Confessions of a Grandma

Okay, I admit it.  I have this problem with sheets. I know exactly how I like them to feel--crisp and cottony. I know exactly how I like them to smell--fresh. I know exactly how I like them to look--smooth. For all the times we rented places here--six years--I would tell myself I would not do this but I could never stop myself.  I would unpack my bags and then take all the sheets out of the linen closet and refold them.  I would then start on the kitchen cupboards, lining up the glasses, etc ., but that is a different story about a different obsession. These are "before" sheets.  They're not even that bad. I absolutely could not let then be. I bring this up -- again -- because I read this tip all the time about folding the bed sheets and then putting them in the pillow case so you can find matching sets.  Even in the slovenly mess pictured above, I think I may have been able to pull out the matching sets. Now this was included in a series ...

My memory may not be what it could be, but it seems to me that when I started buying sheets for myself many, many years ago, you pretty much had a choice of 180 thread count or 200 thread count. At the time, my mother was thinking that the invention of no-iron percale sheets was the greatest thing since sliced bread--maybe even perforated toilet paper.  She just shook her head at my insistence on 100% cotton, knowing, I'm sure that I wasn't going to be a maniac about ironing them. Oh, but I do remember how crisp and cool those sheets were.  They just got smoother with washing, but not so soft that they lost that crisp coolness. I just can't seem to find sheets like that anymore.  Now 200 thread count sheets are the bottom of the barrel.  I couldn't stand the smirks of the clerks at the store if I purchased less that 400 thread count.  I still go for the 100% cotton, but they are not crisp.  To me they feel soft, but kind of nubby.  I find ...