Towels and Bed Linen

[debk]

LHM loves linens!

Like Enid, and others, we like white linens. My husband is adamant about this and he's not much given to decoration. He says white says 'clean.'

1. Towels: We use white bath towels, purchased from TEXTURA in Spain. 3 years of heavy use, as fluffy and white as ever. We use top quality detergents and don't have greying problems. (or maybe it's the water?) For stains, bleach mixture.

2. Sheets: We have twin, queen and double beds. Each has a slightly different color (queen is off-white, double is white, twins are white-on-white stripe) so you can easily tell which is which. Another nice thing about white is that you can treat the heck out of stains. We usually toss ours because they begin to look a tad tired, rather than because of permanent stains. For us, pillowcases wear the most, so we've learned to buy extras to extend the life of the set.

3. Color coordination: Gone back/forth on this one. One house has different duvets specifically for each bedroom. (Different colors for each bedsize has helped avoid confusion when making beds.) Another house uses the same cream duvets on both beds. I like the variety in the first house and the ease of prep for the second.

4. Washing: We wash all linens (sheets, duvet covers, pillowcases) after each guest.

5. Ironing/Folding: You CAN iron/fold fitted sheets. My mother showed me how! Next to pillowcases, they are the fastest of all to iron/fold.

Speaking of folding, has anyone seen this video?
http://www.howtofoldashirt.net/

debk

[Bellywobble]

Love the video! Couldn't quite tell what she did with the hand that went underneath, but I'm going to try this out.

[Normandy Cow]

You CAN iron/fold fitted sheets. My mother showed me how! Next to pillowcases, they are the fastest of all to iron/fold.

Deb - I have MAJOR problems ironing/folding fitted sheets. Any chance that you could produce an instruction video on this subject?!!!! (Preferably in English!)

[Hells Bells]

Definitely some help required here too.

[Ciapolin]

I'm sorry I just can't believe it! Ironing and folding fitted sheets - it sounds like the holy grail!

[Hells Bells]

Carol-ann it's impossibles, isn't it?............

[LaLuz]

My cleaner irons fitted sheets beautifully, but I am so hopeless that when I'm over and doing my own mid-stay linen change, I wash the sheets first thing in the morning, dry them and put them back on the beds so that she doesn't see how bad I really am!!

[debk]

My husband found that shirt folding video and it's been scary ever since. He folds all his shirts like that. Perhaps it's some kind of misplaced culture shock? He even wrote about it in his blog.

Date: Sun Sep 26 16:42:23 2004
I wonder if other people observe their own descent into senility as clearly as I am seeing mine. I watch myself getting weirder, my behavior becoming crazier and more exaggerated all the time. For example, earlier this year Deb and I were shopping for clothes when I saw an employee fold a shirt. You know the way they do it, the shirt's arms folded neatly behind, collar front and center, chest out. Until that moment I had always thought folding shirts that way was the exclusive purview of clothing professionals, beyond the ken of ordinary shoppers like me. But it struck me that like so many other things in life, with practice, I could learn even this. Then the shelves bearing my shirts at home would be like the store, with the shirts looking smart and crisp. Sure enough, when I got home, I found I could make a passable job of it. At first I did it because it made choosing a shirt seem just a little special, almost as if I were choosing the shirts for the first time. But now I've come to understand what the clothing stores must have understood all along: shirt body language. When the shirts are arrayed on the shelf, folded at attention, looking straight at you, rather than furtively out of the corner of a collar button, they convey an earnestness and frankness that are compelling. They are like eager young recruits poised for action, anxious for you to give them a try. The good news in this, I suppose, along with the possibility of my moonlighting in retail, is that as I get older and my shirts more fully develop personalities of their own, I won't need to worry about being lonely.

Yes, this has been going on for two years. Any advice? Maybe his making a fitted-sheet folding & ironing video would be therapeutic... hmmm...

Worried wife,
debk

[Nightowl]

my mum taught me to fold shirts when I was about 8 or so - we all had to help with household chores etc from an early age and we moved on to ironing at about 11 or 12...

Probably explains why I have such an aversion to all forms of cleaning, ironing, housework etc...

I usually hang all our ironing up but the other day, having run out of hangers, I found myself renewing the age old art of shirt folding. Didn't come out too bad either. How spooky that a day or so later it appears on a LYH thread....

[Ciapolin]

Intrigued by the claim that fitted sheets can indeed be folded, I have been searching the net and found this:

http://www.marthastewart.com/page.jhtml ... nnel172128

Martha Stewart says it can be done - there's also a handy section on how to organise your linen cupboard!

I'm off to have a go!

[enid]

Cool - I'll have a go next time I'm in the laundry room. Thanks

[debk]

I read Martha's site and that's pretty much the way we do it.

A video would be much easier... but here's what we do. Sorry that I didn't respond before. I thought the request to explain was a a bit of a joke. Silly me, I forgot how much we LMHatters like our linens!

1. Pick up the two fitted sheet corners (the point made from where the seam ends) of a short end, one corner in each hand.

2. Pull taunt to identify the true straight edge of the sheet (the edge that lays along the top of the mattress).

3. Lay the sheet on something to "hold" this edge, and transfer both corners to one hand... then grab the middle of the "edge" in the other hand. At this point, you've folded one end. Lay down gently and...

4. Repeat on other end.

5. Put ends together and you'll basically have the sheet folded into quarters. Takes a bit of practice but then goes quickly.

6. I ignore the gathered elastic edges and let them hang down, rather than bothering to fold them out of the way like Martha does. (That's how you can tell us apart.)

7. Press and put away neatly on the shelf.

The only problem with this is that after you've practiced, it's hard to tell the flat and fitted sheets apart when folded on a shelf.
debk

[Alan Knighting]

A boxed sheet, when stretched over the mattress, is wrinkle free. Does it matter how you fold it for storage in the cupboard?

I’m a bloke so I don’t know.

Alan

[Ju]

In terms of white vs colours, I'm very much one for aesthetics. If a white duvet cover will go in a bedroom, then I use it, but many rooms need more adornment.

Most of my double sets are white or cream with a pattern on (either printed or embroidered) whilst the single ones are more brightly coloured (these tend to be used for children).

When I first stared out, I just bought one of each set that I liked, so a double room might have two different duvet sets. I have since learnt that it is far better to buy two of everything (and four for twin rooms). This way if only one twin bed has been used I can change just that one and it all still matches. The other thing I now do is buy white sheets for the double, and coloured for the single beds. This makes life much easier when sorting the linen out for changeovers. (I got fed up of arriving with all the bedding I needed only to find that the double sheet wasn't double after all!)

As for fitted vs flat sheets, I blow hot and cold. I started with all fitted, but I find the elastic goes on them so they don't last so long, also they always crease more once folded. Having changed over to flat sheets for all my replacements, I have now got the hang of ironing and folding the fitted ones, so I may go back to buying them. I'm afraid I don't agree that fitted sheets don't need ironing. They just don't look the same, or feel the same, if they haven't been ironed.

My towels also match the bedrooms, to some extent. I have both white and coloured towels, ranging from pale blue to dark red depending on the property. I always have different coloured towels in each double room, to avoid towel mix-up. I also have different coloured pool towels for the properties which share a pool. That way everyone knows they've got the right towels. I have not yet had to throw away a towel for being stained.

I could go on but I have a pile of sheets waiting to be ironed!!

Ju

[Alan Knighting]

Ju,

I'm afraid I don't agree that fitted sheets don't need ironing.

When we started lettings seven years ago Joan decided that ironing was not one of her hobbies. All the bed linen she bought was very expensive non-iron. It has always been laundered and tumble dried according to the manufacture’s instructions and it remains totally wrinkle free to this day. The only difference is that the colours have faded, a little.

Joan’s decision to buy the best has paid for itself many times over and will continue to do so.

Alan