At least once a day, someone asks: “Why should I make my bed? Isn’t it kind of pointless?”
Well, there are a few reasons, as far as I’m concerned:
- It’s a habit that’s relatively easy to form, and helps to make way to form other habits that are beneficial. If you spend 30 seconds making your bed every morning, 20 minutes doing housework in the evening isn’t such a difficult thing to conquer.
- A messy bed tends to give a room an overall sense of chaos, whereas a made bed can make even a messy room seem more put together.
- Why wash your dishes? You’re just going to use them again, right? Why throw your trash away? Aren’t you just going to make more trash later? Well, by resetting one thing to a point of being clean or even just slightly neater-looking, you’re that much further ahead in the unfucking game.
- It’s a small but tangible form of control over one’s environment. So many people let their homes get and stay in states of disarray, messiness, and chaos because it seems like the mess has more power than we do. If you can’t do everything, you can’t do anything, right? Wrong. You can make your bed.
Making your bed doesn’t have to be a whole involved process. Just straighten your sheets and pull your blankets up. Arrange the pillows if you’re feeling ambitious. Not every part of every system is going to be applicable to everyone. It doesn’t mean it isn’t helpful for some. Many people on Team UfYH aren’t ready for a full-scale unfucking just yet, but they can make their bed. Every day. And then maybe tomorrow, they’ll be ready to do the day’s challenge.
(No matter what excuse you have for not making your bed, I’ve heard it before and repeatedly. Including but not limited to: I’m still in it, someone else is in it, a cat is in it, a dog is in it, I’m at work, I’m at school, I’m in another timezone, I sleep on the couch, I have a futon, I sleep in a hammock, I’m at a hotel, I never went to bed last night, my sheets are in the wash, I can’t find my pillows, I’m in outer space and we sleep in pods without bed linens, I read half a study one time that said you shouldn’t make your bed, I don’t understand how dust mites work, I don’t wanna, I’m too good for that, I don’t see the point, I think it’s stupid, you’re not my real mom, you’re not the boss of me, and fuck off, UfYH.
If you aren’t going to make your bed, you don’t need to tell me. It’s OK. You’re an adult. You can make your own decisions.)