How often do you wash your bed sheets? No, seriously, no lies, please. Tell me.
News.com.au surveyed 2000 Aussies as part of The Great Australian Debate and 38 per cent said they wash their sheets once a week and 29 per cent said once a fortnight.
Four per cent bravely admitted they couldn’t remember the last time they changed their sheet, and I applaud their honesty.
Here’s the thing about sheet washing, I reckon it’s like saying how often you shower – everyone lies a little bit because they don’t want to look gross.
True to form, when I asked a bunch of people how often they changed their sheets,
they all quickly replied once a week or sooner.
“Every three days,” someone replied.
“Every weekend on a Sunday,” another shared.
“Once a week,” someone wrote.
I want to believe them but I’ve lived in enough share houses to know a very different and dirtier story.
One extreme washer even shared that she cleaned her sheets every night without fail. Yes, every night. She declared it was just “routine” now.
Someone replied: “Your water/electrical bill must be insane!”
Another wrote: “That seems like a crazy amount of work.”
Look, there’s no way to prove if people are lying, but Aussies are more inclined to lie about silly things because we want to look like high-functioning and thriving members of society.
No one wants to ever say: “I haven’t washed my sheets for the last three weeks because I’ve been absolutely pummelled by life, but I swear I’m clean.”
Or: “I’ve been feeling sad so haven’t been washing my sheets much.”
I also asked people the worst thing they had found in their sheets.
Only one honest person admitted they once fell asleep eating pineapple lumps and woke up to the evidence being smeared everywhere. Thank you!
Everyone else acted like absolute bedding angels that have never encountered an unknown stain in their lives because they are washing machine elves that are constantly chained to their washing workshops and are rigorously washing their sheets.
Well, except one hero.
One brave person admitted that while they washed their kid’s bedding weekly, they couldn’t say the same for themselves.
“I couldn’t tell you, not anywhere near as often as I should,” she shared.
News.com.au is exploring the nation’s habits and behaviours in a new national survey as well as our views on race, the referendum, parenting, sex and even first dates. Settle in and take this survey of 50 questions – it shouldn’t take longer than 10 minutes – and help us discover what’s driving Australia.
Clinical psychologist Dr Aileen Alegado explained that we tend to lie about trivial things
because we fear judgment.
“When there is lying, no matter how big or small the lie may be, it usually comes back down to our own ability to feel shame, guilt or is connected to being judged,” she said.
Often lying stems from the mentality of not wanting to get in trouble.
“We know we should have done something, so we lie because we fear being judged or
feel that personal shame,” she said.
So, yes, maybe Australia is the best country ever at washing their sheets or maybe we just know when to fib a bit.