Linen

Perfect bed linen is one of those little(ish) things that can add so much to the quality of bedtime. That first cool evening that you peel back a fat, soft, pristine doona or blanket, and crawl onto some crisp, fresh and smooth sheets is worth a whole summer of hot sticky nights and mosquitoes. It seems that those first cool days will be here sooner than we think, so it's time for me to talk about what I like to do to get my linen just right.

• Colour themes. I have two base colour themes that I use for winter and summer. The winter doona is reversible: mossy green and cream. The summer doona is a textured self-stripe and waffle weave reversible plain white. With these, I can mix and match and add colour using my huge and tragic collection of pillow cases and sheets. For summer, I mostly like to go for minimalist and pristine white all the way, although occasionally I'll use pale buttery yellow sheets, the blue bird and some vintage floral embroidered pillowcases when I'm feeling ladylike. In winter, I use scarlet or chocolate pillowcases to mix with the moss green and cream. This combination can also give me white, cream and red for Valentine's Day, red and green for Christmas or blue and white for holiday time.
• Starch. In summer, if you don't have aircon, it can really be worth adding some rice-cooking-water to the final rinse when doing your sheets. It keeps them crispy cool and makes your sleep time more comfortable.
• Sprays. I keep a plastic spray bottle in the laundry, filled with water and some drops of essential oils. I spray the pillowcases after ironing them, and sometimes the towels too, before they go into the cupboard. I like to use rose or lavender in the winter, citrus in summer, and a cinnamony figgy blend at Christmas. I warned you that it was tragic.
• Sun-drying. The sheets will look and smell better, and be hygienically cleaned, if they dry in the sun on a line. Hot windy days are great for drying sheets. The best bit is if you go out to get them off the line and you find a little ladybug nestled into one of the corners. Then you can shoo it merrily away, gather the sheets into your pinny and bustle off like some deranged domestic from the 1800s.