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Original poster

Do you have a sheet underneath your duvet? Have I been making a bed wrong all these years?

103 replies

MaCosta · 08/03/2015 21:04

So I'm looking for bedding for DS2 who is having a new bed delivered on saturday. The pictures all show a fitted sheet (or tucked in flat sheet). Then a sheet and then a duvet (in a duvet cover of course). Then often a throw or quilted "comforter" on top.

I've never put a flat sheet between me and the duvet. Have I been doing it wrong all these years? Confused

OP posts:
HJGranger · 09/03/2015 08:52

I have

Mattress protector
Electric blanket
Fleece blanket
Me
Fleece blanket
Comforter

CreamSubstitute · 09/03/2015 08:53

DH and I do, DC no as it's one more thing to get tangled up in.

darlingfascistbullyboy · 09/03/2015 08:56

no! No sheet!

They are awful & they just get tangled up around your feet at the bottom of your bed. Also can't stand sleeping in a bed where you're tucked in My grandparents used to have beds made up like that - flat sheets & blankets all tucked in - you start off the night unable to move and end up freezing as it's all slid onto the floor.

mattress/mattress protector/sheet/duvet (in duvet cover)

Perfectlypurple · 09/03/2015 08:57

bunbaker I don't like my feet touching each other. Weird I know.

VinoTime · 09/03/2015 09:03

I've never done this. Seems like an awful faff. I have a quilted mattress protector, a soft cotton fitted sheet, my big chunky duvet and a throw blanket for when it's cold.

EBearhug · 09/03/2015 09:07

Bottom:
Mattress protector, fleece blanket, fitted sheet.

Top - Winter:
9.5 tog duvet.

Top - Spring & Autumn:
3.5 tog duvet.

Top - Summer when it's v. hot:
Flat sheet and thin blanket.

Childhood home:
Flat sheet, blanket, eiderdown, another two blankets, throw. And ice on the inside of the windows when it's frosty. No central heating, north facing room, over the old dairy with a stone floor. The other bedrooms at least had chimney breasts from the room below going up through.

Pagwatch · 09/03/2015 09:13

You know it's not compulsory to tuck sheets in around you right?

I like really the feel of smooth pure cotton, v high thread count bedding which unfortunately needs ironing.

So I have some beautiful flat sheets which are next to my skin and can put cheaper, easier to care for, duvet covers on top.
I tuck the sheet in at the bottom only.
I really love good bed linen. It's ever since I stayed at really good hotels. It's like a treat every night. If I could just get someone to leave chocolates and a breakfast menu.

Kvetch15 · 09/03/2015 09:17

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

abyssiniam8 · 09/03/2015 09:21

This is blowing my mind more than the colour changing dress. Top sheets with duvets at home?! confused

You need to get out more Kvetch Grin

Kvetch15 · 09/03/2015 09:27

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

HolgerDanske · 09/03/2015 09:32

It reduces laundry because you can change your top sheet every week and leave the duvet cover on for far longer than you would if it were in nightly contact with your body.

If you use flat sheets for covering the mattress rather than fitted sheets, it also potentially reduces laundry further because you could then recycle the top sheet weekly to be your bottom sheet for another week, since most of your sweat soaks into the sheet underneath you.

I can't be bothered with it. It's a faff. And I also prefer the feel of the duvet being tucked nicely around me.

piggychops · 09/03/2015 09:35

We have a top sheet. That and the bottom one are always brushed cotton- so snuggly!

Preciousbane · 09/03/2015 09:40

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

abyssiniam8 · 09/03/2015 09:51

But that's the thing , I've got out and encountered an above average number of beds

Lucky you Grin

EBearhug · 09/03/2015 10:08

My bedding trivia is I had a horse hair mattress on my bed as a child until we got divans when I was 14.

The bed I was on in the 1980s had a horsehair mattress that had been reconditioned during WW2. It quite possibly still does.

Notcontent · 09/03/2015 11:10

No, no, no - I hate flat sheets on top. Even my parents don't use them. We've always just had duvets in cotton duvet covers.

QuinionsRainbow · 09/03/2015 11:28

We've always used (from the top down):

Duvet in cover (in very hot weather, replaced by flat sheet + celllular blanket)
Us in birthday suits
Fitted bottom sheet
Quilted mattress cover
Mattress

Sgtmajormummy · 09/03/2015 12:19

Blankets on top of duvets absolutely stop the loft (techie term there!) of the duvet doing its job properly. They go underneath, and in that case you need a top sheet to protect you from the scratchiness (non-techie term!) of woollen blankets.

Ieirswnllyd · 09/03/2015 12:44

Very true pagwatch. I think that's my issue with the sheet/duvet too. It's what you have been brought up with and I could never go without my flat sheet... pure bliss every night.Grin Our bed is our little sanctuary and i do splash out a bit for good quality sheets although happy to buy our duvet cover from high street shops etc. We don't tuck the flat sheet in as we have a water bed and there isn't anywhere to tuck it in. Smile

merrymouse · 09/03/2015 13:15

Except that a duvet plus blanket combo works perfectly well if you don't like sheets. If you are going to faff around with sheet plus blanket plus duvet, why bother with a duvet at all? You are back to complicated bed making again and might as we have eiderdowns and bed covers.

JassyRadlett · 09/03/2015 13:28

I guess I just don't find bedmaking that complicated. Grin

merrymouse · 09/03/2015 14:10

complicated faffy and time consuming. The whole point of a duvet is you just shake it out and straighten it and you are done.

zipzap · 09/03/2015 14:22

I've always just had a sheet underneath and a duvet cover on the duvet.

My dsis used to fall out of bed so tended to use sheets and a blanket but sometimes would use a duvet instead of a blanket but still used a sheet to tuck her in.

These days, I have no idea if she still uses a sheet under a duvel for her own bed. However she would put one on the guest bed if we were ever staying with her, on the basis that it was easier to wash a sheet than a duvet cover and that if we had blankets on top of us, we wouldn't expect her to wash blankets for every visitor...

Except - the first thing that dh and I do is to kick the sheet out because it's so uncomfortable and restricting and even if you leave the sheet untucked all the way around, it still stops the duvet from snuggling around you like it would normally.

She thinks that we are BVU because she then has to wash the duvet cover and the sheet. We say that she doesn't need to wash the sheet because it's been taken out and that she should save herself the trouble of even putting it on. But she can't get her head around us not just 'using it anyway' to save her the trouble - and doesn't get that we find it really awkward and uncomfortable to sleep like that.

hey ho. each to their own I guess!

Sgtmajormummy · 09/03/2015 15:05

Pssst! Do you want to see my "nailed it" duvet tethers? They're on "duvet tongue" here on MN. I DON't mind the shame if you can solve my 20-year-old problem!

KatieKaye · 09/03/2015 19:01

Old gimmer here, old enough to remember when duvets were either called downies or continental quilts and when they first started to become popular in the UK

Lots of folk got a bit confused and kept on using two sheets, just like they had done in the days of blankets, bedspreads and quilts. There wasn't nearly as much advertising in those days and people genuinely didn't know how they were meant to use them (I know, it seems mad).

We were the first family in our circle to get downies (I told you I was old and stuck in my ways!) and had the advantage of having a father from far colder climes than the UK and who had grown up with downies, pre WWII. He thought it was hilarious that we imagined we'd still use top sheets and set us straight.

Oh the joy of moving on from those awful Brenford Nylons Bri-Nylon sheets that went all bobbly and sent sparks flying if you were wearing a nylon nightie

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