How Clean is Clean Enough?

When my head hit the pillow last night at around 1 a.m. my last thought was that yet another day had passed without changing the sheets.

It's a dirty secret. I don't remember the last time I changed the sheets on my bed.

In my new Bible "How to Clean Practically Anything," the authors write that "frequent, systematic light cleaning has advantages over periodic upheaval."

Their suggestion: Make a list of all tasks that need to be done during the year and group them under frequency headings -- daily, weekly, monthly, semiannually, and annually. Sounds reasonable enough in theory.

I understand the rationale behind doing dishes daily, but cleaning under and behind furniture weekly? Now that seems a bit excessive. I sort of like leaving the dust bunnies alone long enough so that they grow big enough for my kids to consider them pets.

Strangely, there is nothing in the Consumer Reports schedule about changing sheets. Perhaps they mistakenly assume that people have an innate instinct for knowing when it should be done.

Apparently, I'm not the only one wondering about this. A few years ago, a survey found that the majority of people change their sheets anywhere from once a week to once a month.

How often do you change your sheets?

Most domestic experts recommend changing the sheets at least every two weeks. So, in other words, I've still got some time.

Tomorrow, I will draw up the master plan. Doesn't that sound ominous?