How To Fold A Fitted Sheet

• On the LONG side of the sheet, put one corner over each hand. The “down” side of the sheet should be facing away from you.

• Bring your hands together and fold one corner over the other, onto your non-dominant hand (if you’re right handed, this would be your left hand, and vice versa if you’re left handed). You should now have two corners stacked on your hand.

• Run your other hand down the sheet to the fold. You should have one layer of the folded sheet between index and middle finger, and another between middle and ring fingers. Get out any flipped or catty-whumpus edges and pull it tight.

• “But I still have these two corners just dangling there,” you say. We’re going to fix that. Switch the stacked corners to your dominant hand. Pick up the inside “dangling” corner and tuck it into the corners already stacked on your hand. You’re tucking it UNDERNEATH the other corners.

• Repeat with the final corner. You should now have all four corners stacked on your dominant hand. Basically, you’ve just folded the sheet into quarters with all the elastic corners tucked into each other.

• Run your hand down the edges to straighten them. You will need to switch which hand the stacked corners are on, to get both sets of selvage edges (those are the ones that don’t have the fold, for you non-sewers).

• Lay the sheet on a large, flat surface, such as your bed, or a CLEAN kitchen table or counter. The elastic corner will be a bit bulky, but don’t worry, we’re about to take care of it. You’ll need to fold over a bit of the selvage edges so the sheet makes a nice big rectangle or square (depending on the size of the sheet you started with).

• Fold over 1/3 of the sheet (or 1/2 if this is a twin).

• Fold over again (if needed).

• (THE PENULTIMATE FOLD) Smooth out the bulky corner with your hands, and fold 1/3.

• And again.

Ta da!

To store a sheet set together, fold the pillow cases and insert them into the fitted sheet before that final fold. Your flat sheet should be folded to the size of the penultimate fold and then folded AROUND the fitted sheet and pillowcases, hiding that open edge.

It’s a little unwieldy at first, but after a few times, it’s easy-peasy.

How did you do?