Where do you stand on the vexed question of flat or fitted sheets? Love one, loathe the other? Totally indifferent? Prepared to sleep outside under a shrub to avoid having to deal with either?
Old-Fashioned Fruitcake
Old-Fashioned Fruitcake
Where do you stand on the vexed question of flat or fitted sheets? Love one, loathe the other? Totally indifferent? Prepared to sleep outside under a shrub to avoid having to deal with either?
Well I much prefer sleeping on fitted, but I much prefer washing (or more to the point, drying) flat rather than fitted. The variable aging of flat vs fitted is also irritating. And a fitted sheet is less satisfying to re-purpose. So all in all I think I prefer a flat sheet that is ample enough for decent tuck-ins.
I can’t say I’ve ever noticed a difference between sleeping on fitted or flat – except where the fitted sheet is too big for the mattress and you end up with bags of wrinkles.
Fitted is useful but it’s easy to convert a flat one by tying knots in the corners.
I’ve never heard of that before. A handy ‘hack’ for the pro-fitted!
A fitted sheet that ACTUALLY fits, is preferable for me personally. I’m not too stressed about the washing element either. I have heard it said that folding them is one of Dante’s levels of hell but I have a dependable technique that gets it done with nary a whimper or fuss. I suppose one could argue that it is less versatile, a flat sheet could be either a bottom or top sheet, fitted sheets can only ever be bottoms. But I tend to get my sheets in pairs anyway and already have several spare flat sheets, the versatility is not required. My pro-fitted stance will only further strengthen in the near future: I’ve seen the bed my fiancee sleeps in. If I’m to have any chance of keeping the linens under control…. I will be needing fitted sheets. Tucked in flat sheets do not stand a chance against his apparent nocturnal writhing.
An important thing for all soon-to-be-weds to know: One Good Turn Takes All the Blankets.
Flippancy aside, I have always considered their non-versatility to be a point against fitted sheets. Since they usually come in sets, and since the bottom sheet usually wears out faster than the top, you get left with “several spare flat sheets.”
It’s rather like pyjama trousers’ sagging elastic: the tops always last longer. The difference being, of course, that you can always use a flat sheet as a bottom sheet, but trying to wear a pyjama top on your bottom half is seriously problematic.
Exactly, I have several ‘unfitted bottom sheets’ =) So it’s not a problem to me.
And YES, the pyjamas dilemma! So may tops that have long since had their bottoms binned.
I feel the time is ripe for a resurgence of drawstrings and/or nighties. No more saggy elastic!
I do actually have a pair of pyjama bottoms in my mending bag. They’re half done because instead of making a nick and pulling out all the old dead elastic, I had to unseam the whole waistband; the dead elastic had been sewn in the whole way around. So much unpicking! I already have the new elastic cut. It’s just waiting for some spare time to reassemble!
Urgh, it’s so frustrating the way elastic gets sewn in like that. So time-consuming for the mender! I dream of the day when clothes are designed to last, even to the extent of considering maintenance in the design.
I am with Rebekah on this one, since I also seem to be a bit of a nocturnal writher, at least enough to make flat sheets undesirable as a bottom sheet.
Also, I can vouch for her folding method. While I wouldn’t want to try it alone, it works well with two.
Perhaps I have encountered too few fitted sheets that actually fit. Or possibly I live in a household of hard-core sheet-tuckers…
And let us be honest, no large sheet is easy to fold all on your tod, fitted or otherwise.
I’ve actually found that a lot of fitted sheets these days (mine included, unfortunately, are made for much thicker mattresses than the average mattress that I am used to. Maybe the thicker ones are the new norm?
I suppose, if your fitted sheets don’t actually fit, it’s better that they are a bit on the big side than a bit on the small side. I think they should just have better elastic. If the elastic is strong enough then there IS no ‘too big’, because the top panel and corners will always be the right size and the rest will be pulled tightly away.
We’ve got pretty nice & fat mattresses, but the fitted sheets are still verging on too loose. Perhaps there’s some new breed of obese mattress taking over the world?
Clearly I need to put strong elastic on my fitted sheets.
I believe my fitted sheets were made with 25cm thick mattresses in mind.
Wow. That’s heading toward princess and the pea territory.