Welcome to this exciting episode of The Daily Grateful. I'm Michael Gross, and today we're going to talk about new sheets, and do you have to watch them before you use them? Riveting stuff, I know, and it's riveting, just stay tuned. I have been married three times, and I had a long-term relationship with Debbie, who's now deceased, God rest her soul.
And my first girlfriend from when I was in high school, for crying out loud, every one of them insists, every stinking one of them, insists that when you get new sheets, you have to wash them first. Now, I'm a logical kind of guy. Oh, by the way, this is The Daily Grateful. I'm Michael Gross, and I'm grateful that I'm becoming edgy-micated about this, and I'm going to edgy-micate you about this.
Although I'm so, you know, and I'm just... So, they come and I ordered new sheets. The little Amazon guy shows up, drops him at my door. They're in the cardboard box, inside the cardboard box, is a plastic bag, inside the plastic bags.
I'm a nice, new, beautiful, blue sheets. And they're not linen, no, no, no. They're not bamboo. What do they call it?
As I'm sitting here bouncing my fingers on the table, which I'm not supposed to do, microfiber. They're microfiber, I got microfiber sheets. I don't know, I was just, you know, I remember when you used to buy sheets at what's the red count and all this stuff. And then I remember one time buying, I got 900 thread count, and those are the most uncomfortable sheets I had ever, ever used.
And then somebody told me that the sweet spot is between 200 and 250. And then I didn't even look. I didn't even see it listed when it came time to go buy sheets. But anyway, I opened up the box and I opened up the bag, and there's all these, you know, these beautiful blue sheets, microfiber sheets.
And, you know, they look really clean to me, but I'm going back to every time I did this, in every relationship I've ever been in, it's you wash the sheets first. So I was talking to the president of the Tampa Bay Technology Center about this last night. He said, nah, you're supposed to do that. My wife says to do that.
I just put them on the bed. And that's what I wanted to do. I wanted to put them on the bed. You know, what the hell?
Then I went to chat GPT to ask because my son's girlfriend's arguing with me about it. And my son is arguing with me about it. So I go to chat GPT and I said, please research and tell me if new sheets can be put on the bed without washing first. What do you think?
I mean, just what do you, I'm going to tell you what they said. It is generally recommended to wash new sheets before using them. I'm so grateful that I've learned this. Although I want it to be naughty and just put sheets on the day I'm bad.
You know, they're going to get washed in the next six months. I'm sorry, that was gross. But you know, really, and I hate to speak ill of the dead. Girlfriend Debbie lived in Palm Beach and I live in the Tampa Bay area.
And I would go down to see her. And I remember going down there for a weekend and then I put sheets on the bed for her. She was time for clean sheets. She wanted clean sheets.
I put sheets on the bed for her. A month and a half later, I went back. And the sheets that I put on the bed for a month and a half before were still on the bed. And she was, oh, I'm going to change the sheets.
I mean, a month and a half, you know, I go a week. That's, you know, Sunday changes. Anyway, here are a few reasons why you should wash the sheets in advance, they say. Chemical residues.
You know what I told Debbie? I said, you know what? The sheets smell like you. I want the sheet.
No, no, I don't do it. And we're going to change the sheets. Okay, we changed the sheets. And she insisted on changing the sheets.
So I said, okay, chemical residues. You know, I had a lot of weird things with her. She didn't know how to buy toilet paper. She would go and spend way too much money on toilet paper.
She had a membership at Costco, but she'd go to Walgreens and buy toilet paper at Walgreens. And she would spend all this money for it. And I'd say, look, I took her to Costco. I said, we can buy like a palette of toilet paper and you have it and it'll last you a lot.
No, she won't do it. Anyway, and it's good toilet paper. Anyway, just people are strange. That's why we didn't work out, I think.
But chemical residues, new sheets, am I rambling? Yes, new sheets, but I'm having a good time. Often contain chemicals from the manufacturing process. What?
When they manufacture sheets, they're putting chemicals on, what else that? Such as dyes, sizing and other finishing agents which can cause skin irritation or allergies. Oh, why is this? This is shocking.
Okay, stiffness. Washing new sheets can help soften them and make them more comfortable to sleep on. All right, cleanliness. Sheets can collect dust, dirt, and other contaminating, dirt or contaminants during the packaging and shipping and storage.
I'm thinking they're made and they're stuck right in a plastic bag. So I call BS on that one. Washing them ensures that they are clean and hygienic. All right, manufactured right in the plastic bag.
If they're not hygienic, what the hell, you know, all right. And then here's the one that kind of made sense. It kind of made sense, but I don't know if I'm buying it or not. Improved fit.
Washing can help pre-shrink the sheets, ensuring a better fit on your mattress. Okay. While it's possible to put new sheets on the bed, I wish I had done it, damn it. Why didn't I do it?
I sold out. While it's possible to put new sheets on the bed without washing them. It makes me want to buy new sheets again and just get them here and put them on the damn bed. That's what it makes me want to do.
It's not advisable due to these potential issues. So damn it to hell today, I washed my new sheets. I washed the old sheets. I took those off the bed, threw them in the wash and then I was just going to put the new ones on the bed.
But everybody talked me out of it. Everybody talked me out of it. But I'm grateful that I had the ability to research this and do all this. Then I had another question.
This is an, and you can now answer this, okay? When you wash sheets, now this is me. When I wash sheets that have been on my bed for a week, especially if I've been outside of it, sweating and everything and I wash them in hot water. And that's what I do, I wash them.
And they say, oh, you don't have to do that. You don't have to do that. You just use, well cotton sheets, they're saying, use warm water, linen sheets, use cold or lukewarm water. What is lukewarm?
Synthetic sheets such as microfiber, which is what I bought. Ah, use cold water. And you have to do that to maintain the integrity of the fibers. Silk sheets use cold water on the gentle cycle to protect the delicate fabric.
I've never had silk sheets, I never want them. Bamboo sheets, what the hell are bamboo sheets? Use cold water to prevent shrinking and maintain the fabric softness and durability. Okay, so that's my gratitude podcast for today.
Sheets, putting them on the bed without washing them when they're brand new. Damn it all, I'm gonna do it the next time. I swear I'm gonna do it, I'm not gonna talk to anybody about it, I'm just gonna go on that Amazon.com thing. And by the way, I bought the Amazon Basic Sheets, they're Amazon Basics, you know, they're store brand, essentially, that's what I bought.
They look real nice. I'm gonna do it the next time. And there's gonna be a next time where you said, just what I'm gonna do, I'll put it on the bed, not gonna tell anybody. And then if I'm here doing the podcast and I'm scratching, I'm itching, then you can tell me I told you so.
We'll see you tomorrow on Wednesday. I have to go write a newsletter now. See you later.