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Have you ever wondered why you should make your bed in the morning? What’s the point?
If so, you’re definitely not alone.
In fact, I used to be passionately against the idea of making my bed throughout most of my life. Starting from pretty much birth until the time I was about to hit 40.
And, like many people, I didn’t need many excuses or much of a strong case against the concept of making my bed. I just assumed that it came down to personal preference and how particular someone happened to be.
But eventually, it did turn into a habit, and I even wound up feeling surprised by how much benefit I ended up gaining from it—and in some very unexpected ways.
Ever since then, I’ve learned these top 12 reasons why you should make your bed every day.
1. Your room will look and feel less cluttered.
Having a bed that’s made can make your room feel less cluttered, which in turn can create a more visually and physically relaxing environment.
This was one of the first things I noticed and eventually wound up growing to love the most.
2. You may experience less stress.
Fewer visual distractions and less mess can mean fewer things to worry about doing later, as well as less visual stimulation.
The result?
You’re likely to experience a lot less stress, whether you’re just waking up, heading to bed, or lounging about for a much-needed Netflix moment.
This is also something to also consider in other areas of your home, such as in the kitchen, where decluttering can also play a major role and be highly beneficial in the long run.
3. You might feel more relaxed.
Since having an already-made bed can help reduce stress, your bedroom will likely start to feel like a more relaxing environment.
Hotel Bed-Not-Made
A good example of this would be when you stay at a vacation home or a nice hotel room.
One of the more appealing factors of staying in a nice vacation home or hotel is how clean, tidy, and decluttered they tend to be.
Imagine if you walked in and the bed wasn’t made, even if it happened to have freshly cleaned bedding. Or what if the hotel services never came in and made the bed each morning?
Suddenly those places lose a lot of their appeal, right?
Treat It As A Way to Self-Pamper At Home
Now, imagine the reverse at home, where your bed is made for you every time you walk into that room to relax or to catch some Zs. You’re more likely to feel pampered as you enter a less stressed or overstimulated environment.
4. You may notice an improvement in your overall mood.
Being in a room with a bed that’s made can improve your mood, both from a visual standpoint and a psychological one.
It not only looks better, but it can trigger a slew of positive psychological triggers—especially if you’re consistent with it.
As a result, your overall mood will improve, which you may also start to notice as more time passes, and the longer you keep at it.
You’ll also start to feel pretty darn proud of yourself, too, believe it or not.
5. You might actually sleep better.
Because having a made bed can be relaxing, it can also help you sleep. It may even work as an environmental trigger, where even just the act of getting into a ready-made bed can send a signal to your brain, indicating that it’s time to sleep.
As someone with some serious insomnia for years on end, this was another one of my favorite benefits of starting to make my bed.
6. It encourages better self-discipline.
While making your bed may seem like a small or insignificant act, it can actually create a sense of accomplishment as you continue to work towards turning an everyday habit into something more positive for the long term.
In turn, this may encourage even more positive lifestyle changes, better habits, and overall proactivity in your life.
Retired US Navy Admiral, William McRaven, might have summed it up best in his book, Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life…And Maybe the World, and during his University of Texas commencement speech in 2014:
“If you want to change the world, start by making your bed.”
— William H. McRaven
6. Your self-confidence might get a boost.
Sometimes, big changes can come from smaller, more incremental ones, and that can include making your bed.
Change Your Sheets, Change Your Mindset
Making your bed doesn’t just signify breaking an old habit in exchange for a more beneficial one. It’s deciding to make a change in your life and being proactive about it.
As a result, your confidence is likely to see a big boost. As mentioned before, it could even lead to more positive changes or habit development in other areas of your life.
“You didn’t come here to make the choice. You’ve already made it. You’re here to try to understand why made it.”
— The Oracle, The Matrix Reloaded
7. It can increase productivity.
Having a routine that starts with something as small and yet as productive and beneficial as making your bed can potentially boost your desire to be more productive in other areas of your life.
Turn It Into a Proactive Frame of Mind
Routines can also help set your mindset and mood toward being more productive, even just out of habit. Making your bed is one way to check something off your to-do list easily.
It’s almost comparable to the way many people treat their first cup of coffee, shower, or jog in the morning. It can be invigorating, motivating, and may help get you going for the rest of the day.
In fact, Mel Robbins—author of The 5 Second Rule: Transform your Life, Work, and Confidence with Everyday Courage and one of my favorite self-improvement peeps—recently made a great argument for how she benefits from making her bed in this shortie snippet below. Funnily enough, not long after I started outlining this post!
8. You’ll feel more accomplished.
Because your level of productivity may increase, you might also gain the added feeling of accomplishment.
Small Act, Big Outcomes
This might even come about by the very fact that you were to change from one habit into a more beneficial one.
While that may seem like a small or insignificant feat, it can provide huge outcomes in other areas of your life and when it comes to your cleaning habits.
9. It immediately helps make your room feel cleaner and look better.
When you have your bed made, your room can instantly look and feel cleaner automatically.
Best of all, you can get the job done in hardly any time at all.
And it’s such an easy way to freshen up your bedroom when you’re in a hurry, or even when you might lack the energy to do anything else.
10. It can encourage better self-care and hygiene.
Making your bed can mean that you’re likely to wash your bedding more often than you would with an unmade bed.
Even just the ritual of making your bed and incorporating it into your morning routine can boost the desire to work on other parts of your hygiene practice.
It’s an Act of Self-Care
And as you learn to make your bed and wash your bedding consistently, you’ll be more likely to see an improvement in your skin health.
After all, washing your bedding more often means you’ll have a cleaner pillowcase to rest your face on—meaning, less acne, fewer blackheads, and possibly fewer clogged pores.
Fun Tip: If you have acne-prone skin, try rotating your main bed pillow in between washes. You can do this by flipping it over or turning it inside out every few days. I also like to make sure my bedding is washed whenever I plan to exfoliate or aggressive treatment, such as dermaplaning.
11. You gain more use out of your bed.
Beds are typically useful for more than just sleeping on.
These days, they’re even great for work, watching TV, reading, going to an online learning course or lecture, having Zoom meetings, or whatever else we can think of–even folding laundry.
Even so, it can get a little difficult to achieve these tasks when the bed’s not made.
Stay Consistent
As you start to make your bed with more consistency, you’ll see how little tasks or moments like that are easier to get to.
And you may even see how beneficial it is to get the job done early in the day and simply out of habit.
12. It’ll motivate and encourage you to stay cleaner.
Sometimes having one area clean within a single room can trigger an avalanche effect in other areas that may need some TLC—especially since those messier areas can sometimes stick out like a sore thumb.
Having a made bed is one way to eliminate visual distractions so that you can see other messes more easily.
Use It to Add Other Tasks to Your Day
Making your bed is also an excellent way to gradually incorporate smaller tasks into your daily, weekly, or monthly chores until those tasks can also become long-term habits.
Plus, just as with making your bed, you’re likely to notice how chores that once seemed time-consuming and tedious will likely feel less so the more you get used to tidying up regularly.
And if you’re concerned about the whole dust mite theory in regards to making your bed, we cover all that and more in our post, 14 Easy Tips on How to Reduce or Prevent Dust Mites.
Conclusion
These top 12 reasons why you should make your bed every morning only just scratch the surface when it comes to how easy and beneficial it can be to add or gradually change your cleaning and lifestyle habits.
Benefits of Making Your Bed
Re-assess. Re-think. Re-start.
As you can see, sometimes developing a better lifestyle and cleaning habits, or even just finding the motivation to clean, can often come down to knowing your weaknesses so you can work around them.
It can also sometimes be about re-thinking why you should start doing something, rather than focusing on why you shouldn’t, and even learning to focus on the benefits rather than just the cons.
And when it comes to cleaning in general, there are often far more benefits to sticking to a routine and building one up gradually and in bite-sized chunks, such as making your bed, than we often might think otherwise.
No Strings Attached
Also, keep in mind that making your bed doesn’t have to be an act of perfection or a work of art. You don’t have to smooth out the sheets out or fold the perfect crease.
Just make it and, best of all, do it for yourself.
If you’re not quite ready to commit—no worries. Try it for a few days or treat it as a 7-day challenge to see if you think you could stick to it longer.
In the end, the only thing risk is not trying it at all.
What other cleaning habits do you want to incorporate into your life, or where do you struggle the most? And are you ready to start making your bed, assuming you don’t already? Let us know down below in the comments.
Related Posts
- 14 Easy Tips on How to Reduce and Prevent Dust Mites
- 21 Easy Ways on How to Keep Your Kitchen Clean as You Cook
- 17 Clever Ways to Make Cleaning Your Shower Easier (with pictures)
- 10 Things You Might Be Forgetting To Clean At Home
- What to Know About Lysol Simply Orange Blossom (Tested Review)
Sources:
- Mel Robbins, Youtube; I make my bed every morning. Even in a hotel. This is why, (September 16th, 2020) (Amazon link).
- William H. McRaven – University of Texas commencement speech, 2014; source: Goalcast, Youtube; If You Want to Change the World, Start Off by Making Your Bed – William McRaven, US Navy Admiral (August 17, 2017) (Amazon link).
