After graduating from college, I realized: Maybe it’s not exactly normal to only wash your sheets when you go home for the holidays, so basically every four months. At the time, it felt completely reasonable. I wasn’t a slob; I was just “efficient.” Why waste precious quarters on laundry when you could just flip the pillowcase over and call it a day?
Now, you’d think washing sheets would be a hassle. Not for my mom, apparently. She washes hers every single week without fail, pillowcases, duvet cover, and even the mattress pad, which I didn’t realize was a thing normal people cleaned. She does it like it’s a spiritual ritual. Meanwhile, I’m over here calculating how long it takes for sheets to technically qualify as self-cleaning.
But there has to be some kind of happy medium, right? Somewhere between weekly and when they start to smell like a college dorm after spring break.
Let’s be honest: Washing sheets is one of those chores that sounds easy until you actually start doing it. First, you strip the bed, revealing the mattress in all its slightly unsettling glory. Then you stand in the laundry room, staring at the machine like it’s a puzzle. Do you wash on cold? Hot? Delicate? And how exactly are you supposed to fit a queen-sized comforter into a washer designed for doll clothes?
Every time I get around to doing it, it’s because of that one night when I can’t sleep and start convincing myself that the problem must be the sheets. “Maybe if I wash them, I’ll finally get a good night’s rest,” I think — before another week flies by, and I remember that I still haven’t done it. The cycle repeats: restless night, mild guilt, fleeting motivation, and then… nothing.
And don’t even get me started on the dryer situation. There’s always that moment of delusional confidence when I think, “Surely I can wash the comforter and sheets together.” Spoiler: You can’t. I always end up running multiple dryer cycles, peeling apart a damp, twisted comforter like a soggy cinnamon roll and wondering if adulthood is just a series of repetitive tasks that never quite end.
So how often should you really wash your sheets? The official recommendation from hygiene experts is once a week, twice if you have pets, allergies, or a tendency to fall asleep with half your dinner in bed. But let’s be honest: Most of us are operating on a “when-I-remember” schedule, which usually lands somewhere between every two to three weeks and “I’ll do it when guests are coming over.”
The truth is, clean sheets are one of life’s underrated luxuries. There’s something about sliding into a freshly made bed that feels like a reset button for your entire brain.
It smells good, it feels crisp, and for about five minutes, you feel like you’ve got your life together.
Maybe that’s the real goal — not perfection, but progress. If you can make it every two weeks, congratulations. You’re officially doing better than most of us.
So the next time you’re lying awake, debating whether you can survive one more night before laundry day, just do it. Strip the bed. Start the wash because nothing says “responsible adult” quite like clean sheets, even if they’re still warm from the dryer at midnight.
