Make Your Bed!

Sometimes I misquote my mother. While her voice is often in my head, her advice can get a little muddled. (Sorry Mom!) Anyway, I am sharing a little of her wisdom here today.

I can't quite remember if my mom used to tell me "A house isn't tidy unless all the beds are made" or  "A house always feels cleaner when the beds are made."  Either way, the statements are both true.

My mom would agree with this quote from a commencement speech at the University of Texas!

Almost instantly, when you make a bed the room feels better.  More organized, neater.  Just that simple accomplishment often spurs me on to pick up the rest of the room.  If having a tidy home isn't reason enough, a neatly made bed is much more welcoming at the end of a day than a rumpled one.

I think I was an adult before I really learned to make my bed, or cared at all about how or if I even made it. 

Through middle school, I rode a school bus for 30 minutes to get to school.  My mom expected that I would neatly make my bed before I left the house.  I can remember more than one occasion when my exasperated parent marched me back upstairs to complete the task, despite my pleas that the bus was coming and I would miss it.  I knew every short cut, or so I thought. Just pulling the bedspread up over the pillow, without regard to sheets and blankets underneath was my specialty. Somehow though, my mom never fell for it!

We moved to a different house when I was a pre-teen.  My twin sister and I shared a huge room, in which there was a double bed and a twin.  I picked the twin - I had no interest in the added challenge of making a bigger bed.

My mom used to tell me, "Susan, you will never be a nurse unless you learn to make a bed."  

Imagine my surprise, when as a nursing student we actually were tested on bed making! A nurse must make life and death decisions, and is required to have a solid knowledge of human anatomy, biology, physiology, pharmacology and pathophysiology.  In comparison, bed making seems mundane, but it is an important part of patient care. Hospitalized patients sometimes spend many hours in bed. A mere wrinkle can lead to discomfort, or worse yet, a bedsore. My mom was right - I needed to know how to make a bed!  

I am sure my mother had her doubts that it would ever happen.  

I have, however, learned not only how to make a bed tightly enough that a quarter could bounce off it's surface, but I am even proficient at changing all the linens on a bed while an occupant is lying in it.

Not only that - - it is a very unusual day when I do not make my bed!

A buffalo rests on the bed in our guest room when guests are not in it!

A while ago, I wrote a post about writer's block.  In it I mentioned some of the ways I come up with ideas for the articles I write. Can you guess when I got this idea?  Yes, indeed - I was making my bed!

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