Make the Bed

Well, it has been asked - do you really know how to make a bed? Were you ever shown how to do it all properly as you would see in a hotel, hospital or military barracks? No?? Then let me show you how...

First, you need to strip the bed. In this case, it is the middle of winter in the chilly ACT so I am leaving on the under-blanket! Oh, and if it has been a while since you last flipped you mattress then now is the time to do it! Now I will show you how to put on a flat base sheet, just in case, but I know that most of us cheat these days with fitted sheets!

Fitting a Flat Base Sheet

Okay, when fitting a flat sheet on the base of your bed the last thing you want to have happen is wake up to find our your head and torso are lying on a scratchy old mattress. So that is why most of a base sheet goes to the head of a bed. To achieve this you place the sheet, seams down, with end of the sheet exactly aligned with the end of the mattress' top surface. The photo of this may be a little deceiving because of the under-blanket but hopefully you will see what I mean. Ensuring now that the overhang is even on both sides of the bed straighten the sheet and tuck in all the overhang at the head of the bed. Now that was easy!

Hospital Corners

Okay, so you should now have ends that look a little like what you see above which is the starting point for hospital corners. What you now want to do is lift up the loose sheeting and spread it over the top of the bed with a 45° angle as is pictured. You will see that this leaves a portion of sheeting that sits below the bottom of the mattress. This portion is what you want to tuck in next. After that, you can then drop the rest of the sheeting back down and tuck in the rest of that side. Of course, you repeat this for the other side of the mattress also. If you look from the end of the bed where you did the hospital corner you should see a nice straight lined tuck. You have now should have a beautiful base sheet fitted to the bed.

Fitting a Flat Top Sheet

Fitting a flat top sheet is very similar to the base sheet with just a coulpe of extra steps and changes. Firstly, with a top sheet you don't want your toes getting cold so a top sheet has its overhang at the foot of the bed. To do this we place the sheet on the bed, seams up this time, as you don't want them against your skin, and align the top of the sheet with the end of the matress' top surface making sure the overhang is even on both sides. Now you can tuck in the overhang at the foot of the bed.

30cm Rule

This is where I introduce you to the 30cm rule - this was a thing I was taught to do by sight when doing my stint with Defence. The simple premise is that you want to make it as easy as possible to get into bed and this is achieved by pulling the top edge of the sheet by 30cm. If you use blankets then you may want to put them down first so that the sheet folds down over their edges. In this case, I am using a doona which you can choose to put under or over the fold as suits you best. As I am putting the doona over the top I then need to jump to the bottom and do the hospital corners as described above and then tuck in the sides leaving two perfectly flat sheets on the bed.

The Personal Touches

Now is when we have all those personal touches to add. Doonas, coverlets, quilts, comforters and, of course my favourite, pillows!! These are the things that make our beds our own so make sure you add what looks and feels right for you. Personally, I love to make the beds I sleep in or offer to guests look like they are from a resort. I love for them to look and be comfortable enabling whomever is using it to relax and be able to be themselves. Now that's how you make a bed!!