also how I fold my fitted sheets, except when she gets it to the rectangle, I fold it into 3rds and ROLL it up. When you store it with the flat sheet, you can easily identify which sheet is which.
I found a great product called Fit and Fold that lets me fold my fitted sheets in seconds I couldn’t believe it…check this video out so you can see what I mean
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNxoQZ-9sDc
I saw this on your husband’s blog “22 Words”. I watched it twice and then tried to fold a fitted sheet – Success! My wife says I can fold all of the fitted sheets from now on. I don’t mind because now I know how. Thanks for making the video!