Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Clean Sheet Day


There are very few days nearer and dearer to my heart than Clean Sheet Day.  It's not one specific day of the week, though maybe one day I will be organized (and clean) enough for that.  Every week and a half or so (is that too long? Is it gross that I'm admitting that?), I chase my crabby grey cat off the bed, wash our sheets, dry them, and remake the bed with great fanfare.  "Clean Sheet Day," I'll shout up the stairs to Jesse, "Cleeeeeeeean Sheet Day!".

Here are my tips for making Clean Sheet Day as lovely and cozy as possible.

1)  I use my homemade laundry soap with no dryer sheets.  Since I stopped using commercial detergents, I have gotten very sensitive to scented laundry products.  I like my sheets to feel crisp and clean but not to smell like potpourri.

2)  Though I troll Garnet Hill and West Elm for pretty sheets almost daily, I have a strict white-sheets-only rule in the master bedroom.  It feels peaceful, hotel-like to me to have only white bedding.  Also that way, if you need to replace part of your sheet set (as we did recently with the fitted sheet), you can just buy that a la carte instead of needing to track down part of a patterned set.

3)  No dogs on the bed!  Our dog free bed policy may be surprising to you, but you can thank Fred for that one.  Back when we lived in Seattle, we bought a new mattress and sleigh bed frame.  As soon as we left for work every day, Fred promptly jumped on the bed and peed on it.  Thank goodness for mattress protectors.  We wised up and started closing the door when we went to the office, but all dogs are banned from the bed thanks to Fred's actions.  Also, now that we live in the country, both of our dogs are constantly tracking dirt (and sometimes worse: ticks) into the house.  No, thank you.  Especially not on Clean Sheet Day.  As for our cats, one sleeps on the bed all day every day.  Maybe I should get her tested for kitty mono?

4) Every few washings, I will take out the vacuum and use the upholstery cleaner bit to get at any dust that has gathered on the mattress.

5) On nicer days in the winter, I'll hang our feather duvet out on the back porch to air it out.  In the summer, we use a light quilt, which I will pop in the wash occasionally.

So this is where it gets sort of intimate - how often do you have Clean Sheet Day?  What are your tips for a cozy bed?  Let us know and stay cozy homey.

6 comments:

  1. Ooooh, something about hanging the sheets out on a line make them look so much cleaner!

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  2. It ends up being about a week and a half for us too. Is that gross? Sorry! And our pug most def sleeps on the bed with us. I think I might need to switch over to more white sheets. I have a Marremiko set we got for out wedding that I love, but white sheets are so simple and classic, and you can jazz it up with patterns on the duvet cover or blanket. I recently started transitioning to white towels (Ralph Lauren Carlyle are the BEST) so it may be time for sheets too. :)

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    1. Ooh, I will have to check out those towels! Do you guys have laundry in your apartment? If not, I'm impressed with your changing schedule... when I had to take our laundry down four flights and across the street, I think we were maybe pushing every 2 weeks... gross!

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    2. The carlysle towels are great. I get them on sale at Macy's for 25 bucks each and they're way better than the Pottery Barn towels we had prior. We do NOT have laundry in the apartment, sadly. But when the sheets start feeling grimy (you know that itchy feeling?) I just strip them off the bed and throw them in the laundry bag, much to my husband's chagrin (he's the laundry doer in this family!) But man, does he appreciate the nice clean bed when I change the sheets. He will suck up the laundry duty later. :)

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  3. PS dog on TOP of the covers ONLY!

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