ORGANIZATION: My Personal Benefits of Making the Bed

As mundane as the blog title may be, making your bed is probably one of the best ways to start your day, at least from my experience. A bed is where you rest and recover, where you relax and in some cases, where you settle down from a hard day of work. It's a habit that seems insignificant and even tiresome (Why do you make a bed when you're just going to ruin it when you come home?), but it can have an impact upon how your day can start and how you'll feel when you get home. This is my current set-up:

It's a nice IKEA bed, with three stuffed animals that bring me joy. have special meaning, and I simply like to keep there. There's nothing fancy, because that's just not how I roll. I value simplicity and minimalism in this aspect of my life, the simpler the aesthetic, the better.  My style is probably not going to be yours, and that's okay! But in this post, I'm gonna discuss how this one small habit can really have a positive impact and how I can make it in less than 2 minutes of my morning. 

Brief Background 

Let's first start with the two major reasons why people don't make their beds:

1. "I'm just going to mess it up when I get home"

2. "I don't have time to make my bed, I'm running late"

And to tell you, the reader, the truth, I said those things too. Plenty of times, you can certainly ask my mother. But as I got older, I had to realize why those reasons were detrimental to my overall day and why I had to always try to set aside a few minutes. This is not about shaming anyone into making their beds when they don't have the time! This is about sharing my experiences with a habit over a prolonged period and reflecting on them. 

According to a CNBC September 2018 article, people who make their beds tend to be more productive than those who don't (but there's no connection or correlation with the amount of sleep), and it's easy to see why. People who make their beds feel that they've started their morning with one task already crossed out their list and can see the results when they come home. You can read the article as well as the commencement speech that Retired U.S. Navy Admiral Seal William H. McCraven gave to the University of Texas (and subsequently wrote a book about).  

This is all a prelude to my personal experiences with starting the day off with making my bed, and the benefits I've enjoyed as I developed and elaborated on this small habit. 

Aesthetics

I'm a sucker for clutter-free, minimalist rooms that only have the things I use and make me happy and relaxed. A made bed, one where the bed sheets, the duvet ("la colcha") are nice and flat, the pillows fluffed up, it adds substantially to that look. The bed is, as far as I know, the centerpiece of the bedroom. It's right there in the name! The bed is the focal point when you enter the room, and it can really affect how you view the space. If the bed is made, it can help the room feel more organized. 

Productivity

As many other blog posts on this matter will tell you, making the bed feels like you've already accomplished something in your day. It can set the tone of the day, and in my case, my brain feels jump-started to go forth through the rest of my to-do list. In my experience, just knowing that I started the day with an accomplishment as simple as making the bed gives my day an extra pop of energy.

Relaxation

There's nothing like coming home from a long day of work (and before graduation, work AND night school) to see a smooth bed that Morning Me left. It's a complement to the earlier Productivity bonus, as it means that even the rest of the room has clutter, the bed looks nice and I feel a little better about myself. The little victories can make a day go quicker, you know?

Organization and Habits

As stated before, making your bed can really make the room pull together. An interesting side-effect of this habit is that it can be the start of other positive habits in my day. For example, if I make the bed in the morning, I feel an incentive to put away my make-up products as soon as I finish them. Making the bed also prompts me to give the room a quick scan and put away anything that isn't where it belongs. It allows me to have a more intent-driven morning as I ensure that my space, both in my bedroom and my work space are clutter-free. I use what I need and put away what I don't need at the moment.

Routine and Final Thoughts 

The making of the bed also associates with a bit of mindfulness, as monotonous tasks really can help the brain decompress and relax.Overall, it helps declutter the area and stimulate a more mindful living and working space. My bed-making technique is very much the following: make it on Sunday, upkeep the rest of the week, taking me less than 2 minutes to do so. What does that mean? 

On Sunday, I wash all my laundry and I include the bed linen (pillow cases, fitted sheets, et al) to ensure everything is nice, crisp and clean. As soon as it's dried, I immediately redress the bed and make sure the duvet is tucked as neatly as possible in the space between the bed and mattress.  After that, it's a matter of waking up and making sure the duvet stays put and level. The pillows are fluffed and set in that manner so I can go on my merry day! It only takes 2 minutes at most, and I don't aim for perfection, I aim for consistency. The week is about maintenance, it's all about upkeep. 

I can't ever claim to have a perfect habit record, there are times where I simply forget. But the moment I realize the mistake, I forgive myself and carry on with my day. The next morning however, I remember to follow the habit and start again. Again, my experience isn't about making it the most smooth bed with the most aesthetic value, it's about coming home from a long day and being able to see a room come together for my benefit. 

If you've made it this far, thank you for reading! 

- SP