I turn down the beds but I don’t make them unless I have just changed the sheets. I don’t like creating that pleasant an environment for mites and so on.
I don’t make the beds if people are coming over – a turned down bed looks as neat as a made one it seems to me.
Could you please tell me the distinction you’re making between a turned down bed and a made one? IME, a “turned-down” bed is one where the bedspread or coverlet (if there is one) may be folded down to the foot or removed, but the sheets, blankets, and pillows are all very neatly and smoothly in place, except that the sheet and blanket may be"turned down" either symmetrically on both sides or at an angle to one side. Picture of a symmetrically turned down bed (spread or coverlet not removed) here. I guess I don’t see the labor saved in making the bed to the “turned down” stage versus just making the bed the whole way, so I must be missing something.
I also don’t see how or why making your bed creates a better environment for dust mites.
Also, it’s worth mentioning that for a lot of people who don’t use a spread or coverlet but instead blankets or a duvet, there’s really not any difference between a “made” bed and a “turned down” bed – when the sheet and blanket are neatly pulled up and pillows neatly stacked, the bed’s as made as it can get.
I make my bed every morning, but I do not tuck anything in. I, like someone previously in the thread, find sleeping in a bed with tucked in sheets/blankets to be monumentally uncomfortable. I like having the bed made because it’s easier to get in at night (I hate having the top sheet all moved around and you end up directly touching the blanket with one leg or something…) and it also makes the bed usable during the day for folding laundry, or setting things on without them getting lost in the bedding.
I don’t understand people who don’t use a top sheet though. Unless you’re washing that comforter all the time, it just seems kinda gross. And if you ARE washing the comforter all the time… don’t they get worn out quickly? I don’t wash my comforter very often at all, because it doesn’t come in contact with my body (and I don’t let the cats into my bedroom). I have found that comforters and quilts and stuff just aren’t sturdy enough for constant washing.
When I turn a bed down, I turn all the bedding down except for the bottom sheet. Usually I just fold it down which leaves the top sheet on top; sometimes I fold the bedding the other way which leaves the blankets or comforter on top.
It isn’t less work than making a bed. It’s just cleaner than making a bed, at least according to my Vovo and my mother. “Closed” beds, that is, made beds, are believed to encourage the growth of mites and bacteria and fungi of various kinds.
Vovo’s prescription for beds goes like this:
Turn down beds every day. This means folding back the bedding (whatever it may be) neatly but the bed should be exposed to air and under best conditions sunlight as far down as the person who uses it is tall.
Turn the pillow every day.
Change the sheets and pillowcases every week. Brush or vacuum the mattress when you change the sheets. When you change the sheets, spread the blanket or comforter and pillows out of doors somwhere – on a line or elsewhere away from the bed. Give it a good beating or a shake before you take it back in.
Turn the mattress every quarter. Reverse it (foot to head) twice a year.
That’s it.
I have blankets and quilts and comforters to deal with because everyone in my family likes something different on their bed. None of us has a bedspread, though. I have at various times also had a featherbed, but while I love them, Dearly Beloved hates them.
For me, the answer to this is a duvet with a duvet cover, which is what I use in the winter. (It’s too hot in the summer.) The comforter is enclosed in a cover and you take the cover off and wash it much more frequently than you do the whole comforter.
Marienee, your prescription for turning down beds would not work for those of us who have pets who sometimes get up on the beds. 
My two dogs know they’re not supposed to be on the bed, but that is not to say they don’t jump up there occasionally. While I’m semi-relaxed about them being on the covers, I do not like them to be on the sheets. So “turning down” a bed to leave most of the sheets exposed wouldn’t work for me.
And I’m guessing that fungus and mites would be more of a concern in earlier days, when beds weren’t changed as frequently as they are now, or in a climate that’s a lot more humid than mine is. I don’t know anyone who takes their pillows outside and beats them every time they change the sheets; I admire such industry without having the slightest impulse to emulate it.
Sometimes. I tend to sleep with the covers untucked and wrapped around me coccon style, so it’s not a matter of simply smoothing things out and leaving. Like **tashabot ** though, the kitchen and bathroom need to be: A. spotless, and B. wiped down with bleach. If your bathroom is grungy, I’m not eating in the house. Even if the kitchen looks okay.
Sometimes
Drachillix and I change the sheets and pillowcases and remake the bed together but most mornings I just tidy it a bit if he’s not still in it, or he’ll pull the comforter up when he gets up, but making the bed is usually for when we are having company. I like the sheets kind of untucked and my pillows just so. He’s not so particularm although he loves his satin pillowcases.
Cyn, married to a big sissy-boy.
You might have just asked if I wash my car every day. But if making your bed makes it more aesthetically pleasing for you, by all means do it. Just don’t be pretentious about it and think that if someone doesn’t, they’re being lazy. Because if you do that, I’m really going to expect that you wash your car after every use.
I do that in the summer time. I guess I still consider that “made.” Usually when I come home from work I’ll pull the top sheet up and smooth it out so that when I get into bed I’ll still be getting under the sheet and because I’ll probably sit on the bed or put things on the bed.
Someone mentioned naps and it’s funny but one of the reasons I like to make my bed is that if I want to lie down for a bit or have a little nap, I can only do that on top of the covers. If I go under the covers then I have no faith I’ll ever get back up. Plus it feels wrong. I only go under the covers during the day if I’m sick. Even if the only cover is the top sheet, when I’m at home it’s got to be pulled up while I’m sitting or lying on the bed. They say it’s helpful for insomnia to have some of these distinctions. I fall asleep well and maybe I’m superstitious about it. Anyone who’s ever had frustrations with insomnia probably knows how much of a mental game it can be.
Yes. Every day. It looks neater, and I like it to be made. I greatly appreciate a neat environment. I like clean countertops with vast amounts of empty space. I’m not OCD about it, and I can go to sleep or leave the house with dishes in the sink and newspapers and mail lying on the table. But when I take 15 minutes, and clear everything up and put things in their rightful places, my soul says, “Aaaaaaah … that’s so much better.” For me, making the bed in the morning is 60 seconds that make the rest of my day better. SO worth it.
I don’t think I’ll ever be up to the vaccuuming-before-work standard, though. I bow in abject devotion.
I think the climate has to do with it – I actually had that very same thought this week. Vovo came from the Azores and I spent much of my youth in the American south without air conditioning. I now live in Holland and am not sure that the Way We Do Things makes sense in a temperate climate.
It does no harm, I think. And it doesn’t take that long. But the thing about this house is that it is 400 years old and made for a dutch climate. So it holds heat like a sonuvabitch, which is good. But it also holds dust like nothing I have ever seen, which is not so good. I grew up with houses made to encourage cross ventilation, for cooling (well, except for base housing which is as far as I can tell made to be as ugly and inefficient as is humanly possible) and I now live in a house designed to defeat cross ventilation, for warming. It takes some getting used to.
And not only do I beat my pillows, I beat my rugs, too. Well, okay, I have my boys beat them mostly. It’s excellent activity for a 5 and 7 year old when it’s raining and they can’t go outside and play. And it beats the heck out of them beating each other with sticks which is what they would otherwise be doing.
My SO is a fanatic about making the bed - down to the centimeter in perfection. He changes the sheets and pillowcases every week as well.
I am the kitchen guy - cannot stand to see any dishes in the sink, or any clutter on the counters. Drives me crazy if there is even a single dirty glass in the sink. When I finish cooking in the kitchen, there is not a single dirty dish or spoon or crumb to be seen.
Are you two looking for jobs as a housekeeping team, perhaps? I sure could use you around here! 
Making a bed seems pretty useless to me, especially as a kid, teen and single guy. Have to say I started making it when I thought it might help me get lucky, and as soon as the relationship started, then I quickly stopped.
My wife wants a made bed. compromise is we have a maid, and she makes the bed. 