A messy, disorganised bed will make the whole room feel dirty – however much you will have cleaned everything else. A correctly made bed is essential as it is an important part of finishing touches and showing your eye for detail as a housekeeper. Do you know how to correctly make a bed in Housekeeping? It is time to learn!
How to Prepare to Make The Bed
To learn how to correctly make a bed in housekeeping, you must know how to prepare first.
Follow the below steps to prepare the bed. The correct preparation is crucial to make sure no steps will be missed and the end result will be perfect.
Remember, practice makes perfect. And make sure that, if this is a new skill for you, you have someone checking in to make sure you are executing all steps. Also, remember to take care when lifting mattresses or moving the bed. This can be extremely heavy and might be a two-people job.
- Take away and dirty bed linen from the bed.
- Check the mattress or the mattress topper/protector for any dirt, stains, or damage. Remove and replace the mattress cover if needs be, straighten it out on the bed and check/secure the connection points.
- Check your bed linen and make sure you have the correct sizes to fit the bed, and matching pillowcases.
- Make sure there are no stains or rips in the new bed linen.
- Check around and underneath the bed for any dirt or potential chips/breakage and report where needs are.
How to Make The Bed
- If possible, start by pulling the bed away from the headboard slightly.
- Fitted Sheet:
- Cover the mattress with the fitted sheet and put the (sometimes elasticated) corners of the sheet around the corners of the mattress.
- Top Sheet:
- Spread the top sheet over the fitted sheet. The side of the sheet with the large hem goes at the head of the bed.
- Make sure to leave a little bit of space between the head of the bed and the top of the sheet – it should not fully cover the mattress.
- Move to the foot of the bed, and tuck the bottom end of the top sheet under the mattress. Make sure there are no wrinkles and this is tucked in smoothly
- Make a ‘hospital corner’ on both bottom corners of the bed:
- Pick up the hanging side of the sheet about 16 inches from the corner of the mattress.
- Tuck the, now triangle shaped lower hanging part of the sheet under the mattress.
- With your free hand, hold the corner in place and fold the top over. Here you should create a 45-degree angle.
- Repeat this on the other bottom corner of the bed.
- Tuck the remaining hanging sheet on both sides in, under the mattress. Make sure all is tidy without creases or wrinkles in the sheet.
- Repeat the process with the blanket, including hospital corners.
- Fluff up the pillows with new, clean pillow covers and place them at the head of the bed.
- Add duvet or quilt.
- Make sure to smooth all corners and creases.
Perfect Your Bed Making Skills with Training
Making the bed is a complex and precise task that any good housekeeper, whether you work on a yacht, private household or high-end hotel, should master. It is a critical skill to have if you want to be successful in getting and keeping your housekeeping job, and takes a lot of practise to understand exactly how it should be done.
Luckily, a simple solution for you to not only learn, but perfect the skills of making a bed correctly, is training. Polo & Tweed offer leading Housekeeping training in group settings, for private bookings as well as tailor-made training packages for your hotel, private villa, resort or yacht staff.
The Polo & Tweed trainers are all highly experienced industry professionals who provide a friendly and welcoming learning environment with comprehensive, interactive training accessible for anyone – whether you are a seasoned housekeeping professional or new to the trade.
Are you considering housekeeping training, or are you looking to finetune your skills? Do get in touch with us here and we look forward to getting your educational journey started with us!