Do You Make Up Your Bed Every Morning? 27

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I have started several entries this weekend that I’ve left in draft form because I’m not ready to finish them yet including one about death/transitions/memories.

My mind agreed with me that I wasn’t eloquent enough to tackle those other blog thoughts and then rescued me with this fairly inane thought: 

Do you make up your bed every morning when you wake up?
If you do, why? 


  • Do you do it because it is what you were taught to do and it’s become a habit? 

  • Do you do it not because you were taught that it was what you’re ‘sposed to do but because you like order? 

  • Are you fabulously enamored love with your bed linens and pillows and like to see them all fancy and pretty?

Are you a person who never makes your bed because



  • You’re always running late

  • or because made-up beds were no big deal in your house and you’ve decided to uphold that tradition

  • or are you just a slob who doesn’t give a rat’s ass about making up the bed and that kind or order?

I have actually made myself late leaving the house for appointments (like work – ha! ha!) because I just couldn’t bring myself to leave the bed unmade.  An unmade bed calls out to me…nags me until I put it straight (in the same way that a cake or pie calls my name until it is gone).  Once or twice a year, I do in fact find myself leaving the bed unmade and inevitably, that’s a day when I’ll have company unexpectedly.  Then I’m embarrassed because I think they must think I’m untidy or lack order.  (There I go again, worrying what other people think about unimportant things.  Basically, a person who gets close enough to see my bed unmade should be a person who I wouldn’t have such worries about. Right?)

If you share your bed with another human being – whose job is it to make up the bed?  The last person to get up?  The last person to have to leave the house?  The person who’s at home?

You’ve made your bed, now lay in it was a phrase I heard a lot growing up.  I didn’t want to lay in a messy bed but found it hard to avoid laying in a messy life.

How often do you change the appearance of your bed.  I’m not asking how often you change your sheets – that’s personal.  I mean, how often do you change the linens?  Do you have seasonal comforters/covers and sheets?  Are you someone whose bed sports the same covers for years?

No matter where you stand on this simple thing, I think we can all agree that it is one of life’s great simple pleasures to fall asleep in freshly laundered sheets with a just bathed body.  It is one of life’s great blessings to have a bed and a room for that bed and the ability to decorate and clean it at will.

My bed will be calling me before too long.  Goodnight, sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite, but if they do, take your shoe, and beat them ’til their black and blue.  Peace…zzzzz

About Candelaria Silva

Candelaria Silva-Collins is a marketing, community outreach and programming consultant; writer; and trainer/facilitator who lives in Boston, Massachusetts. She has designed and facilitated workshops on a wide variety of topics including communication, facilitation, job search skills, team building, and parenting issues. She currently coordinates the Community Membership Program of the Huntington Theatre Company. Her work as Director of ACT Roxbury was profiled in several publications, including The Creative Communities Builders Handbook. Candelaria’s children’s stories, short stories, essays and reviews have been published in local and national publications and she is an active blogger. Her publications include the booklets, Handling Rejection; Pushing through Shyness: Networking Tips when You’re Shy, Slow to Warm Up or Just don’t Feel you Belong; and Real Questions about Sex & Relationships for Teens: A Discussion Guide for Parents. She has served on the boards of Goddard College, Wheelock Family Theatre, Boston Foundation for Architecture, and Discover Roxbury. She is currently Chair, Designators of the Henderson Foundation.

27 thoughts on “Do You Make Up Your Bed Every Morning?”

  • LeeAnn

    I don’t make my bed each morning, by myself I sleep somehow so that the covers require nothing much more than a shake…of course, it’s by no means picture perfect; but remains orderly enough for me to crawl in each night. Then, on the weekends, I remake it all until it looks pretty for a bit.

    Of course, when he sleeps in the bed, he despises my tight make up job and immediately pulls out all of my nice, neat tucks and the bed is left so that one cannot sleep there until it’s remade. As to whose job it is? ha! That’s not even a topic which would be discussed.

    I often imagine that I am one of those organized, morning people who rises, makes bed, makes breakfast and has plenty of time to spare before departure…but I do at least these days make myself a morning smoothie – that’s progress. Maybe the bed is next!

  • DC

    Thank you so much for stopping by my blog and leaving such a great comment! I’m sorry to hear about your sister; she sounds like a real fighter.

    As far as my bed . . . I never make it (too lazy, I guess) UNLESS I am a guest in someone’s home. I think it’s rude for houseguests to leave a bed unmade.

    I just bought a new comforter, pillows, and linens. (We’re actually putting them on the bed tonight!) Maybe that will give me more incentive to make my bed. :)

  • Andie

    What a refreshing post! I’m here from NaComLeavMo and have read/commented on a few heavy ones, so this was like a cool drink of lemonade.

    I too love the feeling of freshly washed sheets. mmmm! But I’m not big on making the bed. I want to be – when I’m doing my “flylady” organized thing then the bed gets made – that is, unless DH sleeps in it later than I do. I think making it is a special treat for me & dh and it’s a gesture I appreciate. But it doesn’t nag at me if I don’t do it. It was never a big deal in my house, and I don’t see it as a big deal as most other things in my life. It is icing on the cake and I’d like to enjoy it more often, though!

  • Carrie

    You are much better then me. I used to be orderly and make my bed up every morning…but then I said screw it. Instead I half ass make it (i.e. throw the sheet and quilt back so it appears to be made. I realized that the things I thought were important to keep in order, did not matter.

    Maybe your post will motivate me to pick that order back up.

  • Candelaria

    Thanks for all the comments. I see that, so far, I’m alone in this obsessions with making the bed every morning. Right now, I change sheets once a week but am trying to up that to twice a week.
    An unmade bed hurts my eyes the way I feel if I have dishes in the sink when I come home. They seem to need attention before I can get on with my day or start cooking.
    Any how, you all have given me food for thought.

  • deb

    You are not alone. I cannot – no – will not leave the house without making my bed. It is not because I think that will be the day I have unexpected company. That’s everyday at my house since I never have company. It is simply because it is too hard for me to even walk by an unmade bed – even if its not my own. I make it the second I get out. I am usually the last one up – my hubby gets up earlier than me almost everyday, but it would not matter. Even if I were the first one up and he made it … I would have to fix it. Just cant handle it.

    I probably change the “set” twice a year but not with the seasons so much. More like I am just ready for a change.

    Well there ya go – told ya your not alone.

  • Joy

    Hi, Candelaria! Welcome to the Non-Fiction Five Challenge! We are glad to to have you and look forward to seeing your list. Happy Reading!

  • Patricia

    I make my bed every morning, change sheets once a week and just before I go on vacation. I make the hospital corners my mother taught me and take satisfaction when I come home that the bedding of the season looks good. When I was sick my mother would freshen my bed, plump my pillows and serve me tea and toast is bed. Now, when ill I do it for myself. On those days when everything seems to be going wrong; dirty dishes and unmade bed may be all you feel you can control. A little inexpensive therapy is a body scrub (courtesy of bath and body works) a hot shower/bath and climbing between the sheets of a freshly made bed with a book that will take you away.

  • Becki

    Our bed is made each day because hubby likes it to be done. It’s the job of whoever gets up last, but somehow, when he gets up last? It frequently doesn’t get done. The same bedding is always there.

    When I lived alone it was never made, but the bedding changed for winter vs summer.

    Found you through NaCoLeavMo

  • Seriously?

    I never make the bed. I think I am rebelling against my mom. When I was younger I had this beautiful canopy bed with about 12 decorative pillows on it plus my stuffed animals.

    I would like to start making the bed but since my husband sleeps while I work (he works nights) there really is only a short time the bed is not in use. So I wonder what’s the point?

  • Jac

    I make my bed every morning only because my husband is so anal about it… plus our animals prefer it that way!!!

    Happy Friday!

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