Unpopular Opinion

Back in the days, mattresses were made of straw or other natural materials. Blankets and pillows were stuffed with feathers until recently. And people were not able to heat their bedrooms sufficiently during winter. Back in those days, you had to make your bed in order to air it and dry it from sweat. Otherwise it would start to get moldy really quickly.

Today, synthetic materials and central heating / air conditioning have eliminated the need for a strict humidity management in the bedroom. But it's still stuck in people's heads that making your bed is absolutely vital. I guess it'll take another one or two generations for it to become irrelevant.

It took you longer to write this post then it does for me to fix my bed in the morning.

Some people function better when things are organized and orderly, some function better when things are disorganized and in disarray, some function the same either way.

It is what it is. An orderly, organized bedroom feels great to sleep in to me, and might not matter at all to someone else.

Whatever the case, anyone judging me because my bed is either made or not made can fuck right off.

Edit: upvoted for unpopularity, as one does.

If you dial the resolution back beyond the bed, you have the whole human experience.

Finding meaning within a finite existence framed against the infinite is not easy but, if you pick up your fucking room a little, maybe it can be done with a bit more class and comfort?

You make the mistake of assuming that someone makes it look nice for someone else and not themselves.

I have 2 dogs, and I’d prefer their shed hair ON the bed, rather than IN the bed.

fediverse moment

When I get the care to do it, its nice having a neat room.

end every sentence with MOM!

I do it because when my house is neat and tidy, I'm motivated to do other things.

having a dirty room is a pile of work that goes on my backlog. if the backlog is too big, I can't get anything done.

making my bed is an easy way to knock things off my list and stay motivated.

Fatal counter point to all your arguments:

It feels better when you do.

Literally none of your logical arguments matter one iota because the human brain does not care how much you logic an argument. It feels nicer and more comforting climbing into a made bed then an unmade one.

Also, lying on wrinkly sheets is inherently uncomfortable.

My room is really small, and I don't have space for a couch for example, so if I would want to lay down and I'm in outdoor clothes, I would rather kill myself than to lay down in unmade bed while wearing jeans that saw every sort of dirt and dust

To me, "making my bed" is only done when the bedding needs to be removed from the bed to be washed and then put back on the bed again.

Does anyone really give a shit seeing a bed with the covers just left where they were after waking up and getting out of bed?

Like if you were gonna sleep with someone, would you be turned off if when you got to their bedroom, the blanket was crumpled off to one side?

Because science.

Why Mess Causes Stress

I prefer to air the bed during the day so I pull the covers down to the end and fold over once. Pillows are reset so they're fresh and comfy to start the night. Maybe later in the day I'll pull the covers up but doesn't later since it's all neat anyway.

None of that is performative, it's about freshness and comfort.

For me, it's a huge headache saver. We have a 60 lb dog who likes to get into bed with us, along with one of our cats. If I don't make my side of the bed prior to my wife and the dog getting in, I'm probably not going to have usable sheets and blankets for the night. Wherever the sheets are when he decides to hop in, that's where they're staying.

So, I definitely make at least my side of the bed every day, at some point. Not usually right away in the morning, but it definitely gets done. I don't go all out on it, just get the sheet and blanket (and comforter, in winter) in essentially the right position for me. It's critical for a good night of sleep.

And, yes, we probably shouldn't have let him in the bed in the first place. Lesson learned. That's a whole other story. But the damage is done.

4. Is raises the chance of having sex, at least for my wife she definitely gets more in the mood when we go to bed and the bedroom looks clean and nice.

Those are the only reasons you've ever heard?

I can't speak for others, but my sleep is not clean. I can wake up with half the pillows I started with, and the duvet sometimes spun a 180, so the buttons are up by my head. Ive woken up with my arm inside the duvet cover.
My making the bed resets all that. Gets the pillows off the floor or out from behind the headboard, and it turns the duvet round again so I can just flick one corner open and climb in of an evening.

Also when Ive lived with dogs and cats. It kept their hair from getting between the duvet and bedsheet, coz I really enjoy the idea of pets using my bed when I'm not.

Also it stops sex sweat from being in the sleep zone

I make my bed because my cats will absolutely shed all their hairs on my side of the bed that one time I forgot to do it. Slightly allergic, so I learned fast lol.

I have cats, if I don't pull up the covers then I get to sleep with tiny grains of cat litter.

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?)

I had no idea people past my grandmother's generation still felt compelled to make their bed... I thought we had collectively grown past the compulsion to do pointless tasks like this, along with other wastes of time like manually wiping the dishes or ironing everything including the dish cloth. Maybe that's just me, though.

(I'm not talking about doing it if you want to because you like it, only about the expectation that you should be doing it no matter what.)

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.

If this is really how you feel, then I suppose I can't dispute you. But this is like saying, "why would I comb my hair? Anyone I want to talk to is okay talking to me as I am."

Sure..... But most people care about things like this. Maybe not explicitly - most people don't explicitly think to themselves "ugh, an unmade bed. What a loser." But on a subconscious emotional level, this is essentially what is happening. As a society, we've decided a made bed looks better than an unmade bed. That you have failed to make your bed prior to someone entering your bedroom indicates a lack of willingness or ability to confirm to social norms. This, then, typically corresponds to individuals with low social status, and lowers others' opinions of you. Again, this happens on an entirely emotional, subconscious level for almost everyone most of the time. But the fact is, it happens.

Hence, when I'm going to have guests in my bedroom, I make my bed. I don't make my bed every day - I just don't care that much. But I will 100% make my bed if I'm expecting someone else to see it, just like I would sweep the floors and comb my hair.

It looks nicer and a nice home that looks cared for is worth it on its own. I find it much easier to relax when things around me are tidy. Not making your bed is no different than leaving everything lying around after you're done using it. If you want to live like that, you do you, no judgement, but I don't.

I think y'all have a fundamental misunderstanding of why beds were 'made' in the first place. Tight sheets prevent vermin from slipping between the sheets and waiting until you climb in to experience nightmare fuel. It's a great thing that this doesn't happen often in our first world experience.. but let things slip a little and this becomes a necessity, not a weird habit.

Right now, I'm lying down on top of my made bed. There are time where lying down is nice, but Id rather not get under the sheets. Maybe I'm old, but resting is different from sleeping.

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.

This is just a bad faith argument. No one is trying to convince anyone of that they don't sleep in their bed. A fair amount of grooming is performative as is quite a bit of tidying. I, for one, get a sense of calm when I'm tidying things. I don't believe I'm not going to untidy things and I don't live in stress that things need to be tidied. But I'm mindful of it and attend to it when I have a chance.

When I get up from the bed, I may tug on the corner to remove the me sized indentation, but that's it.

I, for one, don't care if you make your bed or not. But I'd have a tough time sharing a bed with someone who doesn't.

Another reason: I tend to perspire in my sleep. And if I were to make my bed in the morning and cover up the sweaty sheets, that's a recipe for a real bad time when I go back to bed.
Gross as it may be, that's the life of a sweaty sleeper.

Don't make your bed then? I hope you're being facetious, cuz all I'm getting from this is two things:

You are obsessively preoccupied with other people

You are irrationally critical of people's behavior that has literally nothing to do with you.

Truthfully; no one gives a fuck about you or your bed. Go outside

How about when you have crumbs all over the bed after snaccing and you need a less itchy place to lie down.

Making your bed, is not the same chore for everyone. Some people have many layers and pillows on a fully accessorized sleeping platform. Yes it would be a chore to do that daily (personal opinion). And some people have a duvet, in a duvet cover on a mattress with a fitted sheet on it. Very easy to just shake that duvet over the bed and move on. 30 seconds and done. For some people, making the bed means folding up the duvet and leaving it across the foot of the bed so the mattress can air out all day. And then there is this interesting setup from Germany

However, I think the real subject here is... it's no one else's business what happens in your bedroom. Paint it plaid, sleep on a pile of plushies, have orgies, do your taxes in a corner chair, hang all your underwear on pants hangers from a rod suspended from the ceiling. Whatever. Your bedroom, your privacy.