A few weeks back, I asked on The Simple Year Facebook Page how many linens we should keep for our beds. The overwhelming majority of you said two sets per bed, one for use and one in reserve. Although some suggested that if we had particularly nice, high thread count sheets, we keep those regardless of how many we had.

I know nothing about thread count. But according to Southern Living, “the perfect bed sheets are paramount to a restful night of sleep.” Um, yeah, okay Southern Living. *insert epic eye roll*

Southern Living says, “thread count is defined as the number of threads, horizontally and vertically, per square inch of a fabric.” Then they moved on to ply and my eyes glazed over. And then types of cotton and weave and…I quit reading. Because I really don’t care. But not before I noticed the picture of a mom and her young daughter reading a book in their luxurious sheets that ostensibly give them a restful night sleep. Because the mom cares about thread count, ply, weave and type of cotton. And whatever else came in slides 7 and 8.

Whatever.

Before I quit reading, I got a “Special Offer.” For two free preview issues of the magazine. NOT FALLING FOR IT, SOUTHERN LIVING. As if I need any more paper in my house.

I piled up all of the sheets, pillowcases, blankets, comforters, and quilts that we own on the dining room table. Let’s just say we had way more linens than we needed. And we’ve been sending some off to charitable organizations pretty regularly throughout the past year.

Not long ago, we inherited new mattresses and box springs from my parents when they downsized. Along with the beds came the linens and the bedding. I’m quite confident that these sheets are of the high thread count variety. So, I put them in the keep pile.

As part of inheriting my parents’ mattresses, we downsized from our former king size bed to a queen (which will be the topic of a future post). All of the king sized bedding went to the donate pile. The kids no longer sleep on twin beds, but we do still have a set of bunk beds. We’re trying to decide what to do with them, but in the mean time I kept one set of twin bedding in case we decide to put one of the twins in the room formerly known as Stephen’s pit to stage it as a 4th bedroom when we sell the house.

The kids chose their two favorite blankets (not bedding, but to snuggle with on the sofa or to take in the car on road trips) and we donated the rest. We still have one full set of bedding we inherited from my parents. It is a queen sized bed skirt, comforter and decorative pillows. Pretty sure my mom had them custom made and I’m not entirely sure what to do with them. We are using the other set on our bed for now. I say for now because it’s not really our style, but it works for the time being. (I’m not a frilly floral print kind of gal.) It’s way too busy of a pattern and too bold in colors for me.

Here is what we ended up donating to The Family Place:

This doesn’t include what we kept. This is four stacks, probably 8 feet tall in total, of stuff we don’t need. Oh. My. God. That is excess. Duvet covers, sheets, blankets, pillow cases, sleeping bags, comforters, quilts. Good grief, Charlie Brown. Ridonculous.