January 24th, 2020

We are sheet snobs.  There I said it.  Freely admitted and confessed with no outside pressure whatsoever.  The fact of the matter is that Tim and I only buy really good sheets.

We both grew up with percale bed linens.  And while it is servicable and at the time, extremely affordable, that's what was in our childhood homes.  In the houses where I grew up  the sheets were sometimes a solid colour like pink or blue.  Other times the sheets had tiny little flowers on them or occasionally colourful stripes. Very sweet for sure.  But when it came time for me, as an adult, to buy my own sheets, I bought white.  Just plain white.

I don't know why, but I just really like white sheets and white towels. And since usually I am the one buying them, I buy what I like.  And for a very long time, I did the same thing that my parents did. I bought ordinary regular run of the mill percale sheets,  Itchy, scratchy, stiff as a board percale.  It lasts a very long time, so I will give percale sheets longevity as a positive attribute.  I will also award it points for affordability.  Lots of affordability points.  But comfort?  Not so much.

Of course at the time, I had no idea what any other sheets were like.  I bought what I knew and honestly, at that time in my life, what I could afford.  I could afford percale.  It worked.  I did the job.  And nobody was complaining.

And then somewhere along the line, somebody gave me, as a gift (I think it was supposed to be one of those funny gifts) a set of "satin" sheets.  And I use the word satin very loosely. It was not satin.  Probably more along the line of some sort of polyester.  Still they were very soft.  Much softer than percale. 

And that got me wondering what else was out there. What other options were there really.  I mean for regular people like me. Not fancy people like movie stars and politicians.

So off we went to the linens section of ...I don't even remember..some big store with lots of different departments in it...and we checked out the bed linens.  There were samples to touch. And some of them were down right yummy.  But then there was the price tag and it was kind of yikes.  So we compromised and found some sheets that had the highest thread count at the lowest price that we (read we as me) could tolerate and bought those.  It was the beginning of a new sleeping era.

Although the real yumminess of the new sheets took multiple washing and usings to truly come forward, it was worth the wait.  So the next set we bought were higher thread count (which means more expensive) and the wait was even shorter to get to the best feel.  Heaven!

And we were all set.  Until a few weeks ago when I did the laundry and pulled the bottom sheet out of the wash with a few teensy holes in it.  Dang.  Time to buy new sheets.  So off we went.

Naturally there are even more options now and of course the price tags are even higher.  It's kind of crazy.  Of course, as Tim pointed out to me, we sleep (or at least attempt to sleep) for about 30% of our lives.  We should make an effort to be as comfortable as possible while doing so.  Valid point.

Still I just couldn't bring myself to pay upwards of two hundred dollars for sheets. Just cannot make myself do it.  So I settled on some 625 thread count  Wamsutta sheets for around $80 bucks (on sale).  Still hurts my heart to do it but I cannot go back to percale.  

Unbeknownst to me, Tim had already purchased two sets online.  I didn't even bother to ask how much they cost because honestly, I do not want to know. So now we had three new sets of sheets to rotate through which would make my Nana very happy.

Nana believed in the rule of three.  She felt that everyone should have 3 pair of underwear, 3 socks, 3 towels, 3 shirts, etc.  Her reasoning?  One for the closet, one for the laundry and one to be in current use.  Now we have 3 sets of sheets.  Three completely different sets I would like to point out.

Now we have a set of  625 Thread Count Wamsuttas, a 1000 thread count bamboo and a 1200 thread count Egyptian cotton.  So is there a different between them and if so what is it?    All righty  here you go.  The breakdown.

First the 625. They are fine.  It will take a few washings and usings to get them to their perfect level of softness but once we get there, they will be lovely.  There is enough structural integrity that they are easy to fold and they are generously porportioned. (i.e. enough sheet all the way around).  They came with instructions to wash them on gentle cycle in warm water which was interesting to me because I've always done normal cycle on linens and hot water.  Ok. Correction made.

Secondly, the 1000 tc bamboo.  We knew next to nothing about bamboo sheets.  Tim did some research before ordering them and read only good things.  So we were curious what they were really like.  They are like whipped cream.   Oh My Goodness.  So soft, so ethereal, so incredible right away. The feel is just short of a liquid.  Which means delightful for sleeping in but a pain in the arse for folding.  It's like trying to fold something made of mercury.  Let it be known that I can fold sheets. Even fitted sheets behave for me.  Not these.  I finally gave up and just kind of gobbed them into a heap in the drawer.  Second issue, they are NOT generously porpotioned.  While they are plenty long...I can tuck the top sheet in at the bottom with Zero issue, but on both sides...it's rather lacking.  Still...sleeping in whipped cream is pretty dang nice.

Last set, the 1200 tc Eygptian cotton. Well certainly easier to fold. Softer than the 625's but not as soft as the bamboo.   A nice middle ground.  We won't have to wait for the ultimate softness to finally give way, it's already there.  Still, while they are plenty long, this set is also rather short on the sides of the bed.  It works but I predict future battles of the sheet for us.  The suggestion for washing these is to wash only two pieces at a time - for instance a top sheet and a pillow case together and then the bottom sheet and a pillow case together. Okay. I hear you but it probably will not happen in this house.

There you have it.  The sheets comparison.  Three different types, three different results and honestly we will use them all.  In fact, I'm tempted too use the 625's a lot right away to hurry up and get the supersoft so that they can be in the regular rotation comfortably.  But I won't.  I will play fair and each set will get it's turn, one week at a time.  

but ps I am looking forward to the bamboo sheets week again.