Making the Bed

It is 10 AM and I have finished catching up on my Feedly and I have already read twice that the first step to "feeling more organized" is to make the bed.
This sentiment is everywhere online. Any organizing post ever, it seems, will tell you to make the bed.

I've thought about this every time I have seen it (unless, like today, it's one right after another, so I only thought about it once, instead of twice).

And, every time, I come to the same conclusion.
I'm not making the bed.
It's not going to happen.

I used to make my bed. Back when I was kid and that was one of my chores that I had to do in the morning (hi, mom!). I didn't like it that much, but I did it, because I had to.
Sure, it was nice to come back from school to a nicely made bed - so I could then spread my homework and backpack all over it, even though I had a desk.
And it did look nicer, having it "made" - but only because I was seeing it all the time.

As a kid, you "live" in your room. At least I did. I spent so much time there. So, for me to have a made bed, I guess you could say I felt more organized.
But, I still never enjoyed it.

As an adult, though while still living with my mom (hi mom, again!), I would make the bed sometimes. But more often than not I wouldn't. I'm a blanket collector. I haven't used an actual bed spread in I don't know how long. But it was nice to have multiple blankets to choose from each night, in varying thicknesses and textures (and patterns and characters!).
Sometimes I would want one character out for a while, so I would make the bed and be happy to see them. But, for the most part, it was a pile of sheets and blankets, ready to be crawled back into at any point in time.

Now, living with the Mister, it's even more complicated.
Because it's not just me and my bed anymore, it's our bed.

And, to complicate things even more, the bed is still a collection of blankets - oh the joys of crochet!

You see, the Mister has an afghan that he likes to sleep with, and I have one that I like to sleep with.
And, I like to use a sheet, while he does not.

How do you make a bed that has three different blankets, that aren't to be going to all four corners of the bed!

The answer is you don't.
It's not worth the effort, it's not worth the time it would take to figure it out (anymore, anyway, because I have tried to figure it out before!).

To feel more organized, I should pick up my desk. Or do the dishes. Or clear off the coffee table. Or pick up all of my pup's toys (which means the things he likes to chew on). Or do laundry.
But not make the bed.
Because I don't think of the bed as a place to be "organized". It should hold blankets and pillows. And laundry while I'm folding it. Other than that, it's a bed.

And the only people to see it are me and the Mister. And that's in the morning when we get up, and at night when we crawl into it. There is, at no point during the day, where I've went into the bedroom, and looked at the bed, and felt unorganized.
Well, I take that back.
It is "unorganized" when the pillows aren't on their correct side of the bed - as someone tends to spread out after I get up in the morning.
So, I will put those where they belong, and feel better. Even though the blankets are all a piled, jumbled mess.

My point is this - do what makes YOU feel organized.
Because I'm pretty sure people will still say "make the bed", no matter what the situation may be.
Granted, for most people (I think), making the bed may be a great place to start. But you should not feel obligated to do something that doesn't work for you, even if everyone else says it should make you feel better.

Being organized is not the same across the board. Everyone has a different level of what they feel needs to be done versus what doesn't.
Last night, for example, I cleared off a corner of my desk that had been collecting things. And I feel great about it! Most other people would look at it and still say it's messy (even though it is), but it's where it needs to be for me and what I have and the space I have. I cleared off the coffee table, but it still has a motorcycle helmet shield on it, so it's not somewhere it could get scratched up. Does it belong there? No. Does it work perfectly? Yes.

Make the bed or don't. Just remember that flat or jumbled, it really is just a pile of blankets - and you could probably use your time better somewhere else (even if it's only the two minutes it allegedly takes to make a bed).

~Havok

P.S. My "two minutes" would be better spent clearing off the bathroom counter every morning.

P.P.S. I even stood in the bedroom doorway to take the above image to see how I felt about the messy bed...and all I came up with was "I kind of want a nap"!