... Do USians not have duvets? Is this a strange foreign invention of ours?
We have duvets because they are cosy, the weather's just turning into winter, and many UK houses have crappy insulation. Do they need more justification than that?
I'm sure some USians have them, but I've never run into one there. We just pile blankets, quilts, and comforters on top of sheets. It allows one to throw bits off and on to regulate one's temperature finely.
They do exist in the US, but I think comforters without a separate removable cover, with synthetic fill and made of decorative fabrics to match the rest of the bedding, are somewhat more commonplace? I have and use both, along with quilts and blankets and heavy woven bedspreads, but I'm so thin-blooded that I've been known to sleep under a duvet in the middle of summer in DC...
Sheets and blankets! How many blankets or quilts depends on how cold it is. Last winter I think we had two blankets and a quilt most of the time. It allows you to throw various layers on or off to regulate your temperature to a T. :)
Ahh! For as long as I can remember duvets have been the default bedding of everywhere I've been and everyone I've known, I've never really stopped to consider what else could be used. They come in different togs so you can theoretically change them between summer and winter (because you'd freeze to death in winter using a barely there summer one), but in my family at least we tended to get the medium weight one and use it whenever, only breaking out extra blankets if it got really cold or switching to just blanket if it was insanely warm (actually I think it was an unzipped lightweight sleeping bag, but it's the same idea! XD) Plus with a duvet all I have to do is wash my cover and sheets, which is handy when the washing machine is already in such demand in our house. :D
I think they became standard bedding in the UK in the 80s; I'm a 70s child and distantly remember having sheets, blankets and something called an 'eiderdown' when small. Almost everyone I know in London has a revolting sore-throaty snotty cold right now, including me. Sorry we gave you our plague!
One of the pharmacists said there was one going around. In the past four days I have gone through a roll of toilet paper and two full boxes of tissues. I've got a third box, but the faucet producing snot in my head seems to have turned itself down to a trickle now.
It's also done something to my taste-- I was able to eat most of a highly spiced Thai fish dish earlier today (the servers kept coming around and commenting on the heat!) and my Dr Pepper tastes like cherry cough syrup now, unfortunately.
Maybe because continental tourists are used to duvets (European ones anyway) and they're easier to deal with? I hated the hotel rooms that had the traditional sheets where you had to basically wriggle into a sandwich position. I was so happy when that changed in London. I didn't know it was changing elsewhere but I haven't been to the UK since 1997.
It might bs that it's less stuff to wash. My only problem is that it's harder to regulate my temperature at night, since I like to mess about with sheets and blankets to find the optimum coverage.
I do that by sticking various parts of my body outside the duvet ^^. But I totally understand that if you're used to doing it that way, this new development sucks.
Yes!! Sticking various parts of yourself outside the duvet is the temp-regulating system I use too! Hee!
What I hate are the sheets/blankets combo where they tuck them firmly in all round the outside of the bed and you lie there feeling like you're trapped in a flower-press...! :)
I did that, too, but I always felt bad for the room service because when I returned to the hotel after they had cleaned up, they always tucked them in again so precisely. Heh.
When I was a little kid my nana had blankets and sheets. I always had a duvet at home though. I don't think I've seen a blanket in a shop for a long time. Just 'throws'.
Sheets and blankets definitely something of my grandmother's generation. I doubt many Brits of the baby boomer generation onwards use them anymore, and I'd be more surprised if the places you stayed used them instead of duvets (the hotel I worked in had extra blankets available but not automatically on the beed, and a sheet underneath the duvet, but that was probably to minimise how dirty the duvet cover got). I'm amazed that you didn't come across this when you were studying here or when you've visited before, how did that happen?
Everyone I know has duvets now, and has since the late 70s. They make bed-making very much easier and quicker; I remember how pleased my mother was with the first one she bought. I suppose that makes them especially useful if you are running a bed-and-breakfast. Personally, I use sheets and a blanket in the summer (just sheets or maybe a duvet cover without the duvet if it's really warm) and have just gone back to the duvet.
I think they're standard in the northwest US, too (though we generally call them covers or comforters instead of duvets, but I'm pretty sure it's the same object). At least, I've never been to a hotel, B&B, or house without them.
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We have duvets because they are cosy, the weather's just turning into winter, and many UK houses have crappy insulation. Do they need more justification than that?
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---L.
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I am exceedingly amused by the fact that they've now been universally adapted.
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Almost everyone I know in London has a revolting sore-throaty snotty cold right now, including me. Sorry we gave you our plague!
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It's also done something to my taste-- I was able to eat most of a highly spiced Thai fish dish earlier today (the servers kept coming around and commenting on the heat!) and my Dr Pepper tastes like cherry cough syrup now, unfortunately.
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I hated the hotel rooms that had the traditional sheets where you had to basically wriggle into a sandwich position. I was so happy when that changed in London. I didn't know it was changing elsewhere but I haven't been to the UK since 1997.
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What I hate are the sheets/blankets combo where they tuck them firmly in all round the outside of the bed and you lie there feeling like you're trapped in a flower-press...! :)
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I don't think I've seen a blanket in a shop for a long time. Just 'throws'.
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