… And at worst, actively making your bedroom less functional and more cumbersome to use. The arguments I hear in favor of it are completely asinine and I will address them one by one.
- It makes it more comfortable to sleep in.
I have absolutely no idea where that comes from. Do you all sleep like Dracula? My bedding is usually tussled about within minutes of me laying in bed. Blankets balled up for knee support, one leg sticking out for temperature venting. I couldn’t imagine sliding under the covers and laying perfectly supine like Vladimir Lenin.
- It doesn’t take much time, so you might as well do it.
I find any task not worth my time to be a waste, so unless it has a purpose, it is actively infuriating to do.
- It looks nice. And an unmade bed looks lazy
Given that this is an entirely subjective reason, I can’t exactly “disagree” with it. But if there was someone I trust enough to be in my bedroom, I’m not going to waste my time convincing you that I do not, in fact, sleep in my bed.
Not to mention that if you want to nap or even sit on the end of the bed, you have to make it again. It is an incredibly unstable artwork, making me avoid using my bed unless I really need to.
If you make your bed, I have no judgment for you. Just like people who fold designs into the ends of their toilet paper. I couldn’t imagine caring about something like that, but it literally doesn’t affect me at all, so go nuts.
But I think we should be honest and call it what it is: some kind of shameful cleaning ritual that is probably some vestigial military chore, and I want nothing to do with it.
Generally speaking, I agree with you, for many people… yeah there isn’t really any real compelling reason to habitually do this.
However, there are fairly common circumstances where this does actually make sense:
Maybe you just have a tad of OCD, and well… this’ll make you feel a bit more steady and comfortable, and it doesn’t really hurt anyone, assuming you’re not full blown OCD doing it over and over and over because its never perfect.
Maybe you are mildy to moderately depressed… and… just being able to have any kind of regular structure, regular task that you can accomplish… maybe that means you’re not a completely useless piece of shit, and if you can keep up this good habit, and give yourself a pat on the back each time… maybe that means you can start to step up toward more, or bigger tasks.
Maybe you’re a bit ADHD, and its… anchoring, helpful, to have that same just bit of predictable structure or routine, to help you get your day started.
Maybe you have a cPTSD / Trauma response to a messy bed from associating it with very shitty situations in your past, and… having a made bed just removes a trigger for you.
…
Or maybe you have pets, or toddlers, and don’t want to ‘lose’ them, lol, or have their uh, debris of whatever sort, just get everywhere in the bed.
Maybe you live in a studio and eat food on your bed, clip your nails on it, and you adopt a regular ‘crumb removal from your bed’ routine as basically just a hygeine pattern, like brushing your teeth or hair or what not.
Maybe your heat went out or its just fucking freezing, and having a properly made bed makes it just a bit warmer to get into for sleep.
Maybe you have very fancy, high maintenance bedding, that will wrinkle and deform if not regularly … re normalized?
(Yeah I dunno, this is apparently a thing, I am apparently either too simple or broke a man to have ever entertained the idea of a high maintenance bed, but apparently people do?)