A while ago, I was watching a Netflix series called "Grace and Frankie". It's a pretty funny show, and in one of the scenes Grace is trying to teach Frankie how to fold a fitted sheet. Grace is trying to be helpful by telling Frankie to just fold the corners of the sheet, to which Frankie replies "They're round. They do not fold. Anyone who can do this is a powerful witch."
This made me laugh out loud because I know that a lot of people have no idea where to start when trying to fold a fitted sheet. I also know that I used to just kinda roll/fold/stuff/whatever it up as best as I could until I learned how to fold it properly. And while my roll/fold/stuff/whatever technique works just fine, I was living in a very small space which meant that I didn't have a ton of extra room to play with, and folding things smaller means leaving more room for other folded things.
So if you, too, would like to learn how to be a powerful witch - I mean how to fold a fitted sheet - read on! Oh, and please don't mind the orange sheet - it's our camping/don't care if it gets stained sheet, but I figured the bright color would help see what is actually happening throughout the folding process. :)
1. Lay the sheet out flat, with the elastic part facing you like this (cat not required):
2. Bring the bottom edge up to the top edge (being careful not to catch your kitty in the middle!). Now you'll want to match the seams of each corner. This is the only kinda tricky part. You'll want to turn the bottom edge that you just brought up to the top inside-out so that you can see the inside of the corner seams. The top edge will stay just like you laid it out. Basically, the inside seam is the bumpy part and the outside seam is the smooth one. In the next step, you'll want both bumpy seams touching, which is why you'll want to turn the bottom edge inside-out.
One right-side-out seam (top) and one wrong-side-out seam (bottom)
3. Now you can snug the bottom edge (the one with the wrong-side-out seam) up into the top edge (remember to match the bumpy seams). Once the edges are snugged together, smooth the sheet out so it looks like this:
4. Yay! You've finished the hardest part! Now you can just fold it in half, bringing the right side to match the left, forming a rectangle. Be careful not to let the elastic get too bunchy, but also don't try to pull the elastic edge into a specific place. Just keep it as smooth as possible, but also let it just be where it's gonna be.
5. Fold it once or twice more, depending on how small you want it to be. The idea is to make smaller and smaller rectangles. So in the photo above, I brought the bottom edge to the top edge and so on.
Voila!
Congratulations! Now you too hold the power of folding a fitted sheet. Once you get the hang of this, it only takes a couple minutes to fold it up. And while it is really easy to fold a fitted sheet using this technique, I do feel pretty magical even now when I finish folding. And that's always a good feeling. Let me know if you try this technique, and happy folding everyone!