Knowing how to fold a fitted sheet is one of the trickiest organizing endeavors—but it doesn’t have to be. Unlike top sheets and pillowcases that have a flat surface that makes putting away these bed linens a cinch, folding a fitted sheet with rounded, bunched edges makes the prospect of folding them seem like an exercise in futility. One false move, and you’ve got a wadded mess that looks more like a bundle than bed sheets. Clearly anything with elastic corners that lives in your linen closet requires folding savvy, especially if dealing with a duvet cover seems easier.
It makes sense that you may feel intimidated and come to accept that the elastic edges mean that your fitted bed sheet is bound to be, well, bound into some sort of roll-up. Don’t give up just yet. “You aren’t going to necessarily master folding a fitted sheet on your first try, so you can’t get overwhelmed and give up,” says Janelle Cohen, founder of Straighten Up by Janelle and author of The Folding Book: A Complete Guide to Create Space and Getting Organized. “Take it slow, don’t let the amount of fabric get the best of you, and take it step-by-step.”
When done right, a folded sheet can look as tidy neatly stacked pillow cases. In addition to creating a curated linen closet, properly folded fitted sheets can save a ton of space. Knowing how to fold an entire sheet set means that you can actually fit more than one or two sheet sets into your linen closet.
Cohen compares it to “playing Tetris.” When you have more space, everything fits together like a nice puzzle. “It also makes your space more cohesive and therefore less overwhelming,” she adds. “You can open your closets and feel ownership over what you have.”
Then there is the matter of how folding a fitted sheet affects its aesthetic. “Wrinkled sheets certainly don’t look good on a bed,” says Dean Tomihama, vice president of creative design at Sferra, an Italian fine linen brand. Anyone who has pulled a balled-up shirt out of a travel backpack knows just how impossible those wrinkles can be. The same laws apply to linens. “The longer your linens sit in a pile, the deeper the wrinkles,” Cohen says. “Fold them when they are hot out of the dryer and you’ll end up with only a few creases along the fold.” If you go into the linen closet without trapping wrinkles, it means that your bed sheets will look crisp as you put them on the bed. Getting you closer to that luxe hotel bedding look.
Keep in mind some materials are more prone to wrinkles than others. Percale cotton sheets may be light and airy, but they are known for hanging on to wrinkles. On the other hand, sateen woven fabrics are more forgiving, as is the thicker flannel. Linen sheets and jersey sheets, like these organic fitted sheets by Coyuchi, are naturally a bit wrinkled, so even perfectionists can have a bit of leeway.