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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think sleeping without a top sheet is minging?

172 replies

RevoltingPeasant · 20/02/2011 20:42

DP likes to sleep with a sheet covering the mattress (obviously) and then just a duvet on top.

I think this is skanky, esp since DP doesn't wash his duvet cover every week (Hmm) and so it gets really sweaty. I also think it's weird and wrong to not have a sheet above and below you.

AIBU?

OP posts:
stealthsquiggle · 21/02/2011 11:19

PMSL at the number of answers this has attracted.

I clicked on it because I was Confused at the notion of using a top sheet with a duvet and wanted to check that I had understood the question.

Now that it is clear that the OP is American, all becomes clear Grin

OP - it's wierd, and part of the basic American misunderstanding of duvet usage which includes (IME) tucking them in at the end of the bed Hmm.

diddl · 21/02/2011 12:08

"Oh for fucks sake... I am clearly old and just like my mother"

Me too-although like my mother, of courseGrin

We also have a top sheet as I find that easier to wash & replace than the two duvet covers.

woollyideas · 21/02/2011 12:12

I bet OP has got a VALANCE as well... Grin

sayithowitis · 21/02/2011 12:14

I am clearly in the minority here! We have a top sheet and a duvet. I like to have the duvet cover me up to around my waist and then the sheet for the rest of me. DC1 prefers no top sheet and DC2 likes to have a top sheet.

I cannot stand it when I go to a hotel and there is no top sheet on the bed!

However, I do agree with those who say that having a top sheet makes no difference to the washing frequency.

stealthsquiggle · 21/02/2011 12:17

Separate duvets entirely normal in continental europe, I am told.. (and in my parents' house)

Apart from the tucked-in duvet Angry and top sheet (which I don't mind in hotels because I don't have to make the bed) the (American) hotel I was in last week had big thick duvet-type mattress topper. It was like sleeping in a duvet sandwich and I loved it - I want one, now, like this but I think I am going to have to grind DH down persuade DH a little.

ChippingInFanciesCheeseOnToast · 21/02/2011 12:30

I can't believe how many of you haven't heard of a top sheet? I grew up with top sheets - I think that's really from when blankets changed into duvets and the sheets just hung around still - no-one really thought to abandon them in the process.

My Mum and my Aunts still use top-sheets as they are easier to change and your lovely duvets covers don't get 'worn out/tired loking' anywhere near as quickly.

I hate top sheets - I can't be done with the tangle factor! I'd sooner change the duvet a couple of times a week!!

OsbegaEthewulf · 21/02/2011 12:33

I use top sheets as well (but no duvet cover) as sometimes I get too hot and like just the sheet over me. Sheets are fab- pre-war cotton/linen mix (bought them still packaged in a charity shop...five pairs for a tenner)and are lovely and crisp and white. I don't like just a duvet and cover. IN the summer we have top sheet and thin patchwork quilt

ilovesprouts · 21/02/2011 13:12

no top sheet here just the duvet

diddl · 21/02/2011 13:21

"I grew up with top sheets - I think that's really from when blankets changed into duvets and the sheets just hung around still - no-one really thought to abandon them in the process."

Same here.

I think when we changed to duvets, we just took the blankets & counterpane off as we thought that that was what the duvet was replacing.

I´m sure there were no instructions-and certainly no internet to consult!

Also, like others we tend to sleep with a duvet to about our waists & sheet over the top bit(s)Grin

I´m British btw, so I don´t think that it´s just an American thing.

No tucking in of duvets, thoughGrin

cloghead · 21/02/2011 13:26

MY Dh absolutely insists on a top sheet under the duvet. I always thought it was odd, but it is not negotiable as far as he is concerned. He's very british, not old, and neither his mother nor any of the rest of the family want a top sheet. But now I have got into the habit of that being how you make the beds

Lucyinthepie · 21/02/2011 14:27

We have single quilts, he has a winter one at the moment and I have a summer one all year round. I think it's me age Blush. Of course we don't have a top sheet because the WHOLE POINT of having our own quilts is that we can roll ourselves up in them like caterpillars and nobody will nick them in the middle of the night. Grin

Original poster
RevoltingPeasant · 21/02/2011 14:59

A valance, woollyideas ...! The very notion!

I do have Oxford pillowcases, though.

OP posts:
chandellina · 21/02/2011 15:37

RP - as a fellow countrywoman it took me a while to get used to this non-top sheet duvet thing but it's all going fine now after 10 years. Not sure I could go back to the old ways now. It's a heck of a lot easier to make a bed in the morning. I wash my duvet every week, along with the sheet.

Driftwood999 · 21/02/2011 15:49

OP - YANBU and you are not alone! It is cosy, cleaner and easier to change more frequently than a duvet cover and gives another, controllable level of warmth or coolness. Sometimes in the summer, all you want is the top sheet. Personally we adjust to the season but on the whole I prefer multi layers. Dare to be different!

tyler80 · 21/02/2011 15:57

Duvets were unheard of in the part of America I used to live in. I remember myself and an Australian friend trying to ask where to find them in the store. Trying to think of different words that might make them understand, duvet, doona etc. Eventually we worked out that they didn't understand because they didn't exist, they used sheets and blankets or comforters instead.

I ended up sewing two sheets together and putting my blankets inside as a makeshift duvet.

oopslateagain · 21/02/2011 18:11

I lived in America for a while, tried to get a duvet cover - no chance. They don't have duvets, they have comforters - a duvet but you can't change the cover, they come in pretty colours and patterns but YOU ARE STUCK WITH THE ONE YOU GET. That's why you need a top sheet with them - cos if they need washing you have to wash the whole bloody thing.

And they didn't have Proper Tea.

Loved living in America, I did. Angry Wink

bettybosseye · 21/02/2011 18:54

YABU for all the reasons already given.

GabySolis · 21/02/2011 19:29

A sheet on top of you underneath the duvet? Never even heard of that before, sounds really weird!
YABU.

chandellina · 21/02/2011 19:56

Duvets are now freely available across the U.S. at Walmart and Target. Undoubtedly many of their buyers feel very French and sophisticated.

MadameOvary · 21/02/2011 20:10

No-one knows how to get rid of the yellow Sad
Very Angry at my ex for ruining my lovely cotton bedding. Think it has improved slightly with repeated Vanish tho, and DP and I dont live together, so that's good. Grin

lisianthus · 21/02/2011 20:15

YANBU. I really hate it when there isn't a top sheet. It just isn't as comfortable and doesn't feel as clean.

wornoutbutstillwonderful · 21/02/2011 21:15

Yes i have a top sheet always have, in the summer I only have the top sheet and also with regards to the pillows they get switched around so my lovely pretty ones go to the bottom plain ones to the top to sleep on. I can't sleep with no top sheet feels too strange.

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