Where are the sheets???

[theelfqueen]

I was just looking at a thing where people posted pics of their kids playrooms/bedrooms. Many of these photos included beds which had blankets on them... but no sheets? Do people serioisly sleep with no sheets? I'm legit confused by this. I have never in my life slept on an exposed mattress that's so weird to me. 

Do you see things like this online where you are just distracted by something unintentional (who puts ~condimentX~ on ~foodY~ is another one for me) ....

Edited February 21, 2020 by theelfqueen

[vonfirmath]

No sheets at all or no flat sheet?

I have fitted sheets on my kids beds, but not a flat sheet.  That's how I grew up too.

[theelfqueen]

No sheets at all. Exposed mattress. 

And other furnishings/toys in photos point to standard middle class US/western homes. 

Edited February 21, 2020 by theelfqueen

[Scarlett]

That is so weird.  I know many people don't use a top sheet but even that seems weird to me.  It seems like you would be washing blankets more often.

My step son doesn't use a top sheet and it bugs me to death.  

[mellifera33]

I've noticed the no bottom sheet phenomenon in certain reality shows--hoarding or clean-up type shows--but not in real life. I have to admit though that my kids don't use a top sheet. They always ended up on the floor/stuffed in a closet/etc. and it wasn't the hill on which I wished to die. I wash the blankets often. I'd have to do that anyway though, because the pets like to sleep on the kids' beds and the blankets start to look like plush if they aren't washed. 

You'd think that I'd notice the weird stuff in houses--I tend to watch HGTV or house-related reality shows while I'm exercising--but maybe my house is weird enough that nothing seems weird to me? I think it's weird to have an immaculate house when you've got a bunch of kids, but some people manage to do it. lol

Edited February 21, 2020 by mellifera33

[gardenmom5]

1 hour ago, theelfqueen said:

I was just looking at a thing where people posted pics of their kids playrooms/bedrooms. Many of these photos included beds which had blankets on them... but no sheets? Do people serioisly sleep with no sheets? I'm legit confused by this. I have never in my life slept on an exposed mattress that's so weird to me. 

Do you see things like this online where you are just distracted by something unintentional (who puts ~condimentX~ on ~foodY~ is another one for me) ....

I had a childhood playmate - never had sheets.  house was always a disaster as mom couldn't be bothered.  they had money, and what would have been a very nice house for the area if properly cared for. very large piece of dirt for the area, and the gardens were professionally landscaped.

[beaners]

3 minutes ago, mellifera33 said:

I've noticed the no bottom sheet phenomenon in certain reality shows--hoarding or clean-up type shows--but not in real life. I have to admit though that my kids don't use a top sheet. They always ended up on the floor/stuffed in a closet/etc. and it wasn't the hill on which I wished to die. I wash the blankets often. I'd have to do that anyway though, because the pets like to sleep on the kids' beds and the blankets start to look like plush if they aren't washed. 

You'd think that I'd notice the weird stuff in houses--I tend to watch HGTV or house-related reality shows while I'm exercising--but maybe my house is weird enough that nothing seems weird to me? I think it's weird to have an immaculate house when you've got a bunch of kids, but some people manage to do it. lol

 

I once saw a checklist for a hoarder scale. Not having sheets on the bed was on there. Ever since then I am fanatical about this. I don't care so much about flat sheets on top, but they have to have a fitted sheet on there at all times. My kids look at me like I'm crazy! They will strip the bed to make a fort, or want to wait for a certain set of sheets to come out of the wash, and here I come with a fitted sheet to put on the mattress. 

 

[Miss Tick]

Sleeping on the polyester covering that most traditional mattresses use would make my skin go crazy! Ick

[SamanthaCarter]

Maybe the photos were just staged? 

My kids don’t use top flat sheets, but they have duvets. The covers get washed as if they functioned as the top sheet. 

[Carol in Cal.]

Wow.

Never without a mattress protector AND a bottom sheet.  I used top sheets as well, but have seen people just use a puffy blanket for both sheet and blanket--I guess that's fine if  you change your decor a lot, but it's harder on the blanket because you have to wash it more often if you don't have a sheet on it.  I think the idea came from those bunk bed sleeping bags that went directly on the mattress because it's so hard to make a bed over your head.  Or maybe from the duvets that are used in Europe to encase the blankets.

[Ottakee]

I have waterproof mattress covers (the nice soft cloth kind) on EVERY mattress in this house as the covers are $15-20 and washable but my mattresses are $$$$ and not washable.

I personally have a full set of sheets on my bed.  My kids opt for just the fitted sheet some/most of the time with a comforter.  I don't fret about the top sheet thing but I am a stickler on the mattress pad (waterproof) and fitted sheet.

[Pawz4me]

Our mattresses only get to be naked for as long as it takes me to wash the mattress pad. Then it goes back on along with a bottom sheet. We use top sheets, too, but I don't have a strong opinion about an actual need for those. It's just a preference.

I'm puzzling over why naked mattresses correlate with hoarding behavior??? I could understand a correlation with poverty.

[Chris in VA]

OP if it was the Kim Kardashian, "post your messy bedroom/playroom" thing, I think the beds without bottom sheets were just "unmade" because kids had taken them off, and it was just part of the general mess. 

[Tanaqui]

Quote

I'm puzzling over why naked mattresses correlate with hoarding behavior??? I could understand a correlation with poverty.

 

Can confirm, didn't use bottom sheets during my adolescence when my mother was full-on hoarding and we lived in varying states of squalor.

Sheets have to be washed, they get shoved off the bed as you sleep, you have to find them in all the stuff, you have to shove stuff off the bed to replace the sheets... a lot of things fall apart or get destroyed when you have too much stuff to keep track of. Sheets are one of the easiest things to live without, and if nobody cares about putting the top sheet on the bed you're not going to wrangle it.

With that said, if you're not living in a bad situation then it's a personal choice.

[beaners]

17 minutes ago, Pawz4me said:

Our mattresses only get to be naked for as long as it takes me to wash the mattress pad. Then it goes back on along with a bottom sheet. We use top sheets, too, but I don't have a strong opinion about an actual need for those. It's just a preference.

I'm puzzling over why naked mattresses correlate with hoarding behavior??? I could understand a correlation with poverty.

 

The correlation is the lack of organizational structure, combined with the lack of home routines. People don't have clean sheets on the bed, but they have ten sets of sheets piled up taking space somewhere.  Beds become a surface to put things on when there are no other places for things to go.

There are certain habits that are pretty common when people aren't managing well. Piling stuff in the tub is another one. It was mind blowing to a teen we mentored that we didn't pile all our laundry in an unused bathtub. 

[Annie G]

The Duggar family has been talked about for years because their kids’ beds were frequently shown without sheets.  My question is this- we wash sheets, so without a sheet on the mattress how is the mattress not grungy? I know stuff migrates through sheets to the mattress but that clean sheet on top HAS to feel better than just sleeping on a mattress. 
 

[athena1277]

When I was in high school, I babysat for a family from our church.  It was a school night and the parents would be home really late, so we worked it out for me to just spend the night.  Nice middle class family, house clean and maintained.  After the kids were in bed, I want to go to sleep myself on the daybed in their guest room.  There were no sheets on the bed, only a comforter.  I thought, we maybe they just pull out the trundle so they don’t have to remake the bed.  Nope.  No sheets there.  The kids were asleep and this is way before cell phones.  I finally, with a few frustrated tears, decided to sleep on the bare mattress.  They never commented about it, so I have no idea if that was their norm, or if it they just forgot to put the sheets on it.

[bolt.]

But how can you tell in a photo whether there's a sheet there or not? Are you seeing mattress labels or something?

In any case, my charitable interpretation is that people maybe frequently take a photo on cleaning day -- when the space as a whole looks nice -- while the sheets are in the wash, and will be returned by bed time.

[Scarlett]

1 hour ago, athena1277 said:

When I was in high school, I babysat for a family from our church.  It was a school night and the parents would be home really late, so we worked it out for me to just spend the night.  Nice middle class family, house clean and maintained.  After the kids were in bed, I want to go to sleep myself on the daybed in their guest room.  There were no sheets on the bed, only a comforter.  I thought, we maybe they just pull out the trundle so they don’t have to remake the bed.  Nope.  No sheets there.  The kids were asleep and this is way before cell phones.  I finally, with a few frustrated tears, decided to sleep on the bare mattress.  They never commented about it, so I have no idea if that was their norm, or if it they just forgot to put the sheets on it.

One time dh and I house sat for his cousin. Nice family.  Clean home.  Not a single kitchen towel or cloth to wash dishes with in the house.  I am still perplexed by it.

And one time I came in late to a rented house on a business trip.  My co-workers had arrived before me and so I was stuck with the sofa. I arrived at midnight and everyone was asleep. Someone had' thoughtfully' put a sheet and pillow out for me.  No blanket. I was freezing to death all night.  I was so distraught I almost called another co-worker who lived in that town and asked for help, but I was afraid of how it would look to his wife.  

[Tanaqui]

7 hours ago, Annie G said:

The Duggar family has been talked about for years because their kids’ beds were frequently shown without sheets.  My question is this- we wash sheets, so without a sheet on the mattress how is the mattress not grungy? I know stuff migrates through sheets to the mattress but that clean sheet on top HAS to feel better than just sleeping on a mattress.

 

If there's no sheets because of a bad home situation, I promise you, that's the very least of your concerns. Like, it's not even on the list, and neither is the pillowcase question.

Which all reminds me,  I ought to do some serious laundry and get my sheets in there. There isn't "stuff" on my bed, but the dogs are usually there and they complain when I strip the sheet out from under them!

[Annie G]

7 minutes ago, Tanaqui said:

 

If there's no sheets because of a bad home situation, I promise you, that's the very least of your concerns. Like, it's not even on the list, and neither is the pillowcase question.

Which all reminds me,  I ought to do some serious laundry and get my sheets in there. There isn't "stuff" on my bed, but the dogs are usually there and they complain when I strip the sheet out from under them!

Oh, I never meant to imply it as a sign of a bad home situation.  We make our beds every day because we like climbing into a nicely made bed at the end of the day.  But some people couldn’t care less about a bed being made...so I figured some probably just don’t care about sheets.  Though I can’t imagine WHY anyone would choose to sleep without sheets because eventually the mattress would feel icky. 
I commented on the Duggars because I’d never seen anyone regularly sleep without sheets until I saw it on their show. Sure, sometimes it happens when a kid throws up or wets the bed in the middle of the night, but not regularly.  And they clearly have funds to buy and wash sheets, so it’s not a money thing.  
If kids are being abused I don’t care whether they have any bedding...you and I agree on that point!

[Katy]

5 hours ago, Scarlett said:

One time dh and I house sat for his cousin. Nice family.  Clean home.  Not a single kitchen towel or cloth to wash dishes with in the house.  I am still perplexed by it.

And one time I came in late to a rented house on a business trip.  My co-workers had arrived before me and so I was stuck with the sofa. I arrived at midnight and everyone was asleep. Someone had' thoughtfully' put a sheet and pillow out for me.  No blanket. I was freezing to death all night.  I was so distraught I almost called another co-worker who lived in that town and asked for help, but I was afraid of how it would look to his wife.  

 

Did they use brushes or sponges instead?  I have a container with clean crochet dish cloths under the sink for when my mom comes over, but I don't like washing with them.  I use plastic brushes with nylon bristles.  They have a scraper built into the back and they can go through the dishwasher when they get gross so I never have that gross bacteria smell from a dish cloth or sponge left out too long. I do have two drawers of towels though- one with pretty hand towels and one with flour sack cloths I use for drying or when I want something bleachable.

[Scarlett]

11 hours ago, Katy said:

 

Did they use brushes or sponges instead?  I have a container with clean crochet dish cloths under the sink for when my mom comes over, but I don't like washing with them.  I use plastic brushes with nylon bristles.  They have a scraper built into the back and they can go through the dishwasher when they get gross so I never have that gross bacteria smell from a dish cloth or sponge left out too long. I do have two drawers of towels though- one with pretty hand towels and one with flour sack cloths I use for drying or when I want something bleachable.

I don’t remember.  I think they had a sponge but I don’t like using a sponge unless I know how long it has been used.  I don’t even buy them.  But there was no towel in the kitchen for drying dishes or hands.  

In my own kitchen I have white towels and cloths only and  they go to the laundry at the end of each day.  Theoretically kitchen hand towels should only be used for drying clean dishes or clean hands, and thus could be used for a couple of days, but I don’t trust the other people who use my kitchen.  

[Pen]

I’m curious to see a link to this sort of blankets no sheets phenomenon!

 

I often notice statues in high places and think “earthquake”— but pics of statues in high places probably aren’t from earthquakes areas

[Kanin]

I use a fitted sheet and no top sheet, because DH wraps up like a burrito and the sheet always ends up coiling around him or stuffed at the bottom of the bed. It makes me crazy. So now we use a thin blanket as the bottom layer, and somehow it doesn't get coiled up like the sheet, and I just wash the blanket when I wash the fitted sheet. 

[Paige]

Maybe they just cleaned up to take the picture and the sheets are in the wash! My kids hate flat sheets and I've given up on putting those on the bed most of the time. It bothers me. I was taught that the sheet is supposed to protect the blanket from wear.

[Farrar]

I've read that young people don't use top sheets at all. We're not fans here.

The fitting sheet thing is an ongoing battle I have with one of my teens. He refuses to put the thing on. If it starts to come off, he lets it and then pulls it all the way off and won't replace it. I don't feel like it's a personal preference... I feel like he's ruining the mattress. It's icky.

[Tanaqui]

You're supposed to replace the mattress every 7 - 10 years, so just toss it when he moves out?

[Scarlett]

1 hour ago, Farrar said:

I've read that young people don't use top sheets at all. We're not fans here.

The fitting sheet thing is an ongoing battle I have with one of my teens. He refuses to put the thing on. If it starts to come off, he lets it and then pulls it all the way off and won't replace it. I don't feel like it's a personal preference... I feel like he's ruining the mattress. It's icky.

I would not deal with that well. 

[Farrar]

15 minutes ago, Scarlett said:

I would not deal with that well. 

I'm pretty chill with my kids over everything that isn't cruelty to others so it's not like I'm in there battling him over it all the time, but every once in awhile, I wade into the mess that's his room and lose it a little bit, I admit.

[Paige]

2 hours ago, Farrar said:

I've read that young people don't use top sheets at all. We're not fans here.

The fitting sheet thing is an ongoing battle I have with one of my teens. He refuses to put the thing on. If it starts to come off, he lets it and then pulls it all the way off and won't replace it. I don't feel like it's a personal preference... I feel like he's ruining the mattress. It's icky.

Have you tried those clips that hold the fitted sheet onto the mattress? I was losing my mind over DS's sheets and the clips solve the problem most of the time. I end up having to fix them a few times a year instead of seeing the sheets pulled off every time I went in. 

[KungFuPanda]

On 2/22/2020 at 10:06 AM, Scarlett said:

I don’t remember.  I think they had a sponge but I don’t like using a sponge unless I know how long it has been used.  I don’t even buy them.  But there was no towel in the kitchen for drying dishes or hands.  

In my own kitchen I have white towels and cloths only and  they go to the laundry at the end of each day.  Theoretically kitchen hand towels should only be used for drying clean dishes or clean hands, and thus could be used for a couple of days, but I don’t trust the other people who use my kitchen.  

Some people use paper towels for EVERYTHING. I use a combination of white washcloths, dish cloths, dish towels, cloth napkins, and paper napkins, and a sponge (that I dump boiling water on then run in the dishwasher most nights).  I can see why people would streamline with the towels, but I just can't.  I roll of paper towels lasts me for a couple months.  I usually just use them for draining fried foods and for guests.

[Corraleno]

19 hours ago, Farrar said:

The fitting sheet thing is an ongoing battle I have with one of my teens. He refuses to put the thing on. If it starts to come off, he lets it and then pulls it all the way off and won't replace it. I don't feel like it's a personal preference... I feel like he's ruining the mattress. It's icky.

I used to have that problem with DS, which I solved by using a really thick quilted cotton mattress pad from Lands End that never comes off, topped with a king-size flat sheet that I use as a bottom sheet (bed is twin XL) with clips under the mattress to hold it in place. On the off chance the sheet does come off (or he leaves it in the dryer and goes to bed without it) at least the mattress is totally covered by a thick pad that never comes off because the sides are really deep and stretchy and the elastic goes really far under the bed. Most mattress pads are pretty skimpy and the elastic barely holds it on, so they come off just as easily as fitted sheets do. We have the Lands End Supima Cotton pads on all the beds in our house, plus DS's bed at college, and they don't come off unless you wrestle them off.

You can also get mattress covers that cover the entire mattress on all sides and zip closed, but they're usually waterproof and bedbug-proof, so they can be hot. But you could always use a zippered bedbug cover plus a thick cotton pad like the Lands End one, and just wash the mattress cover every week like you would a bottom sheet. 

[theelfqueen]

This was the thing... though I was looking at a different article ... look at the Avengers comforter on a loft and the one with the girl sleeping on the floor... naked mattresses... you can see the fabric and the shape that is clearly mattress not sheet and its definitely not "I just cleaned the room" 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-8026187/amp/Parents-share-photos-kids-messes-Kim-Kardashian-showed-childrens-neat-playroom.html

Edited February 23, 2020 by theelfqueen

[Laura Corin]

1 hour ago, theelfqueen said:

This was the thing... though I was looking at a different article ... look at the Avengers comforter on a loft and the one with the girl sleeping on the floor... naked mattresses... you can see the fabric and the shape that is clearly mattress not sheet and its definitely not "I just cleaned the room" 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-8026187/amp/Parents-share-photos-kids-messes-Kim-Kardashian-showed-childrens-neat-playroom.html

Maybe the rooms were set up with beds but they are actually only used for play, including blankets for snuggles 

[Shoeless]

8 hours ago, theelfqueen said:

This was the thing... though I was looking at a different article ... look at the Avengers comforter on a loft and the one with the girl sleeping on the floor... naked mattresses... you can see the fabric and the shape that is clearly mattress not sheet and its definitely not "I just cleaned the room" 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-8026187/amp/Parents-share-photos-kids-messes-Kim-Kardashian-showed-childrens-neat-playroom.html

 

One of my relatives does not use sheets for the kids' beds.  The house is a wreck 24/7. Not hoarder-level of wreck, but you can't run the vacuum because the toy-layer is 3-6 inches deep across the whole house.  Sheets-on-the-bed is something they've given up on, because they figure the house is going to be a constant wreck from kids for the next 5+ years, so not dealing with sheets is one less thing to manage.

I kind of don't understand that outlook, but 🤷‍♂️

[Scarlett]

16 hours ago, theelfqueen said:

This was the thing... though I was looking at a different article ... look at the Avengers comforter on a loft and the one with the girl sleeping on the floor... naked mattresses... you can see the fabric and the shape that is clearly mattress not sheet and its definitely not "I just cleaned the room" 

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-8026187/amp/Parents-share-photos-kids-messes-Kim-Kardashian-showed-childrens-neat-playroom.html

After looking at those pictures I think the missing sheets is the least of the problems.  Of course KKs photos are going to be all staged and perfect....but wow, those other pics are at the other end of the extreme.  Why let your kids make that big of a mess. ugh. I about had a heart attack looking at those pics and now I need to get up and clean house. 

[hjffkj]

3 hours ago, Scarlett said:

After looking at those pictures I think the missing sheets is the least of the problems.  Of course KKs photos are going to be all staged and perfect....but wow, those other pics are at the other end of the extreme.  Why let your kids make that big of a mess. ugh. I about had a heart attack looking at those pics and now I need to get up and clean house. 

But see in most of those pictures it doesn't even look like an issue of the kids making a mess. It look more like an issue of having way too many toys. Many of those pictures seem to make it clear that there would even be room in the room to organize the toys well. 

The first picture and one of the last ones(kid in tv room with toys on floor) look like normal wild play session where.all the toys were used. The rest just look like a mess because there is no where for toys to be stored.

[scholastica]

8 hours ago, Scarlett said:

After looking at those pictures I think the missing sheets is the least of the problems.  Of course KKs photos are going to be all staged and perfect....but wow, those other pics are at the other end of the extreme.  Why let your kids make that big of a mess. ugh. I about had a heart attack looking at those pics and now I need to get up and clean house. 

Watching Hoarders does that to me.

[Tanaqui]

17 hours ago, MissLemon said:

 

One of my relatives does not use sheets for the kids' beds.  The house is a wreck 24/7. Not hoarder-level of wreck, but you can't run the vacuum because the toy-layer is 3-6 inches deep across the whole house.  Sheets-on-the-bed is something they've given up on, because they figure the house is going to be a constant wreck from kids for the next 5+ years, so not dealing with sheets is one less thing to manage.

I kind of don't understand that outlook, but 🤷‍♂️

 

I don't know if you're engaging in hyperbole, but if they really can't vacuum because there is stuff over all the floor, and they've stopped making the beds simply because they can't handle the stuff that's all over, then you're almost certainly looking at what is, at the least, the beginnings of a hoarding situation. Even if it's all toys, that signifies nothing.

I've seen this dynamic actually not in my family but in another family that used to live on my block. The mom was keeping mail and papers in the microwave because there was no space for them, and this she chalked up to the four year old's things being all over. Not her, not her husband - the four year old. They moved to a big house eventually and, sure enough, the house filled up within months. And she still blamed the kid. (And cycling back to the topic, no, the kid didn't have sheets on her bed. Honestly, the hoarding situation was the least of the problems with that family. They'd had child services called on them, and I can only imagine that they never actually entered the house because nothing ever happened. Maybe people waited too late to call - child services is a lot less likely to act after a certain age, but I feel like they would've done something if people had called and called and called when the kid was three and four and wandering all over the neighborhood all the time with no supervision and her parents didn't even know or care that she left the house. I was a kid then, but I should've told my mother and made her call, and keep calling until somebody listened.)

[hjffkj]

My 11 year sleeps without a sheet on his bed often and it drives me crazy. He just doesn't think about it and if the sheet comes off for whatever reason it doesn't even register that it's not there.

It is something I'm actively trying to correct. He doesn't resist putting the sheet on, he just only does it when reminded

[Shoeless]

28 minutes ago, Tanaqui said:

 

I don't know if you're engaging in hyperbole, but if they really can't vacuum because there is stuff over all the floor, and they've stopped making the beds simply because they can't handle the stuff that's all over, then you're almost certainly looking at what is, at the least, the beginnings of a hoarding situation. Even if it's all toys, that signifies nothing.

 

Only slight hyperbole. The kitchen is clear, as is the bathroom.  Bedrooms and living spaces are ankle deep in toys. Halloween decorations are still up, as are Christmas, and probably won't get put away until May, if they get put away at all. 

[Spryte]

Team mattress protector and fitted sheet here.

Sleeping on an uncovered mattress ... ick!

 

[Corraleno]

I'm surprised by the number of people who don't seem to use mattress pads. I've never put a sheet on a bare mattress without a mattress pad. A thin sheet really doesn't provide any protection, except maybe against dust. Even just sweat can soak through a sheet and into the mattress, let alone all the other bodily fluids that can end up in a bed. Stained mattresses totally gross me out.