Do you button up your duvet cover before washing?

[Ultravox]

Please help resolve an incredibly minor dispute in our house. I’ve just changed our sheets and when I went to put on the clean duvet cover it was buttoned up so I had to unbutton it to put it on and then re button it. It has proper fiddly wooden buttons and it may be just menopause but I have the rage over this.

So…

YABU: Yes I button up the duvet cover before putting it in the washing machine to stop other items going inside it.

YANU: What a waste of time. If any items go inside the duvet cover during washing then it’s easy to take them out before drying.

No buttoning, I don't care if items go inside, I shake them out easily enough. It's actually never occured to me to button it up before washing.
I always seem to be putting a clean duvet on the bed when I'm overtired and ready for bed so having to open the buttons first would likely cause me a meltdown!

Definitely not! But socks and small things don't go in with bedding as it gets washed at 60c. So it's just the sheet, duvet and pillowcases in the load.

Life is too short to be buttoning and unbuttoning duvet covers for washing!

I don’t because I can’t be bothered but it’s a good idea to button it up first, if you’re not a lazy sod like me.

I don’t see it as that big of a deal to unbutton it before putting it on the bed and then button it again.

As the MN saying goes, if you’re not happy with how someone does the laundry then feel free to do it yourself.

and......wait for it.....iron!

Nothing wrong with ironed bedding. My mum goes to another level, she iron's underwear.

Her take on it was, they are of an age where hospital can be a regular occurrence, so wants to be "neatly turned out".

I button up because pillow cases will end up inside it and make 1 huge ball. This happens in the tumble dryer as well as the washing machine.

I have never buttoned but only because it has literally never occurred to me to do so 😂

YABU.

Buy some iron on Velcro (might need a couple of stitches if you tend to tumble dry at a high temperature) and close the cover before washing it. Bingo - both problems solved.

Rage at buttons is nothing to compared to rage at a soggy mess of crumpled stuff in a tangled duvet.

I don’t, life’s too short.

Yes because otherwise it can get twisted up and other stuff gets caught inside it.

Wash and dry it inside out to save the colours, Flip it back onto the duvet by grabbing the corners and turning it right way round. Any lost socks will magically be returned to you.
Obviously you’ll feel if anything larger got stuck inside.

Yes I do because otherwise the sheet and pillow cases end up inside it and end up as creased as hell and no way am I ironing bedding

I don’t, but I wash the duvet covers with the sheet, not with small items.

This has never occurred to me. I only wash duvet covers with other bedding, so only pillowcases to get inside them, sheets don’t seem to. I don’t tumble dry bedding so everything comes out when I hang up the duvet cover. Certainly never wash bedding with socks or jumpers like PPs. I do iron bedding now I’m retired and have the time, because it feels nicer. I think having the buttons done up when I’m putting the cover on would, on balance, annoy me more than fishing pillow cases out of the cover to hang them up. There is a scientific explanation for small items getting stuck in duvet covers, it’s all down to thermodynamics, like most things.

YABU

This is a bone of deep contention in our house. I button, DP doesn't and it gives me the rage. I left his socks that fell out of it on the grass this summer to prove my point. But he still won't see reason.

Me too. Also wash, fold and store inside out so its ready to chuck on the duvet.

I button up (zip actually, ours has a zip)

I HATE it when stuff goes inside the cover and it all balls up into a big heavy lump. Doesn't wash properly and is a PITA to get unbunched. And it bashes round in the machine drum and that isn't good for the machine.

HATE it also when if left undone it turns itself inside out in the wash.

Yes. Because it t turns itself inside out and creates a clump, my machine won’t spin it properly.

I only unbutton two buttons to remove the duvet, I pull it like a magician pulling handkerchiefs from his sleeve, rebutton the buttons then wash. I don't like it open and devouring the rest of the laundry.

No I couldn't be bothered with that. Throw it all in then give the duvet cover a shake before hanging up and everything falls out.

Yes I button it up before washing otherwise the entire washing machine of clothes seems to get wrapped up inside.

I button it up because it takes far longer to remove the pillowcases at the end of the wash and do it all over again when it all comes out of the tumble dryer.

No I don't, but I only wash it with a sheet and two pillow cases, so nothing that small.

I only wash mine with the sheet and 4 pillow cases but if I don't button the duvet cover everything usually goes inside the duvet cover, doesn't wash properly, gets really really creased and then goes inside again in the tumble dryer and doesn't dry properly

Wow I can't believe so many people button it up. That has never ever crossed my mind. That said, I wouldn't usually put anything else in with the bedding when washing it