Does Size Really Matter? – It Does when You Are Looking for the Right Sheet

For years, every time I opened the doors to my linen closet, I found myself pondering the question; what size it it? Neatly folded stacks of sheets and blankets lay on the shelves giving my no clues as to what size they were or which beds they fit. One day, as I stood there staring at them, my daughter walked by and stopped to ask me what I was looking at. I told her I was looking at the sheets and trying to remember which ones fit on which bed. She joined in the quest and tried to remember too. ” Aren’t those purple sheets the set I took to church camp? They must be twin size,” she said. “The sheets with the flowers on them fit my bed, so, they must be queen size,” I said. There must be a better way. We both agreed.

As I closed the doors to the linen closet, I vowed to give the matter more thought. A few days passed and I found myself needing a cup hook. I walked to the little gray storage cabinet I have with neatly labeled drawers, letting me know at a glance what each drawer contains. The proverbial light bulb went on in my head. Why couldn’t I label the sheets and blankets in the lined closet the same way I labeled these drawers.

It was then that I started asking myself several questions. What kind of labels should I use? Should they have pin backs so they could be pinned to each sheet or blanket? Should they be stick on labels? Should I make labels in all the normal sizes; twin, full, queen, king and make them to sell? After much pondering and questioning I decided the best thing to do would be to keep a sheet of removable labels and a permanent marker in my linen closet and simply write the size on a label and stick it to the front edge of each sheet or blanket, after I had washed it and folded it and before I returned it to the stack. As for making them to market, I’ll let someone else tackle that. I’ll be content with knowing I came up with the idea. When we were kids, my brother, Brent, used to cut up hot dogs and cook them in pork-n-beans for us to eat. That was years before we started seeing beenie-weenies on shelves at the grocery store. We both laugh now knowing that he was the real genius behind beenie-weenies.

The next question that arose was, should I unfold, label, and refold each sheet and blanket in the linen closet? After counting them, 24 in all, I quickly decided that I had neither the time nor the desire to go to that much trouble. Perhaps if I had a maid, I would add that little task to her list of duties. But alas, I’m a single, working mom and consider myself lucky to find the time to pluck my own eyebrows.

Does size really matter? It does when you are looking for the right sheet or blanket to put on a bed. Now when I launder a sheet or blanket, I write twin, full, queen, or king on a removable white label and stick it to the edge of the sheet or blanket before returning it to the stack in the lined closet. Problem solved.