Holey Sheets

When Will and I got married three and a half years ago we were given two sets of bed sheets as wedding gifts.  I feel like most adults probably have more than two sets of sheets for their primary bed, but I couldn’t bring myself to spend money on more sheets when we had two perfectly good sets.  So I set out to make these sheets last as long as possible, and this went pretty well until April 2015.

Several weeks ago I decided that it was time to finally cover the visible box spring with our most worn fitted sheet.  I didn’t realize until after it was already on that we had accidentally used the newer sheet instead of the more worn one.  I don’t know if you have ever tried to fit a regular sized fitted sheet onto a box spring, but let’s just say that the sheet is staying there for the rest of it’s life.  This left the more worn set of sheets to go on the actual mattress, which didn’t bother me.  After all, no one can even see the sheets. 

Things continued to go well for me and my sheets until one night Will got out of bed and I heard a ripping sound.  Apparently his “toe got caught” on a worn spot in the sheet and it tore. Let me stop here and say this—Will is what I would call a “hard mover”.  When he comes home he closes the door so hard that things shake.  He “places” glasses on the counter so hard that I’m nervous they will break.  If he stubs his toes they bleed.  If he turns over in his sleep it’s with enough force to pull the blankets completely off of me.  So when I heard that ripping sound I knew it was going to be bad.  We checked it out and indeed there was a substantial hole in the sheet.  So what did we do about it? Why nothing, of course. 

Over the course of the next couple of weeks the hole grew and grew.  It went from a substantial hole, to a big hole, to a huge hole.  Eventually it completely extended from one side of the mattress to the other.  Our feet and our dog would get caught in it.  At this point I had to take some action, but I still didn’t buy new sheets.  I just took the top sheet, tucked it in tight, and continued to ignore the problem. 

Why didn’t I just get new sheets? I had several reasons at the time.  I didn’t want to drive to the store to get them.  I was busy.  I didn’t want to spend money on something you can’t even see.  Mostly, I think the situation didn’t bother me until I was actually trying to go to sleep, so it was easy to keep ignoring. 

As I’ve thought about my sheet dilemma, I am reminded of how we sometimes handle small problems in our lives.  I’m talking about small things that we are dissatisfied with and that we can realistically change.  I’m thinking of issues with organization, time management, getting enough rest, eating habits, and other little things like that.  Sometimes it’s easy to ignore these things because they aren’t a big deal.  Other people can’t see them, and they don’t consistently bother us enough to force us to make a change. 

I finally broke down and got new sheets three weeks ago, and they are what I would call a Game Changer.  Here are some of our reviews on them: “Wow! I can’t believe how great these sheets are!”, “I love this bed!”, “I feel like I’m sleeping so much better!”, “I feel like we are sleeping in a fancy hotel bed!”, and “Do you think we’ll ever stop talking about these sheets?”  Sometimes we get complacent and don’t realize just how much a problem is affecting us until we’ve fixed it.  This goes for holey sheets and life. 

What are some easy changes you can make today to make life easier and more pleasant?