sarah · dessen

Okay, so lately I've been doing a lot of laundry, due to the fact that we went out of town, and I was backed up before then, and various other reasons entirely too boring to go into here. The upshot is that been folding a lot of clothes, as well as sheets. And let me tell you: I hate nothing more than trying to fold a fitted sheet. Nothing.

It's impossible. You can try, even enlist someone to help you, and still, with your best effort, end up with what looks like a big messy pile, which you then shove into the linen closet to get even more wrinkled. I've written here before about my lack of the housekeeping gene---I am perfunctory at best---but this is one issue that has always bothered me. I mean, if I take the time to fold something, I want it to LOOK folded. And fitted sheets never do.

I don't know why---too much spare time? too much caffeine? too much laundry?---but lately this has been bugging me more than normal. Especially since we went to the beach, and our house came with linens. I could not stop marveling over the fitted sheets. They were PERFECTLY folded. So yesterday, when I found myself again at the dryer, I decided to take action. I went to Google, typed in "folding fitted sheets" and a whole bunch of sites came up. This one, courtesy of Target, promises "100% perfect results, everytime." Sounds good, right?

I got my sheet. Followed the instructions. And ended up with...a big, messy pile. I tried again. Then again. Still, nowhere near perfect. I am telling you, people: yesterday, I got obsessed with this. I kept doing it, and doing it, thinking I could figure it out, but no go. The closest I got was better than a pile, but nowhere near the picture. Or perfect, for that matter.

Do you ever just feel like you're somehow missing some great point, obvious to everyone else? That's how I felt yesterday, sitting on my bedroom floor wrestling with this sheet, which, incidentally, was so dirty from all the folding and dropping and flopsweat these entailed that now I have to wash it again. It's a vicious cycle!

So now I've decided: it's just not going to happen. I could keep messing with it, and drive myself even more nuts, or just realize that maybe I'm not meant to have a tidy linen closet. Maybe, my sheets are supposed to be in big, floppy piles, always moments away from lauching themselves upon you when you come looking or a simple washcloth. This is the state of my universe. It's time to stop fighting it.

Now, if I could just get that thirty minutes of my life back. Oh, it doesn't even matter. Let it go! Let it go!

have a good day, everyone!