White Bedding

~ Clarissa

I always thought it would be super cool to have snow-white bedding. But I never got a set because I had this vague feeling that white bedding was too good for me or I was not good enough for it. It wasn’t a fully verbalized feeling, it was simply there, irreflectively and powerfully.

Yesterday I finally noticed what was going on and bought myself a set. On the negative side, I was so excited about my white bedding that I couldn’t sleep all night. But on the positive side, I conquered back one more bit of reality from received conditioning.

The set misses a blanket case (called “duvet cover” in this country). Bedding sets around here always pretend that people don’t cover themselves with anything for some reason. But I had a blanket case that is white with big pink flowers, so it worked.

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Published by Clarissa

24 thoughts on “White Bedding”

  1. On White Bedding

    I never saw a duvet cover until I was in Poland for the first time in 1975. I think they are considered luxury items in this country. Mostly, one needs to cover oneself only with a sheet, and, if that is not sufficient, one or more blankets on top of the sheet.

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  2. I had this discussion with my US friends before, but it seems that duvets/blankets thing is a Europe/US thing. In Europe, everyone has been using duvets for decades, but in US they don’t seem to be known/used much. I don’t know why, it’s an interesting cultural difference.

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    1. To clarify, because on second reading maybe this is not clear, when I say duvet, I mean a duvet with a cover. When I say blanket, I mean the sheet+blanket combination.

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      1. My guess is that it’s the same thing as the fast food tradition, the bad, ugly clothing and shoes that even well-off people often prefer here in the US, the sad tradition of eating over the sink or from a plastic plate or a box that are so prevalent in this country. And the same feeling motivates people to skip holidays for years.

        The comfort and hygiene of a duvet in a cover don’t merit the effort of placing the duvet inside a cover. People around here don’t invest effort into self-care and take pride in not taking care of themselves. It’s actually a point of pride in some strange way to be (or present as) overworked, exhausted, miserable, etc. It’s very unfashionable to say, “I’ve been sleeping so well and a lot!” To the contrary, people seem to compete as to how little they sleep.

        I’m from a different culture, so it sounds very strange to me.

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  3. I prefer not to have anything (bedding, clothes, etc) that is snow-white since one can’t put it in a washing machine with other colors. Otherwise, it’ll become not white very quickly.

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  4. Prepare to be annoyed.

    If I’m at home, I make my bed with pillows, pillow covers, a mattress cover, sheets, and a quilt with the corners tucked. The pillows are zipped in hypoallergenic dust covers. If it’s winter and cold, a blanket goes between the comforter and the sheet.

    All of that gets washed every week in the hottest water that everything can stand. That’s three loads. I see no reason to have an additional cover that’s purely decorative that ends up tossed on the floor during the night, especially when I launder my decorative quilt.

    And after seeing what a duvet and duvet covers are, I feel like layers give me more control over temperature. Maybe I haven’t lived in cold enough places? I’ve never actually owned a duvet. I’m never going back to big puffy comforters because I have to go to the laundromat to wash them (because they won’t fit in standard home machines).

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      2. Seems like the people in the video are Aussie.
        How I understand things:

        Duvet cover=bag for the duvet.
        Duvet= It’s like a giant thin pillow for your bed stuffed with eiderdown?< a href=”http://www.overstock.com/guides/duvets-buying-guide”>materials in a duvet Contained within a duvet cover.
        Comforter = big puffy top decorative layer for your bed. It goes above the blanket and the sheets. Can be used without a cover.

        Blanket= an extra layer for warmth. Thicker than the sheets. Always goes right on top of the sheets but would go under a comforter, quilt or duvet. Can be made of yarn or cotton or wool — not stuffed with anything.

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      3. I have needed to see this video for a long time! I had no idea it could be so easy to put a cover on! Nice! I imagine it will be a little tougher with a king-sized duvet, but either way it will take two people.

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        1. I haven’t tried this method yet but maybe I should. It looks like fun. Especially if one tries to imitate the Australian accent in the process. 🙂

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  5. Congratulations on your all-white bedding, may you thoroughly enjoy it!

    The distinction between blanket and duvet is not always clear to me in this post, and I’m sure the fault is mine! But can I just check that by duvet you mean a bed-covering which is insulation-filled and fabric encased, with minimal stitching tying the two layers together to allow greater insulation, generally unwashable domestically (e.g. requires dry cleaning, too large for a domestic washer), and usually covered with an outer slip case which is changed along with the bottom sheet (often in my experience in Europe the duvet is the only covering above the sleeper, with no separate top sheet), whereas a blanket is a (woven) fibre covering made of something warmer than a sheet (e.g. wool, acrylic blend etc.) and layered over the sheets as needed? And the third category where the confusion probably comes in is what is sometimes called a quilt or a comforter, a ‘sandwich’ of fabric, insulation, fabric which is stitched together into quite a flat covering with less insulating properties than a duvet?

    Comforters and blankets are always underlain by top sheets (which are typically large enough to be turned down over the upper edge, thus providing an extra element of hygeine) and layered according to the preference of the sleeper, whilst a duvet is a single bed-covering which is designed to be, and works best if it is, the only covering of the sleeper (often without a top sheet?).

    The duvet is great for hotels – it’s a pain to wash blankets and comforters, and therefore duvets appear to be more hygenic (I say appear to be because duvet covers, like top sheets, have no magical power to keep all human contamination from the fabrics they separate the sleeper from), especially for restless sleepers who displace the folded down top sheet and end up in contact with the blankets. But they only work well in consistent climates – hence their origins in regions with consistently very cold winters. In the UK without a controlled indoors climate, I find it a pain to be constantly either switching between different weights of duvets, or waking up too hot or too cold on several occasions in the night and having the choice of duvet or no duvet (or elaborate arrangements of duvet to cover only selected body parts, e.g. using the feet as a heat exchanger), whereas it is much easier to add or remove blankets. Much as my British habit of layer-dressing for the outdoors causes amusement in the Canadian or Scandinavian winter, where Really Cold is always the setting and wearing one big very warm coat to go around town is sensible).

    Also, I like the fact that I can wash my (cotton flannel, and cellular or flat-woven wool and wool blends) blankets at home, every few months at least, whereas my lovely cosy winter duvet is goose-down and so getting it washed, as opposed to just washing its covers, is a complex logistical nightmare!

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    1. “The distinction between blanket and duvet is not always clear to me in this post, and I’m sure the fault is mine!”

      • I have no idea what the difference is either.

      “(I say appear to be because duvet covers, like top sheets, have no magical power to keep all human contamination from the fabrics they separate the sleeper from”

      • The duvet covers (that I call “a blanket case”) are removed and washed together with the sheets. At least, that’s how I do it at home.

      “whereas my lovely cosy winter duvet is goose-down and so getting it washed, as opposed to just washing its covers, is a complex logistical nightmare!”

      • This! This is what I have and call “a blanket”! It can’t be washed often because that kills it. I use this kind of blanket all year long, even in the dead heat of summer. I can’t sleep until something heavyish is lying on top of me. 🙂

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          1. I think that’s just for promotion purposes, everyone uses duvet covers (=a bag into which you stuff the duvet) in normal life.

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  6. When I’m not living in hotels, mine are all black — pillow cases, sheets, blankets, covers, the lot.

    You may immediately think of the somewhat sordid issues involving black bed coverings, but I think of another thing: it’s much easier to verify that they are visibly clean.

    So I usually have at least five sets that aren’t frayed beyond usability.

    “Oh, so nice, fresh sheets on the bed, and they smell so clean …”

    I usually don’t mention that the previously used ones are often soaking in a strong solution of Dettol and Persil in a very large bucket. 🙂

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    1. I have a set that’s black with huge orange and yellow flowers (very Jewish of me), but I got tired of it.

      So no, I wouldn’t suspect you of anything sordid. 🙂

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