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Sorcery

Wizardry 101: How to fold a fitted sheet flat!

/January 20, 2020/ Comments Off

Want to impress your friends with a cool party trick?  Some sleight of hand perhaps?  Something that leaves them both perplexed and looking for more? 

This is not the trick for you.

Folding a fitted sheet is legitimate magic.  Only a select few of us have been apprenticed in the art of “neat folding,” and we were sworn to secrecy at a young age.  You don’t know how many rules of the magical community I’m breaking by telling you this, but this is the big one you guys.  Being able to fold a fitted sheet flat is pure wizardry.  Use your newly gained power wisely.

Step 1:  Find an appropriate folding surface.  This needs to be large enough for your sheet and relatively flat. 

“But I don’t have one of those,” you complain.

Ah, but you do, my friend.  Think of how large your sheet is, then remember where your sheet came from.  Your bed is the same size as the sheet and is flat.  It shall serve as your folding surface.

Step 2:  Lay your sheet out on the bed, open side up.  Basically, lay it down with the side that usually faces up (that you sleep on) against the bed.  Make sure the sheet has as few wrinkles as possible, and that the sides are all folded inwards, like so:

Please forgive the overall beige-ness of both my sheets and the sheet on my bed. Like many people, my sheets are light colored for ease of washing, but that’s another post.

Step 3:  Fold the bottom short end up to the top short end.

Step 4:  This step is the truly magical step.  As you are folding the two short ends together, invert the sides of the bottom half so that they are still turned out when they are at the top.

Now tuck the bottom end of the sheet into the top end and adjust the sides so that they are nestled together and are folded in toward the center of the sheet, completely flat.

Note that this sheet is one of those special ones that has added elastic to make sure it stays in place. Such elastic is annoying to fold, but quite effective in keeping the sheet on one’s bed.

Step 5:  You may now fold the sheet in half, and then in half again.  If you have a larger sheet, as I do, you may fold it into thirds to create a smaller package.  When you have just enough sheet area left to fold one more time, fold the sheet into thirds, creating a neat little package.

In half lengthwise, keeping the sharper corners from the bottom folded edge on the outside.

In half again, short ends together.

In half lengthwise again.

The final fold, in thirds.  This is as flat as your sheet will get, so if the whole thing is still several inches tall, don’t worry too much about it.

So there you have it my friends!  How to fold a fitted sheet flat.  Your friends may not be super impressed (and they may continue to throw their crumpled balls of sheets into their linen closets), but your mother likely will be.