I just finished making the bed with clean sheets. It occurred to me that I don’t believe I have ever gotten the orientation of the fitted sheet correct the first time. It isn’t a matter of luck-I never get it right. It must be some kind of natural law. So, is there a way to locate the end of the fitted sheet before one tries to put it on the mattress? I always end up starting the process by attempting to put the side of the sheet on the bottom. And no it does not work to continue making the bed. The ends of the fitted sheets cannot be stretched to cover the length of the bed.
Is there anyone out there smart enough to have figured out how to do this?
You could try writing ‘bottom right corner’ on the bottom right corner. Except that’s a lot to write on a sheet. Actually, I’m not sure if you’d even be able to write on a sheet with a sharpie or whatever you use to write on things that aren’t paper. Maybe you could put a piece of duct tape on the bottom right corner.
That actually sounds like a good idea, I should do that next time I wash my sheets.
Sharpies work fine on sheets-I use them to mark “Twin” or “Full” on one corner of the appropriate sized sheet.
Maybe put the sheet on the bed (awkwardly for the last time!) and use the sharpie to mark both corners at the foot of the bed. Then you know to line it up that way. And when you feel especially confident, put the sheets on where the marks are at the head of the bed!
If they don’t have elastic all the way around, then the non-elastic is usually the sides and elastic over the short ends. If they’re elastic all around, then yeah, tag on bottom right - or if you like to have the sheets wear evenly - tag on the top left every other time.
If you have some sheets by a non-conforming company or cut the tags off or something - all you have to do is find the corners and fold them together. (easier for shorter people like me) Compare. The short ends are the ends.
You could do like we did when I worked at Ramada. We tossed all the fitted sheets, and just used flat sheets tucked in tightly. (It was purely a cost saving decision.)
What size is your bed? Mine are single-person and it’s pretty evident that the folded sheet is a rectangle, oriented in the same direction as the un-folded sheet.
Use a permanent marker or a few stitches of colored thread to mark the short ends. The sheet will wear more evenly if it isn’t always oriented with the same end up and same end down.
I have a king size bed so the difference between sides and bottom is about 6". Tags don’t seem to be consistent across sheet brands so the only thing I’ve found that works is striped sheets.
At least on mine, the sheets have a long diagonal seam at each corner. It took me many changings to figure out that it is on correctly if it’s on the side of the bed, and not the end.