Bedding is available at all different price ranges from the cheapest sheet sets you can buy in discount stores to the top of the range designer bedding you buy in smart department and interior design stores.

However you can't always tell quality by the price especially in the days of constant sales and money off deals.

What is apparent however is that you do have to pay a little more than rock bottom prices to get good value for money.

Don't buy cheap sheets or unknown brands without taking at look at them and being able to feel how good they are. Cheap imported sheets are often thin and lacking in substance. They will look washed out after laundering just once or twice.

This is particularly the case if they are finished with laundery starch to give them a thicker appearance at point of sale. The starch will wash out straight away and you will be left with limp thin sheets which will be subject to wear and pilling. (Pilling is when the fibers form into tiny hard balls on the surface of the sheets giving a rough feel to the bedding)

The best sheets are pure cotton imported from Egypt but these will be expensive and you don't have to get the very best to get quality bedding. The higher the thread count the better qualiity the bedding but you will not always see thread counts on cheaper sheets or sheets made of mixed fibers.

I prefer precale sheets which have a high thread count and a smooth surface or poly-cotton sheets which are easy to care for.

If you buy pure cotton look for the kind which are easy to iron to cut down your work load.

When buying a bedding ensemble you may find that the sheets are made in a slightly different fabric than other items. If the items which lie next to your skin are harder wearing than other items that is a good thing as they will be subject to more wear and laundering.

Though other parts will not be made of cheap fabric in a quality bedding set, cheaper bedding ensembles may make quality outer covers then add some cheap sheets to make a set.

Sometimes you can see from beautiful bedding ensembles that they are quality through and through but always check all the items included in the set.

Cheap bedding often has colors which already look a bit faded before you get it home whereas you can see a rich depth of color in quality bedding.

You will also find more beautiful and sophisticated designs in quality bedding which may be because manufacturers who charge more for their bedding can afford to employ better designers.

Don't be tempted to buy cheap bedding just because you like the design. You can probably find a similar bedding colors in a better quality product. And if not, just remermber that the colors of cheap bedding will no longer please you when they fade within a few months. Use  quality bedding for a while and you will never want to use cheap sheets. If you budget is not high try to find quality bedding at a discount.

Flat sheets are often better quality than fitted sheets at the same price level as it is cheaper to make a flat sheet. Provided you buy your sheets nice and big flat sheets will fit better and stay smooth on your bed.  (Make hospital corners!) The best quality bed linen is almost always flat rather than fitted.

If however you insist on fitted sheets buy the right size bedding for your bed and learn to fold them so that they stay looking good until it is time to put them on the bed. (See the video above). A wrinkled sheet which has been crammed into a drawer will feel worse than a smooth lower quality sheet which has been stored properly.