Since it’s Friday, I figure it’s as good a day as any to bring up what could be a heated, controversial topic. Just remember that a comment is forever (unless I decide to delete it), so don’t be too quick to judge me or anyone else who may conduct their life with the same beliefs as me.
It all started Wednesday night. I was talking to Boomama on the phone and, as usual, we were solving a myriad of complicated life issues, in between sharing what we had recently read in People magazine and our thoughts on Sarah Jessica Parker’s new fashion line. We are always striving for enlightenment and exploring the deeper issues. Anyway, she was getting packed and ready for her big trip and as a sidenote said, “Alex is sleeping in our bed tonight so that I don’t have to make up his bed before we leave for the airport tomorrow morning.”
What did she just say? I think I just heard some crazy talk.
Suddenly, nothing else mattered. Some of y’all may think my shock was due to Alex sleeping in her bed, but you would be wrong. I completely get that part. I find myself sharing my bed at least 3 nights of the week with my own 3 foot tall, 32 pound person, who somehow defies physics and takes up more bed space than a full grown adult. Having a toddler in bed with you isn’t a hot topic, it’s practically a way of life.
I asked Boomama the question that was echoing off the walls of my brain, “Would you really make up his bed before you left for the airport if he slept in it?” And without skipping a beat, she answered, “Absolutely. I never leave my house without making all the beds because I’m convinced something bad would happen to me and my mama would come to my house and find all my beds unmade. It would be a huge embarrassment.”
I’m just going to come clean right now before God, the internet, and my mother-in-law. I do not make my bed in the morning, which is kind of interesting considering that I cross the border on obsessive about the rest of the house. In fact, the only time my bed really ever gets made is if someone is coming to visit who has never been here before and I’m concerned they may ask for a tour. I completely justify this lack of bed making by telling myself that because my bedroom is at the very back of our house, no one ever sees it.
And it’s not like P cares if the bed is made or not. He slept in a sleeping bag on top of his made up bed every night of his life growing up so that he could just roll up the sleeping bag and toss it under the bed in the morning. It’s really a brilliant plan in its simplicity. Here’s hoping that Caroline has inherited that propensity for coming up with creative solutions to avoiding chores.
Lest any of you think that maybe my bed doesn’t look so bad in its unmade state, I’ll show you this.
Oh yes, it’s very attractive and sadly, it takes a lot of effort to get it to look like that. In fact, it takes me longer to unmake the bed than it does to make the bed. P and I discovered about 3 days into our marriage that if we continued to try to share the same covers, we would be on the fast track to divorce court. So he pulled out that attractive, yellow comforter, which was actually my bedspread throughout college and has a lovely, floral print on the other side, and has been using it every night for the last 10 years. During the winter months, he adds a lovely flannel sheet with penguins printed all over it.
The whole look is really right out of Southern Living.
I sleep under the down comforter with the blue checked duvet cover, which actually used to belong to Gulley. We are obviously all about the fine linens here at our house. And those lumps that y’all may see under all those attractive bedcovers aren’t us, they are the collection of 182 pillows that we sleep with every night.
And when we travel, we bring them with us. Doesn’t that make you want us as houseguests? We’re very low maintenance.
This morning I actually got up and made our bed. Honestly, I had forgotten how pretty it looks when it’s all made up. If something terrible were to ever happen to me, I’d definitely prefer that my bedroom be found in this state as opposed to the other. Boomama might have the right idea.
So, here’s the big question. Do you make your bed every day? Is it a crucial part of your daily routine? Or are you like me and feel like you’re just going to sleep in it again in about 12 hours, no one sees it anyway, so why bother? Also, someone please tell me that you’re as high maintenance regarding the unmaking of the bed as I am.
I’m hoping I’m not alone, because if I am, I may have to delete this post to preserve my reputation.