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.

Towels are Sanderson embroidered, says max 40c that's what they get, washing machine agitation cleans clothes and the liquid which works even in cold water. We're now importing electricity from Russia!

No ironing, that's for sure. But yes, every second button, and wash inside out, ready to put back on bed. Fold neatly when dry, and place with one matching pillowcase and any matching/favoured undersheet (why is an undersheet never part of a bloody set any more?!) inside one of the matching pillowcases. My "linen cupboard" is not tidy, but this way it all gets kept together so I can find a set instantly in the chaos.

I never thought to and get pissed when the pillowcases get lost, so will start buttoning up now 😊.

@Nannyfannybanny - a super king duvet cover, sheet and pillowcases pretty much fill the machine.

I don't care if the washing supposedly gets clean in cold water, I will carry on washing my bedding and towels at 60.

I do 3 washes a week so not using lots of electric or water and I use the shorter cycles

Using the shorter cycles uses more electricity and water than longer ones... So if you're choosing them because you want to save money (or energy, or water) then it's actually costing you more. Seems counterintuitive, I know, but it's true.

No. But I tend to do only bedding in a bedding wash…duvet cover, bottom sheet, couple of pillow cases, occasionally mattress cover. Duvet cover will be inside out for ease of getting in back on.

And no, I don’t iron any of this, life is for better things😁

Yes otherwise everything goes inside it and it ends up in a massive soggy ball that doesn't spin out properly and the washing machine will be banging loudly because it unbalances the drum.

I can’t believe it never occurred to me to do this. My duvet covers swallowing all the other laundry and turning it into a giant wet sausage is one of those small daily irritations that can reliably tip me over the edge into utter despair.

From now on I will button my duvet covers before washing them and consider it an act of preventative mental health care.

Welcome to the world of sane laundry practices!

I button it up every time because otherwise it gets tangled up and consumes half the pillow cases which makes for nightmares when I'm trying to hang it all out on the line to dry. DS didn't believe me but discovered the hard way when his bedding came out of the machine tangled and caught up inside the cover. Always close the cover!

How can a quick wash or cold wash use more water and electricity! My friend has a 15 minutes quick wash on her machine.

It's not so much to save energy or water but more that I don't want the machine running for 3 plus hours when I can run it for 20 minutes.

My machine is not that noisy but can be heard over the tv or radio and it drives me mad.

I sometimes run it overnight but then it often wakes me as I am such a light sleeper or it makes my dog bark (he never barks at it when it runs during the day)

Hadn't ever given it a thought, however I wash duvet cover on it's own then sheet and pillow cases together 🤷‍♀️

I just button up the middle button to reduce access to other small, shy laundry items who may want to hide.
It makes finding the ends/sides easier to find for folding on removal.

Leister, where did you get your zipped cover from?? I far prefer them but can't find any!!

Yep….always button up

@Dr13Hadley

If you can find any!!

I like the zipped cover, where are you buying yours from??

😂😂

because the poppers/buttons on the ones I have, that I like, are seriously annoying little fuckers!! The duvet cover I love most is older than Adam and the fabric is so thin it's not up to the force it takes to undo the poppers and my next favourite is buttons and the button holes are a touch too small making it very difficult to undo & do them up.

i love the oldest one for a couple of reasons 1. It's been all over the world with me. But mainly 2. I struggle to find bedding that doesn't make me too hot. This one is perfect!!

I've just bought a new one, but it's still sitting in its packaging. If it's a pain in the arse it will be going to a friend (with more patience!!) or a charity shop before it makes itself at home!!

next step will be to try a linen one with large buttons!!

@soupfiend

ill ask you too! 😂.

where do you buy yours from??

I can't find any.

Dorma/Dunelm, a few years back mind

@mydogisthebest if you care about energy useage you need to look up how much your particular machine useage on each cycle.

short washes generally use more. It's all to do with the time v agitation.

@Nannyfannybanny

basically, shorter cycles need to use more energy to agitate the washing to get it clean, whereas longer cycles the washing 'soaks' to clean it.

@soupfiend ok, thanks. I have been looking in both of those, but none of the ones I liked had zips. Looked at loads on line, no joy... the hunt continues...

Yes I generally button them becauuse otherwise the towels and pillow cases that get washed and tumbled dried at the same time often end up so tangled or bunched up and damp inside the duvet cover, that it takes longer to sort out then to undo the buttons when I put it on the bed . I do hate having to do it though as I get annoyed at having to unbutton it and button again when I put the clean bedding on again.

It is one of those conumdrums without a good answer as far as I am concerend so I would not be annoyed if someone did it differently to me. And I am someone who likes to do the laundry in a certain way and usually get irritated if DH does it differently.