Solving The Big Issues: Clean Sheet Day

As you guys would know, I take photos and sometimes videos of washing hanging on the line. It’s true! I do!

Call me crazy, but I find it therapeutic to watch fresh washing blowing in the breeze, knowing that Mother Nature is doing her part in the never bloody ENDING washing that goes on round here.

Of all the parts of domestic duties that I have to do, in fact in all areas of my life where there is something that I have to do, rather than want or like to do, washing is the one thing that I don’t have a problem with. Sure, it’s never bloody ending and at times frustrating, but once I start, it’s one area of my life that I follow through with no matter what.

The washing goes on.
It gets hung out.
It’s gets brought in.
And it always gets folded and put away.
Every time.

You won’t find piles of clean washing in my house, I don’t know why and I certainly don’t care if you do, but NOT ON MY WATCH. I follow that bastard through each and every time.

Because of my penchant for sharing pictures of washing at various stages of completion, there are ALWAYS messages from people asking one consistent question:

How often do you wash your sheets?

It’s one of those questions that you think about, and much like when your Doctor asks you how many drinks you have in a week, you lie a little because we are all trying our best and sometimes we can’t be bothered right?

I’d love to know where you stand on this stuff. It’s the big issues I know, but believe me, we are all interested in each other. I know because of all the messages I get in a week.

OK, I’ll start. Cough.

I wash our bed sheets (Rob and my bed) about every 7-10 days. Sometimes it’s longer but at the most it would be 2 weeks. I don’t wash the doona cover every time because we use a top sheet and those things are a pain in the arse to put back together.

Am I an animal? Probs. Who cares.

The kids? Well, be prepared for worse. I reckon Daisy would be about the same 2 weeks on her bed. But Harper? Well she has bunk beds. WORK OF THE DEVIL. Those things can stretch to a month. You try changing them…they suck!

It’s body on the line making those things. And if you are considering getting bunk beds for space, don’t. They will drive you mad with re-making the bed. And if you have ever cleaned up a vomit from those heights and the splash back that can occur…just no. NO. Don’t go there.

So Harps gets to marinate in her filth, and the rest of us a little less. I mean really, they have a bath or shower every night, don’t smell with sweat (yet) how bad can it be?

So time to confess in this laundry cone of cleanliness…
How often do you change & wash your sheets on your bed?
Weekly? Well done to you!
Fortnightly? Same, let’s marinate together.
Monthly? Bunk beds are a bastard, I get it.
More? COME ON MATE.

And if you’d like to read some more bed linen stuff these posts may be of interest to you:

How to Pattern Clash Bed Linen
Where to buy cool Australian bed linen
Making your bed: Pillow up or down?
Linen Sheets

Comments

  1. We wash our sheets about every 7 days. Sometimes two weeks 🤔
    Last month I stumbled on a trick that may help your bunk bed conundrum. We recently bought mr8 some new sheets. As his last sheets seemed soooo tight I decided to buy a king single fitted sheet instead. Life changing! They just slip over the corners with ease. Bloody brilliant!

  2. Yep, weekly in summer and every 2 weeks in winter. If it’s very hot I’ll change the bottom sheet regularly. Love love love the smell of fresh laundry. Hate dryers!

  3. Yeah I’m with you Beth! Ours 1-2 weeks (closer to one in summer, past 2 mid-winter). Kids? Well. One had one of those bunk/desk arrangements (WTF was I thinking with that?) so…I’m not actually sure. A month? I’m a slacker mum, but they aren’t dead yet. The other is 18 and quite frankly capable of doing that shit themselves. I nag. They ignore. I’m hoping for some weird skin thing as a consequence, TBH.

  4. Our are weekly, mostly without fail. I only make my bed – teen daughter can make her own ! I did hers for long enough
    If I had a maid I would love to sleep in clean sheets every day

  5. About the same for us, including the bunks! I hate changing them!

    I love watching the washing blowing on the line, my Nana used to say it was “happy washing” when it flapped around. I think of her whenever I have “happy washing” ❤️

    xx

  6. Mine and hubby’s, roughly every 2 weeks but I try for once a week in Summer. Youngest child, once a week religiously as she sleeps with her dog! 18 year old adult/child has to do her own so it can be weeks! Sometimes I can’t stand her fake tan stained sheets and do it myself out of disgust!

  7. Definitely at least once a week , and summer in Qld about every 5 days. Teens beds about 1_2 weekly after the sheetsare totally brown from fake tan and I take them off the bed and leave the sheets for them to remake.

  8. You all put me to shame….I can vary between doing a load every couple of days and then catching up on the dregs on the weekend…to washing morning till night all weekend to get it all done depending on how mad the week is and how exhausted I am. I’m fine with the washing, hanging out in the sun and bringing it in, but I suck at folding and putting away (and only iron a few things that need it for work). Bed linen? Again, no rules…do it when I get around to it. Love the feeling of fresh sheets and so do the kids. I think I’m a housework rebel – don’t like to follow any rules!!!

  9. Love fresh sheets! Our bed once a week, the kids once a fortnight (no bunks!). Happens like clockwork because I only have to wash, hang out and bring in the sheets – my husband makes all the beds (but I do the pillow slips. Love how the domestic chores sometimes divide!. I also bring in and sort all washing, but everyone mostly folds and puts away their own unless I’m feeling generous. Like you Beth, washing is the one chore that I find less of a … Chore. Plus I’m the only one who doesn’t bigger it up!

  10. I’m in the 7-10 days camp. i once read that Wallis Simpson (aka the Duchess of Windsor) would have her sheets changed when she got up in the morning. She would take a nap each afternoon and the sheets would be changed again after that! So she NEVER slept on anything but fresh sheets!

  11. We do ours fortnightly. We live in Queensland. We are gross.
    BUT… I strip the beds each fortnight and… WAIT FOR IT… the cleaning lady makes the beds. Including the loft bed which must have 400 soft toys arranged on it appropriately afterwards.
    Gawd, I love her.
    Outsource people.

  12. I wash my sheets once a week and change the pillowcases mid week. I also iron the sheets and pillowcases. I don’t put a doona cover on the doona as we have a top sheet, so I have the white doona and then a linen bedspready thing on top. I hate doona covers. I had bunks when the kids were small, and they were a nightmare. I wash the towels every three uses.

  13. Ours are done weekly, used to be twice weekly but worked out the husband doesn’t care so one less job for me 🙂 Love the feel of clean sheets. Towels are used once and washed.\ but only the two of us so washing days aren’t huge amounts.

  14. We celebrate the end of the week with fresh sheet Friday! I find that it’s a fabulous way to kick off the weekend as there is almost nothing better than crawling into a freshly made bed. My husband thinks it’s one of my best inventions. Two year old and six week old are yet to provide their positive feedback!

  15. Living in Far North Qld where it is stinking hot and humid sheets are changed weekly. In the most humid months I will do a mid week sheet change unless we have the air conditioners on. We sleep with a top sheet only with the ornamental bedspread put back in place when the bed is made each day. All beds have linen sheets and pillow cases and have to be matching. I can’t stand the miss match pattern and colour craze. I do the multi shaped pillow stack everyday when I make the beds. Only one teenager left in the house who will sleep on a bare mattress as she cares so little about these things. Every night teenager throws all but one pillow on the floor and can’t understand why I insist her bed has 4 pillows. I remake her bed each morning because I am obsessed there are no creases. I love washing as well I find it therapeutic.

  16. Every week, usually on Monday when I’m off. Sometimes it gets stretched to two weeks if something pops up. I’m in the States, so it’s a clothes dryer for me.

  17. Oh this makes me feel so much better!
    Before 3 kids and juggling that with working and general crazy life I always changed and washed our sheets every week because that’s what my Mum did!
    Now that’s just too hard to get to so it’s about every 2 weeks – sometimes it might go to 3 and very occasionally it’s stretched out to 4.
    I really hate it as I feel like it’s not clean enough ha ha!
    The only thing that makes me feel ok about it all is that we all have showers every night so we are going to bed clean so we really can’t get that dirty can we?!!
    PS – I love these posts about all the big issues!

  18. Every 1-2 weeks for our King bed . Usually on a Sunday . We don’t use a top sheet so it’s a full change of everything ! Life changing for us was working out that the label on the fitted sheet matches with the bottom right hand corner of the bed so we always get the sheet on the right way first time ! Monday’s are my day off so I do towels , groceries etc

  19. Ours is 1 – 2 weeks, but it is a king bed and they are bastards to change – lifting that mattress to tuck under is a work out in itself. The girls have been looking after their own beds for a few years now and they generally wait until the sheets are grey before they change them.
    Not my problem, I don’t sleep in them and I won’t be buying new sheets if (when) they rip because of filth. Saying that my girls never have more than a head cold so …

  20. I wash our sheets once a week. In our hot sticky climate it’s a must, especially since we don’t have air conditioning in our bedrooms 😞

  21. Once a week religiously! Nothing better than fresh sheets!!
    The ultimate on new sheet day….shower + freshly washed PJ’s + new sheets. Glorious!

  22. I would love to be a disciplined fortnightly stripper – wait that didn’t come out right – of the BED, but sometimes it’s three weeks or a month. It’s just me in the bed though, so I’m not inflicting my non-clockwork laundering habits on anybody else. Normally sheets and towels all change on the same day. I too take photos and videos of washing on the line, it’s such a lovely sight.

    And climbing into a freshly made, clean sheets bed is just the BEST!

    Watching your washing drying was the catalyst to me getting my first two sets of printed sheets, and I love them so hard!!

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