Single men do what? A look inside a single guy’s bedroom thru the years

Perhaps you heard this recently.  A couple weeks ago on Good Morning America, they laughingly reported that 45% of single men only change their sheets 3 times a year (once every 4 months).  

First of all, who would admit to that?  Second—how could anyone sleep comfortably while stewing in their own slough for weeks on end?  One can only imagine the hordes of microscopic vermin in those bedsheets after 4 months.

I change my pillowcases weekly, and my bedsheets every other Sunday.  (As an incentive & reward, I bake Pillsbury Cinnamon rolls on Sheet Change Sunday.)  How often do you change yours? 

Anyway, it got me to thinking about the various bedrooms I’ve had over the years.  Not the ones I shared with my brothers growing up, but after I left my hometown and moved to the city.

So, here we go…

1.  Shaler Highland Apartments, 1987 – This was my first place in Pittsburgh, and the only apartment I shared with a roommate for 2 years, Bill B (below).  We were both 26, both back in school (me for computer science and Bill for cooking & restaurant mgmt) and known as the Odd Couple by our friends, and even a couple neighbors. 

One of us was Felix (a neatnik) and the other a real Oscar Madison.

           

I’ll let you figure out who was who.  My bedroom is on the left, Bill’s on the right.  I gotta say, I liked Bill very much—we’d go grocery shopping, he’d come up to me with a box of Spic n’ Span.  “Doug, this is what we use right?”

Bill didn’t clean, but he always chipped in.   

We lost contact 35 years ago and I don’t know what became of him.  After Bill married his Asian girlfriend Shelly and moved out, we never saw each other again.

2.  Sharpsburg, 1990 – nothing much to see here.  I left Shaler Apts a year after Bill did, and moved into a nicer apartment 1-2 miles away—but you wouldn’t know it by this photo.  

That first year, my bedroom had no furniture aside from a bed on the floor and cardboard nightstand.  (The place I shared with Bill was furnished.)  It looks bleak, but I can’t tell you how excited I was to finally have my own place again (and my first IT job in the city).

3.  Bellevue, 1994 – Eventually I moved to Bellevue (north of the city and only 10 minutes from downtown Pittsburgh).  Remember those “Bed in a Bag” kits?  This was a Southwestern one, dark green & red. 

When my mom and sister Shawn came to visit, Shawn said “Doug, can’t you take down ONE of the Star Trek posters?”  and Mom said “Shawn, here’s $5.00.  I want you to run up the street and buy some tissue paper so I can pouf Doug’s valance.”

(The valance got poufed, but the Trek posters stayed.)

4.  Still Bellevue, 2014 – 20 years later, and it’s the same apartment, same bedroom, same bedroom furniture.  Only the bedding, artwork & exercise bike changed.

5.  The Tiffany Apts in Avalon, 2018 – A couple years after retiring and moving to a new apartment in the city, my sister Shawn convinced me to ditch my old bedroom suite (that was 30 years old) and showed me a red shaker-style dresser at IKEA I fell in love with, along with this funky gray metal bed.

You can’t see the entire room here, but this is my favorite bedroom in my adult life, favorite furniture too.  When I moved in here, my brother-in-law Jim worried to my sister that the bedframe didn’t come apart, was heavy and I’d have a tough time moving it out of here someday. 

Shawn said “Relax Jim, Doug’s not going anywhere for at least 10 years!”

I hope she’s right, I can’t believe it’s been 5 years already.