How to Make Hospital Corners

As a nurse, I have made my share of hospital corners. I’ll never forget the day the hospital I worked for made the leap to fitted bottom sheets, but I still had to make hospital corners for the top sheets. I still do for my own bed linens. For those of you who don’t know How to Make Hospital Corners, it involves tucking sheets neatly underneath the mattress in overlapping folds. Following is a step by step list of instructions.

How to Make Hospital Corners Step by Step

Step 1

Lay an open flat sheet on top of the mattress. This type of sheet has no elastic on the corners. If, by the grace of heaven you have a fitted sheet. Put that one on first before laying the flat sheet on top. The top of the flat sheet should be level with the top of the mattress and the other three sides of the sheet should hanging off the mattress.

Step 2

Tuck the bottom of the flat sheet in at the foot of the bed. Lifting the bottom of the mattress lightly with one hand, use your other hand to tuck the sheet beneath the mattress, moving from one corner of the mattress to the other.

Once you have put the mattress back down, slide your hand (or, if you prefer, both hands) between the mattress and or base. It is to make sure that the sheet is smooth and not bunching anywhere. You can tug lightly on the other ends of the sheet to remove any wrinkles and keep the sheet smooth.

Step 3

Choose a corner at the foot of the bed to start with. Move to one of the two corners at the foot of your bed in preparation for your first hospital corner. For each corner, you’ll be working with the side of the sheet that you have not yet tucked up under the mattress.

Go approximately 16 inches up from the foot of the bed and lift the edge of the sheet up to make a tent-like shape. (This is integral in learning how to make hospital corners.)

This should be at a 45-degree angle. As you hold up the sheet with one hand and hold it down at the corner with the other to form a tent shape. You’ll see that some excess fabric still hangs down at the corner of the bed. This is the excess fabric you’ll be working within the next step.

Step 4

Tuck the excess fabric underneath the mattress. If possible, do this while still holding up the “tent” with your other hand. Let the sheet fall back down over the side of the mattress. Let go of the long side of the sheet allowing it to fall back down over the freshly tucked corner and the side of the bed.

Step 5 - Final Step for "How to make hospital corners"