As an amusing postscript to our previous discussion about the difference between a duvet and a comforter, Metafilter asks, ‘Do British people use sheets?’. Cue lots of Americans horrifed by insanitary British habits.
Two Countries Separated by Common Bed Linen – Part 2
Hehe! We in the colonies also use doonas (Australian for Duvet) without sheets!
Doona covers are removable for washing, does that make it somehow more hygienic?
Duvet covers are also washable – I think they’re the same as doonas. But apparently Americans have a top sheet as well and are horrified by having just a duvet. I had NO clue…
It just means more to wash. You wash the duvet cover anyway
Well, precisely.
Ha ha! It’s just a habit. I think in the US – particularly in the South where I grew up – we had top sheets, as it was so hot at night, yet would later get cool enough to need some form of cover (but a duvet would be too heavy). I remember being surprised once at a friend in London’s house, when she didn’t use a top sheet. My Brit husband doesn’t care either way. The only thing that bothers me about not using the top sheet is when it’s done in a London hotel. I know they don’t wash that duvet cover every day and I always think of those crime shows, when they’re shining the blue light on the bedding to find all sorts of unknown substances! 🙂
@Paris Parfait: I’m British and I can’t believe you know of a hotel that doesn’t wash the duvet cover between customers???
I don’t understand the whole topsheet thing. The duvet (Goose down and 3.5 tog all year round) in its beautiful high-thread-count cover is beautiful. I wash mine every few days.
Am I the only person in the world who does not like duvets? I like to control the density of my bedding to a millionth of a degree, and like the control that comes with being able to peel back one blanket one at a time. ‘Sheet or duvet’ is just not fine-tuned enough.
Also hate the fact that after a few nights of duvet hell the padding doesn’t quite reach the top of the cover, even if you shake it out, and you get that annoying little limp bit.
When I am empress I am going to have duvets banned.
Lxx
That is the funniest thing I’ve read all day. Bizzarely I’ve had the same argument with my bf in Florida, she thinks we Brits are weird as well for not having the ‘sheet’…it’s just extra laundry!. That said she also couldn’t believe that our kitchens were so small and the sinks so tiny….