Easier way to put a fitted sheet on a daybed?

December 3, 2011 9:25 AM

Is there an easy way to put a fitted sheet on a daybed similar to this one? My current method involves pulling the mattress off of the bed, putting on the sheet, and then putting the mattress back on the bed, which is too much work and still results in messy sheets. I don't have anyone to help me. (Oh, and my sheets are elastic-all-around, if that makes a difference.)
posted by anaelith to Home & Garden (8 answers total)

One way to make it easier is to double-sheet the bed. Bottom layer is a fitted mattress pad, then the second layer is the fitted sheet. Add a flat mattress pad and another sheet to the top of that. When you have to change the sheets, you can just pull off the first sheet and mattress pad and the new ones are already underneath. This doesn't quite solve the problem, but it will cut down on the amount of times that you have to pull the mattress off of the bed and wrestle new sheets on.

(This also works great for crib mattresses)
posted by Ostara at 9:43 AM on December 3, 2011

We do this on bunk-bed mattresses by bending them a bit in half - pull the 'bottom' end up a bit, sling those ends on the fitted sheet onto the corners then stretch that thing up and repeat at the top. For the top bunk it's easier to just lift the mattress up, turn it a quarter turn or so, fit the sheet and then drop it back into place.
posted by jquinby at 10:00 AM on December 3, 2011

Pull the mattress out a little so you can reach. Put one corner of the fitted sheet on one of the hardest to reach corners. Then do the one diagonal from that. Do the other hard to reach one and then its diagonal. Easiest way I know (not entirely easy but better).
posted by leslies at 10:00 AM on December 3, 2011 [1 favorite]

Lay the sheet on top, lean over to the far side and pull one corner up and put the sheet corner on it. Do the same for the other far corner, then one at a time the near corners to pull it taut.
posted by rhizome at 12:17 PM on December 3, 2011

diagonal is totally the way to go - either bend or pull towards you or pull the bed out and stand beside/behind the hardest to reach corner, then do the diagonal on the front and then the other back corner and the last front corner.
posted by nadawi at 12:26 PM on December 3, 2011

I've never been able to get all-round-elasticated sheets as tidy as ones that only have elastic at the corners, or even flat sheets (but for flat sheets you really do need to be able to access 3 sides of the bed to get it tidy). Try different sheets?
posted by Lebannen at 2:37 PM on December 3, 2011

It helps, but the way to eye that the sheets are centered properly is to check out the seams in the corners. They should be right in the middle of the curve of the corner of the mattress.
posted by rhizome at 11:45 PM on December 3, 2011

Can you pull the whole bed out from the wall? That's what I did when I had a bed like that and it worked well.
posted by deborah at 8:36 PM on December 4, 2011