For almost half of my life, I went to a summer camp in western Massachusetts. Every morning as a camper, we had to make our beds neatly before daily activities began. It was irksome and felt unnecessary to my tween self — why go through all the trouble if I was just going to mess it all up that night? The same thought occurs to me when I wake up in my room here in Colorado. Why bother making my bed if it’s just going to get messed up again? But this habit of making my bed every morning has persisted for many years now. It followed me from camper to counselor, high school to college.
I could bore you with all the self-help books in the world that talk about making your bed as one of the top habits of highly successful people and all the good it does for your psyche. All of those ideas have been written down before, and not necessarily all worth repeating. Making your bed in the morning does a few things for you, and all of them are positive. It’s worth your time to fix up those sheets, and doing so doesn’t make you a clean freak. It means you care about your space and yourself.
When it comes to this, there is one point that does bear repeating. Making your bed in the morning is a task, and when it’s complete, the day is already off to a strong start. The morning is not always the most put together time of the day. Between the need for coffee, food, and last-minute homework, it’s likely that the morning will end up as a series of half-completed tasks by the time you’re out the door, with one shoe still untied.
Dragging yourself out of bed is difficult enough as it is, and the temptation to crawl back in is so, so tempting. Those sheets are pulled back already, the pillow is still indented from the night’s sleep. Making your bed first thing acts twofold in regard to the points raised above. Your first task is checked off and accomplished; the to-do list is well underway. When the sheets and comforter are pulled over the mattress, it becomes easier to resist the temptation of plopping down for those extra 15 minutes. And, let’s be honest, how much of a difference do those 15 minutes ever make?
Even though Colorado College is relatively small, finding and maintaining your own space at CC can be a challenge. From living in a forced triple to an off-campus house, having agency over your space is a crucial way to stay sane in the crowded, busy world of the Block Plan. Having your preferred decorations up on the wall does some good toward this.
Making your bed, though, represents a regular effort made to care about the space in which you live. It can grant a sense of pride and ownership over your twin XL bed, something that looks like a home where someone cares about it. Messy sheets are necessary evils sometimes. Sleeping past your alarm or being late for a test are more than valid reasons to not make your bed.
Realistically, though, it isn’t essential to tuck it tight enough that you can bounce a penny off of the bed. Simply lining up the top sheet and the blanket or whatever arrangement you have in an orderly fashion does a world of good.
Consider this image: a long day of class, meetings galore, no time to stop at home between leaving for class in the morning and coming home at night. Then, your bed is neat and ready to go when you’re exhausted and down to your last ounce of energy. The act of pulling back the covers can close off the day. It doesn’t have to be as busy as described, but having the day bookended by making the bed and then unmaking it gives it all a sense of completion.
Furthermore, if you’re having people over and your bed is a seating area – especially in a dorm room – it’ll keep your sleeping area cleaner. Taking it one step further, if you’re bringing someone back to your bed, it’s an undeniably better look to have your bed made than sloppily strewn about the edges of the mattress.
Making your bed is far from a useless task. It imbues your space with effort and care, it sets up head your day for some success. It shows to guests that you’re put together – even if you’re not – and it realistically takes two minutes, tops. Like John Wildsmith said, “You are either in your bed or in your shoes, so it pays to invest in both.” Make it so.