Don’t give up: You, too, can learn to fold a fitted sheet (+video)

You think you know Wichita’s claims to fame: aviation, Shocker basketball, the world’s first Pizza Hut.

Time to add one to the list:

Jill Cooper, Wichita grandmother and co-founder of LivingOnADime.com, is the fitted-sheet-folding queen of the Internet.

It’s true. Search “how to fold a fitted sheet” on YouTube, and Cooper’s smiling face tops the list. Her step-by-step video – one minute and 43 seconds of pure, flawless, sheet-folding wizardry – has more than 13 million views.

Thirteen million times, some frustrated sheet folder has sought guidance online and found Cooper there. Thirteen million times, she has calmly demonstrated how Corner One fits into Corner Two, how Corner Three tucks into Two, then Corner Four, and so on.

Thirteen million times, she has straightened the edges, walked to the table, fluffed and fixed that baffling piece of fabric. She has folded it in thirds and then thirds again – laundry origami! – and has proven to the world that anything is possible.

“Isn’t it the strangest thing?” says Cooper, 64, who lives in a small house off South Hydraulic. “That silly video just went crazy.”

Cooper and Tawra Kellam, her daughter and business partner, began producing and posting instructional videos several years ago as a way to plug their website and collection of books. Their YouTube channel features more than 90 videos, including “How to Organize Plastic Food Storage Containers,” “How to Fold Socks,” “How to Clean a Stainless Steel Sink” and “How to Fix Broken Makeup in 30 Seconds.”

The sheet-folding video was Cooper’s idea. Kellam and her husband shook their heads at first.

“They were coming up with these big ideas for videos, and I said, ‘Let’s do how to fold a fitted sheet,’ ” Cooper recalls.

“Nobody’s going to watch that,” they told her, laughing. “Who’s going to watch ‘How to Fold a Fitted Sheet?’ ”

Lots of people, Cooper said. Know why?

“People have stress in their life at work, and they have stress with the kids and stress going to the grocery store,” she says.

“And even though we don’t like to admit it, having a neat home affects us mentally. It does. Otherwise, everybody wouldn’t be striving to do it.”

Our world is full of balled-up sheets in messy closets, symbols of a mounting frustration. Master one little thing, and your confidence soars. Stack folded sheets and towels on a shelf, and you’re one step closer to inner peace.

Cooper also realized that lots of people – millions, it turns out – never learned sheet-folding at home or in school. So they turn to the Internet, where they can watch, pause, rewind and replicate. And Cooper encourages them:

“Like any new thing you learn, it might feel awkward at first,” she says. “Don’t worry. With a little bit of practice, you’ll do just fine.”

Beneath Cooper’s video one person wrote, “Well that wasn’t so bad. Got it on the first try and now I feel stupid for struggling soooo long!”

Others are more doubtful: “What is this witchcraft?”

A recent commercial for Lowe’s home improvement store shows a man tending and fertilizing his lawn to a perfect green.

“It made me feel like I can do anything,” he tells a neighbor. “I think I’m going to finally learn how to fold a fitted sheet.” Seconds later he’s in a bedroom, twisting, punching and stomping a sheet, shouting, “There are no corners! This is impossible!”

Cooper laughs. The commercial doesn’t refer to her video directly, but the message is clear: “How to Fold a Fitted Sheet” will always have an audience. Thirteen million and counting.

One recent morning in her Wichita living room, Cooper demonstrated her method again, turning a double-bed sheet into a crisp, neat rectangle in less than a minute. Then she did it again, like a pro. (We can attest, dear readers, that no sorcery was involved.)

An additional hint: Put sheets on the shelf with the closed sides out. They look neater that way.

“In the ’60s, people my age, they kind of knew how to do this stuff. Their moms taught them, and it is an art,” Cooper said.

“It’s like any other job. You have to practice at it. You have to learn. … But you can do anything if you just do it enough,” she said.

“People give up, that’s what the problem is. People give up and don’t keep trying. So don’t give up.”

This story was originally published November 29, 2015 at 3:10 PM with the headline "Don’t give up: You, too, can learn to fold a fitted sheet (+video)."