I'm sick of duvets

[Chalatte]

What the title says. I have these big double duvets that most of the family uses and a few singles. It's hard to maintain these, keep them in duvet covers, change the covers, getting a good matching cover, etc. Often they will go without a cover for days and be used just like that. I'm finally ready to replace them.

I'm thinking I want to do away with them entirely. what are my options? Can I just do 5 single duvets for everyone? Or comforters, or quilts and blankets? What does everyone do?

Over the next month teach everyone how to do their own! They strip beds and remake immediately in next set of bedding, and bring dirty stuff to set location to be washed.
They need two sets each, which fit their bed, including bottom sheets and pillowcases. Write names or initial on tag if needed, or divide up based on colour/pattern/characters etc. If they have four pillows, they need 8 total pillowcases, 2 sheets and 2 duvet covers. Review what you've got, work out what fits, and get rid of the rest. Let each person claim two sets for their bed.
One on, one away, on wash day dirty one comes off, clean one goes on. Laundry is then done and dried, and newly cleaned stuff goes into the location the old stuff came out if (I'd suggest a drawer or storage bag/box under the allocated bed). If you want spare stuff for guests, then keep one extra set with your bedding.

Even if they're not at the fully able to make their own yet, do it as a team (actually quicker and easier with two people anyway!). Swapping for different sizes duvets won't make any difference if the issue is it just you doing it, and not knowing what sizes fit.

On the back of this thread I’ve just ordered the 4.5 tog M and S coverless duvet. I’m not 100 per cent sure what to expect but I do hope I love it x

I remember calling a duvet a continental quilt when I first had one.

You can leave the top sheet untucked if you want to

I only tuck in the bottom of the top sheet.

But then you have to wash the sheets and pillow cases separately whereas I can wash them with the duvet cover.

how ? I have only just replaced my duvet there when moved last year. the old one was 10 years old - yes washed every so often. my new duvet cost enough I won't be bloody replacing it for another good few years

I have these duvet covers which have sips on three sides. They are so much easier to change.

Redssen Cloud Green Zip Up Duvet Cover – 3-Sided Zipper, Easy Change Bedding | 400TC Cotton UK – Redssen Home https://share.google/57BPRKPPEHxiKaKvv

@Nannyfannybanny @Luckylu123
Firstly I can’t bear them tucked in at the bottom and my husband’s toes usually hang out of the bottom. If the sheet wasn’t tucked in it would soon be separated.
Regardless of this, your arms will be on the outside of the duvet cover so it will need to be washed anyway.

I have 3 duvets. 4.5 tog, 7 tog, 9 tog. I use just flat sheets for the warmer weather.
several duvet covers & I get my husband to help me as he sleeps in the bed with me.

I used to get my children to help when they lived at home with me.

Yes. Continental quilts, which evolved into being called duvets, they're exactly the same thing.

Maybe people really mean eiderdowns or bedspreads when they say they are different things?

Why were you replacing duvets regularly? They last for years if you buy decent quality.

Lots of if microfibre is made from plastic bottles, that's not something I'd ever want to sleep under.

Well you don’t wash the blankets, or at least not very often. But it’s a hassle to make the bed every morning if you use sheets and blankets.

My elderly mil finds it hard to change her duvet, so she has it done monthly, and uses a top sheet between the duvet and herself, which is washed weekly.

Shove duvet into each top corner. Use huge peg(s) to hold cover in place at the corners.

Shake duvet into the cover properly. Do up poppers or buttons.
Remove big pegs.
Final shake to tidy it.
Job done.

My arms are under the covers. They get cold otherwise.

You've missed the steps where the duvet clips ("big pegs") fly off the corners when you try shake the duvet.

Maybe it's my wrist tendon problems, but I really struggle with the duvet's weight manifesting as resistance to being shaken.

OP I also make my kids do their own bedding and have done since about age ten.

My MIL thinks this but whenever we’ve stayed at their house the edge of the duvet cover smells of armpit.
I also find it really uncomfortable to sleep with a top sheet and a duvet. The sheet gets all twisted and seems to end up in a heap at the bottom or in the middle of the bed and we’re just under the duvet anyway.

As PP have said this sounds like an organisation issue, so worth working on a system to resolve it rather than just buying stuff (I say that from experience 🙄).

Share the load, get any kids and DH to help.

We have singles on a super king bed, i have a 13.5tog duvet all year around and a blanket as well for a lot of the year, I also roll and cocoon in a duvet which isn't ideal if sharing a duvet! 😂

If you don't have space to keep spare bedding you can tuck a spare set under the mattress of each bed, then you know where it is and it's accessible when the bed needs changing.

I remember having sheets, blankets, an eiderdown & a candlewick counterpane.

A quilt to me was more like a patchwork quilt idea with flat wadding rather than stuffed.

Yetone,that makes no sense! You can't bare the sheet tucked in the bottom, your husband's feet stick out the bottom........he must be really tall, because most of the posters have at least a king size bed.Then you contradict by saying if the sheet wasn't tucked in it would separate.... from what, and your arms would touch the duvet. My arms like most people are underneath the duvet.

Your PILs need to turn the edge of the top sheet back over the edge of the duvet when reading in bed.

diddl, there were candlewick bedspreads,I remember the yellow one in the 60s in my teens. That isn't a counterpane,they are padded, still are,or are you not in the UK?

My M and S 4.5 tog coverless duvet is here. It’s on the bed. It might take a bit of getting used to. It feels a bit like a sleeping bag but then I do tend to look for problems that aren’t there x