I know that this title is probably somewhat misleading and might have instantly made everyone go, “Duh. Clean sheets. How can this even be a real question? Ashley clearly needs to get some more sleep before attempting to blog!”
Which, yes, I do, actually. Now that we are back into full-blown early alarm clock, school morning mode I do find myself a bit more tired than usual. Couple that with the fact that I discovered last week that I had been drinking DECAF coffee unwittingly for three straight days, and I think you can deduce that my brain is mush.
However, fortunately for all of you this would you rather scenario was crafted over the summer thanks to a conversation with my stepmother.
Her grandson is headed off to college, and we were discussing his dorm room bedding. She said that she bought him five sets of sheets, in the hopes that he will actually change them every few days.
This got me thinking. Was I supposed to be changing *my* sheets every few days, too?
So, of course, I reached out to Lisa to see what she thought. A little known fact about Lisa, by the way. She uses a different clean towel EVERY.SINGLE.DAY. Apparently, this dates back to an unfortunate water roach, early morning, no contacts in yet incident from Aught 92. She didn’t want to explain any further lest she relive the horror all over again.
Knowing her towel issue, I figured she would be a frequent sheet changer and thus would leave me feeling even worse about my newly discovered slovenly ways. She assured me though, that sheets were a different matter than towels, and she is a once a week or sometimes even every other week sheet changer.
Okay.
I feel like I am definitely more in the every other week to three category, but I can live with that.
It got me thinking, though.
What if I had to change my sheets every single day? As in, strip the bed, wash and dry the sheets and then re-make the bed with the same set of sheets every day for three straight months.
OR
What if I had to sleep on the same set of sheets for three straight months? As in, no matter what has happened, I am sleeping on dirty sheets for 90 days.
Pretty sure you all know my answer on this conundrum!
Naturally, I am now asking the Dose Peeps to weigh in on this tricky Would You Rather scenario. Would you rather have to change your sheets every single day (and then re-make your bed with that same set of sheets once they had been washed and dried) for three months or sleep on the same sheets without ever washing them for three months?
This totally reminded me of the story that my grandfather used to share of his mom (my great-grandmother). She apparently was a neat and clean freak. She would wash all the sheets in the home daily (mind you she had 6 kids including my grandfather) and one morning right after she had indeed washed and replaced the dirty sheets, the cat decided to jump on the bed. Well, she took the cat by the scruff of his neck and tossed him out the window (thankful the cat was unharmed and landed on all fours!). And lo and behold, she removed those sheets and rewashed them! I always thought how crazy this sounded and would never be like that, but still not being able to wash my sheets for 3 months is truly awful in my book, so the everyday might have to happen if these were my only two choices!
Your great-grandmother was a BOSS!! She did an entire re-wash just because a cat jumped on the bed? This was probably in the day when you didn’t just easily throw your sheets in the washer and dryer, too. HARD CORE! No wonder you picked every day over once in three months…it’s in your genes, Janine!
No washing, easy! If I did sheets daily I wouldn’t have time for any other laundry. What would I wear?
I’m sure I went three months during college once or twice and lived to tell the tale.
Between you and me, I think I was on a “once a quarter” sheet changing schedule in college and I survived. I’m with you, Robin!
Oh this chic would be changing them everyday if I have to choose! 3 month of not changing sheets and my mind immediately goes to the magnified pics of those dinosaur looking bed mites that are crawling around us as we sleep. I’m getting itchy just thinking about them! {sigh} Excuse me while I go strip my bed and wash the sheets. Is anyone else itchy?
I would just have to live with the dust mites, Susie. I could name them and they would become like pets. I wouldn’t even have to send them to the kennel if I took a trip! BEST. PETS. EVER! 😀
3 months for MY sheets. My kids’ I would have to do every day because blech.
Hmmm…I didn’t really think about that, Sarah. But my girls still take their baths at night, so I figure they are super clean when they go to bed anyway. If I’m going three months, they can too! 😀
I’d change my sheets! I must have clean sheets. Daily would get wearing, but I cannot sleep in filthy sheets.
I hear you, Amber, but I can’t sleep if I’m disgruntled from washing and changing sheets all day! 😀
Dirty sheets, no question.
WORD! Now you and I have time to go grab a coffee (since we won’t be slaves to our bedding!)
Dirty sheets for three months?!? No way! The best day of the week is clean sheet day. It would be more work to have clean sheet day be every day, but worth it to avoid months of dirty sheets for sure.
I do really love clean sheet day too, Patti. But I think I appreciate it because it doesn’t come too often. 😀
I am no clean freak by any stretch of the imagination but I gotta go with cleaning my sheets every day, there is something really nice about sleeping on clean sheets and I could not choose to sleep in dirty sheets for three months! You guys always have the best questions! xo
It would have been an easy question if it had been one month, but three is stretching it. Even if the washing and drying is a breeze (and it’s not!) all of the bed making would do me in day after day…after day. I’m just going to have to Pigpen it!
Easy peasy! Wash and dry those sheets every day for 3 months. I mean seriously now, do you know how much hair and skin we shed each and every day? And the dust mites! Now let me get back to my laundry 😉
I feel like easy peasy and washing sheets every day for 3 months should not be in the same sentence together, Teri…but I feel you. I can always whip out my dust buster if things get a little flaky! 😀
I’d go no washing. Every day would be such a pain! And both hubs and I are night shower-ers, so they can’t get that bad, right?
Same here, Shell. We are not dirtying our sheets…our pristine bodies are making them cleaner just by lying there! In three months they will probably be cleaner than when we first put them on the bed! 😀
No freaking time to change sheets every day, in fact, we don’t make the bed either…so there’s that….No washing-hell, I did it in college, why stop now?
Well, that was a picture of my actual bed up there…so you know my position on bed making. I’m just going to unmake it when I get in bed in about 14 hours, so why bother? I’m just being efficient about my time usage! 😀
Stripping the sheets every day just doesn’t do it for me. I’m going dirty sheets. I’m too lazy!
You and me both, Jennifer. It’s just not going to happen. I could probably make it 3 days in a row, then I’d collapse.
I couldn’t handle washing them daily. Dirty sheets for this chick. We just have to hope that no one pees, leaks or gets sick on my bed in those 3 months!
I’m with you! We’ll just be keeping all of our crossables crossed that there are no incidents and we’re good as gold! 😀
Dirty sheets, easy. I could always take a shower before I went to bed if I was especially funky.
Not sure the college kid will actually change his sheets, may have 4 sets in the closet that never get used.
So true. Sheet changing isn’t on the radar of most college kids. I’m not sure I even took a second set of sheets to college. If I did, I used them exclusively for toga parties.
Ok so I am feeling like the worst mother of the year. 5 sets of fresh sheets for the college kid? My 2 got 2 each and yes they both texted me to celebrate wash day. Hmmmmm let’s just say it wasn’t daily … As for me? I’m too happy reading and writing blogs and commenting to wash sheets daily so let’s put me in the dirty column, shall we?
You can sit in the dirty column with us, Kelly. We may have a few flies buzzing our heads, but we are a happy bunch! (because we don’t have backaches from all the bending we’d have to do changing our sheets each day)
Mmmm..Yeah….no. I’d have to be in the 90 day category. I have other stuff I could be doing, like anything else. I can’t manage to catch up on Orange is the New Black so how exactly am I supposed to wash sheets every day? We’d never make it though. My husband would inevitably drop some sort of beverage on them, either just before bed or when he’s getting up for work. However it’s usually just after I’ve changed said sheets so maybe it’d be alright.
Exactly! How on EARTH could I do so much washing and changing when there is such a thing as Netflix? I think if we drop something we could just put some newspaper over it. PROBLEM SOLVED! 😀
Yup - I DID think this was gonna be a doosie!
BUT GAH…I don’t like dirty sheets but washing them and making the bed EVERYDAY - NO WAY!!! I think I will stew in my dirty sheets for 3 months!
We feel you, Shashi. Three months is a long time…but DAILY? No thanks! That’s just un-doable over here! It would never happen! 😀
Easy. The latter. Heck, I may be on month 3 now. After 15 years of marriage we just bought new sheets and I’m stalling putting them on the bed because they just seem so clean. This may be a Catholic guilt thing. Or just a regular crazy thing. Or maybe a tiny little bedbug has made a home in my brain and is controlling my thoughts. Ok, now I’m itchy. But I still probably won’t wash the sheets till the weekend. After next.
Bwahahahaha. I think we might be related, Liz! This was a no-brainer for me, too! Come sit over here with me and the little bed mites on our shoulders can meet and become friends.:D
Kind of a good question, for us washing every day really not that bad, doesn’t take long to get off bed & back on. Of course I go with dirty though.
Your definition of “not that bad” and “doesn’t take long” is very different than mine, Bill…but we still end up at the same place anyway! Whew!
I’d go with the clean sheets. 90 days is just too much for me to take.
I hear you, Kris…but washing sheets 90 days in a row and putting them back on your bed sounds brutal,too. Maybe we should all just check into a hotel where they will change the sheets for us!
I’d have to do it every day. No way could I last 3 months. One month? Sure. No problem. Maybe even 2. But 3 ain’t happening. I’d be sleeping on the couch.
I like the idea of sleeping on the couch…but I don’t wash that either! (Which is actually probably worse when you consider how much we sit there!) 😀
I’ve never owned 5 sets of sheets at the same time ever in my life! Uh oh. So you know what category I’m in! Depending on the weather (if it’s super hot out I’ll change them more often), sheets and towels get changed at my house once a week. Martha Stewart would frown. lol
But I bet Martha has peasants to wash and change her bedding. We cannot be held to her standard, Linda!
Sure I’d love the clean sheets? But we all know I wouldn’t wash them daily. So I guess I’m in the 3-month club.
We wouldn’t wash them daily either, Marcia. That sounds like absolute TORTURE! I’d rather just lie there and swat away the dust mites as necessary.
Dirty sheets. I’m pretty sure that’s happened already anyway just because having to go to the laundromat really sucks. But… if having to do my own sheets every day meant having a washer and dryer in the house maybe I’d reconsider. Nah, dirty sheets for the win!
We’re fully on board with the dirty sheet plan, Tara. Anything else just sounds too “go getter-y” to me. We are firmly in the non-go getter camp for all things housekeeping.
One of my blogging friends (Brittnei) wrote about how she changes her sheets and her kid’s sheets at least once a week.. or maybe even more.. and that they never get sick!
I would go with washing. Sounds like such a pain but the pets all wind up in our bed, and both kids too.
I would think all of that washing would be unhealthy. If you never put your immune system to the test, how can it prove it’s worthiness?
No waaaay would I be washing the dang sheets every day! I have a strategy. I would alternate the side of the bed I slept on for the 3 months. LOL
That’s an excellent idea, Tricia! I like the way your mind works! Well done!
Well, I can tell you that I’m in the every other to 3 week category, too and there is NO WAY that I’m washing sheets every day!!!
We’re with you, Kim! It’s just not going to happen every day. We have survived our modest changing schedule thus far…we’d risk the 3 months for sure!
I end up sweaty with a backache every time I change the bed, so… Dirty. And don’t ask how long I go between changes right now.
Exactly, Jenn! Changing the sheets is totes exhausting! (and don’t worry…we won’t ask about your current schedule. But don’t worry…it can’t be less frequent than ours!)
There is no way I’m changing and washing all the sheets in our house every single day for three months. Not.happening.ever. This mom doesn’t need to be any more sleep deprived! I choose dirty. At lease I shower after getting up, so the stink should get rinsed off.
Good point! You’re going to take a shower anyway?! Why also strain your back from all that sheet changing and washing?!
With two dogs that like to sleep with us… I’d go for washing them every single day. They would be pretty nasty if I’d not do it for three months!!
I do think dogs change everything Jeanne…and how helpful would it be if they could change the sheets, too! 😉
I feel horrible I wash sheets once a month but can’t stand when the hubs lays in bed and does not bath. You can’t lay in my bed without taking a shower….now I feel dirty
I hear you Kita…being a night shower person keeps the sheets cleaner!
Without question, I would choose the same sheets for 3 months. Now if I still had our cat that yacked up hairballs on the bed every three days I’d be singing a different tune.
A million years ago when I was in college we had an on-campus laundry service that delivered clean sets of sheets every week to anyone who traded in their dirty sheets. Shhhh, don’t tell anyone but I didn’t turn my sheets in every week.
HA HA HA Mo! Your college secret is safe with me…how much would we all LOVE that same service today!! Clean sheets for everyone!
Maybe I’m lazy, or seriously disgusting, but I’d rather deal with 3-month-old sheets than cleaning them every single day. Oy!
Not lazy or seriously disgusting at all. We are with you 100% Bev!
I think I already sleep on sheets without washing them for 3 months. This is in direct rebellion to my mother who made us wash our sheets every Saturday growing up and put them back on. Take that mom! And don’t mind the minor skin rash we all have…
HA HA HA Katy! You definitely are showing her who is boss now! 😉
3 months. I hate to admit how easy this decision was. Laundry is the chore i hate most. I would rather do dishes, clean the bathroom, and dust til my allergies are overwhelming than do laundry.
The chore I hate most? All of them. So it was easy for me, too! 😉
3 months?!?! Yikes! Guess it is strip the bed, wash and dry the sheets, remake the bed, repeat daily for 3 months for me! I got completely grossed out imagining the alternative, thankyouverymuch! I’ll be sure to send you my therapy bill. 😉
LOL Julie! Sorry for the trauma from this question! 😉
I must change my sheets once a week; by day seven I’m getting grossed out. So as much as I’d hate it, I would change my sheets every day. Or I’d make my husband do it.
Yeah, having clean sheets is great…let us know if you are able to rope your hubby into it! 😉
OH HELLL no am I changing them every day! I can’t STAND doing the fitted sheets. I choose 3 months. Or never- over every day!
Never works for me, too! 😉
Ha ha I do hate changing out the bed so dirty sheets for me ha ha!
It is really such an exhausting chore Natalie!
I would not want to change the sheets every day but the thought of 3 months…ugh. I have animals that sleep with us. But…they are on top of the sheets. Can I wash the blanket? If I had to wash sheets that often, I’d never get the rest of our laundry done and I’d be wearing dirty clothes…so the real question here is dirty clothes or dirty sheets. I guess I’m going with dirty sheets.
Great point Michelle…if I was washing and drying every day all the clothes would stay dirty!
I don’t mind washing my sheets but the thought of having to do it every single day is mind-numbing. So I’d lay in the dirty.
I use a different clean towel every day. I didn’t know that people didn’t!
Lisa is so relieved to hear that someone else is a daily towel switcher, too Terra!
To be honest, even thinking about having to change my sheets every day gives me anxiety… I’d rather not change it for 3 months!
And I mean, Febreze is a thing for a reason, people!
Febreeze is the greatest Paulina! We are so with you!