It would probably be smarter of me not to admit this. While I’m convinced I have everyone almost fooled into believing that my life is one red carpet event after another, complete with flowing champagne and more A-list celebrities than you could shake a free swag bag at, the somewhat embarrassing truth of the matter is that one of the highlights of our week is the night we like to call “Clean Sheet Night.”
Clean Sheet Night is of course, the evening in which we change our bed linens, and for one blissful night, we get to experience the cool crispness of freshly laundered sheets against our skin; we have the opportunity to sleep unencumbered by shedding fur, pet dander, sand from a child’s shoe, (that most certainly should not have been in our bed in the first place) or stray grains of litter from a cat’s feet (I know it’s gross…imagine how we feel.)
We know that for the rest of the week our bed will not feel as comfortable and uncontaminated as it does on Clean Sheet Night, and we savor it. We bask in it. We inhale the scent of Tide on each pillow case. We run our feet along the bottom of the mattress (in all our glory) and marvel at the lack of debris; we talk about the good old days when our girls were babies without the need for shoes, and when we had only one pet to soil our bed; we fantasize about the cleanliness our lives might entail in the aftermath of children moving on–sans cats, dogs and fish.
Clean Sheet Night is without a doubt one of life’s little pleasures…and we milk it for all it’s worth.
22 Comments
July 7, 2009 at 3:11 am
We had clean sheet night last night and when I was getting ready for bed I remembered “clean sheet night” and I was happy!! I know EXACTLY what you are talking about!
July 7, 2009 at 12:44 pm
We’re pathetic, aren’t we? I’m okay with that though.
July 7, 2009 at 3:39 am
We have the kitty litter problem too. How the heck does the litter get to the foot of the bed when the cat sleeps on my pillow, that’s what I want to know!
I don’t think it’s that gross though, nope. I can think of something worse. My cat has always loved to sleep on my pillow. I took him to the vet two or three after getting him from the shelter and found out he had worms. Blah – I think I just threw up in my mouth a little.
July 7, 2009 at 12:46 pm
I always wondered that too b/c the cat sleeps at the foot of our bed–on TOP of the comforter. ?? Oh, no! The worms thing? Yeah, kinda gross!
July 7, 2009 at 4:02 am
coinkydink: i’m doing sheets right now! and the next best thing to clean sheets – the smell of a freshly mowed lawn. i totally get the stray grains of kitty litter. thank goodness for simple pleasures. sometimes they are the only thing keeping me sane these days.
xo
July 7, 2009 at 12:49 pm
I know what you mean–enjoy!
July 7, 2009 at 5:05 am
I love clean sheet night! There is just nothing like the feeling when you slide into a fresh clean bed. Glorious.
July 7, 2009 at 5:35 am
I love love love clean sheets! I do them so randomly though, maybe I need a regular clean sheet night.
July 7, 2009 at 5:08 pm
Now I am TOTALLY gonna wash sheets today!
July 7, 2009 at 9:45 pm
I think tonight will be C.S. night in our house. I have fresh ones still in the dryer ready to be put into service.
And I totally I hear ya on the kitty litter thing. I don’t know how it gets in there–we make the bed every morning. What’s worse is when we realize that a dried up cat turd was rolling around with us in bed all night (one of our cats is tremendously fat and can’t always clean “back there” so when poop gets stuck to him, he’s at the mercy of the poop releasing gods). I know, it’s totally disgusting.
July 8, 2009 at 3:08 pm
I love that you just told me that–you rock! I wish I could say I haven’t found a stray cat turd (or worse) someplace it didn’t belong…sigh.
July 8, 2009 at 1:51 am
We enjoy ‘Clean sheet night’ roughly once a month.(Can’t believe I just admitted that.)
HEY! Don’t judge, my bed is 5 feet off the ground, I don’t own any cats and my kids aren’t allowed in my bed with dirty feet.
July 8, 2009 at 3:09 pm
Ahaha! I’m not always right on the dot once a week…you must need a ladder to climb in there!
July 8, 2009 at 5:17 am
Since my car accident we’ve had to get someone in once a week to help me with the things I can no longer do. Changing sheets is one of those things since my right arm doesn’t work. Every Friday evening we have clean sheets and it’s heaven. Even more so now that I’m not the one changing them. (Although I do wash all the sheets still!)
July 8, 2009 at 3:09 pm
I would imagine not having to do it yourself might double the pleasure!
July 8, 2009 at 10:21 pm
I love fresh clean sheets too…I would change them every other day…if I didn’t hate the taking off, and putting back on so much…
July 10, 2009 at 1:12 pm
Clean sheet night is the best. It makes me happy just thinking about it.
July 12, 2009 at 6:45 pm
Ahhhh…. clean sheets. Does that mean I have to use the washer and dryer?
July 18, 2009 at 4:10 am
I know you wrote this ages ago, I haven’t been keeping up. But I just wanted to say, I love when someone can write about something universal and seemingly mundane, but make it relatable (is that a word?). Anyway, I get this. I usually take a shower just before bed on clean sheet night just to keep things cleaner as long as possible.
July 18, 2009 at 7:09 pm
I never thought of it like this, but I know exactly what you mean. I can feel those sheets right now…
But your stray kitty litter bit helped solidify my resistance to getting a cat… ugh
July 22, 2009 at 4:34 am
I’m reading this while enjoying my own clean sheet night!
July 24, 2009 at 12:16 pm
One of my favorites, too. Now my cleaning lady has begun washing my sheets for me, too. She’s the best and since I’ve gone back to work, she said she’s washing my sheets for me because I won’t have time. Nothing is sweeter than clean sheet night when you didn’t even have to do the washing or the making of the bed…. What a luxury!