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PaperclipPerfector  11mo ago (text post)   2677 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for May 5, 2023

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Minor annoyance Friday. I'd like to take a page from our European brothers and whinge about something that has crawled across the pond. This time, the direction of flow is reversed. A European custom is being imported to America.

I am talking about hotel bedding. Specifically, the trend of having a single, heavy duvet as my one and only bed covering at a hotel.

This bizarre bedding choice seems ideal only from the perspective of saving a few shekels on laundry. It is completely awful in every other way. Why must I choose between no covers and a giant heavy cover? There is no way to be comfortable if the room is above 60 °F (which is guaranteed because hotels also muck with the AC unit to save money). I find myself waking up, drenched in sweat, only to kick the heavy duvet off, then freeze, then compromise by having my torso covered with my arms and legs hanging out. It's not a nice way to spend the night.

I first discovered this awful arrangement in Germany in 2012 but it seems to be becoming more common in the United States as well.

It is time to scrap these monstrosities and replace them a sheet and two layers of washable, microfiber blankets. For the freaks, a heavy duvet may still be made available in the closet.

Fuck you Europe. Sincerely.

two layers of washable, microfiber blankets.

No no no no no no no. I hate polyester bedding so much that I refuse to travel without two 100% cotton sheets in my suitcase at all times in case I run into anything with more than 0% polyester. I sweat heavily, polyester against my skin feels like sleeping in a wet ziplock bag to me.

The best bedding I ever encountered was an airbnb in Thailand, where the mattress was very big and solid, with a very taut 100% cotton chambray bedspread and a very taut but high loft duvet with the same fabric as the bedspread on top and that was it. It was incredibly comfortable in the humid climate and hot weather there. The tautness of the whole thing made it very comfortable because it's all the extra wrinkles of fabric that trap heat and moisture and make beds miserable. I'm going to buy myself a bed and bedspread and duvet just like what I slept on once I buy a house.

Duvets are superior. If you don't like heavy down duvets, you can pick one stuffed with wool (sheep or camel) or even a synthetic alternative if you're crazy. And when it's in a cover, you are free to sleep under it in any way you like without worrying about unstacking your blankets and top sheet.

Complaining that duvets suck in general because American hotels don't provide a lighter one is like complaining that public transit and urban living suck because American cities can't manage their hobos and junkies.

I am.. ambivalent towards duvets. They're not a common sight in India outside fancy hotels. I don't find them offensive when I do encounter them, though I personally prefer a blanket since I can poke my feet out from the bottom for thermoregulation.

Why wouldn't you be able to do that with a duvet?

Aren't they tucked in on the other end? I suppose you can pull them out if you want to.

Not in Europe, they just throw them on top -- a proper duvet is too thick to really tuck anyways.

In North America there's often a topsheet tucked in -- but yes, it's pretty easy to pull that out if you want your feet free.

You can do whatever you want, although I never tuck. My impression is that very few people tuck but that you might have an oversized duvet that extends over the end of the bed, which has a similar effect but is less restraining.

A duvet is the superior bedding. It sports a number of desirable properties:

  • Puff - What you call giant and heavy, I call comfortable and reassuring. It's like a pillow for your whole body in just the right thickness. It neither restricts your movement (like a tight blanket), nor is too light to do hold you (like a sheet). It is the perfect middle ground. A big floofy hug from Duvet-chan!

  • Cleanliness - A duvet cover is always washed. You needn't worry about accidentally waking up to find your face has wandered from the safe haven of a clean sheet and found its way to uncharted territory of a scuzzy blanket. Hic sunt sordes

  • Simplicity - Just toss it on the bed in roughly the right orientation. What could be simpler? No tucking, no tensioning the corners or messing up the folds

Weird. At least here, having just a single blanket (whether it's heavy or not) in a two-person bed is associated precisely with America, probably because that's how married couples (or unmarried, these days) are depicted in TV series. Every actual couple here uses two blankets.

My wife and I don't use separate blankets, nor tbh have I known any couple who does.

Huh! As an European I have always assumed it was the same all over the western world – a down-filled duvet in a removable bag akin to a big pillow case, and nothing else. Americans have multiple layers? Weird. Does the top layer not slide off or bunch together during the night?

Not really. I lost my thin duvet after taking it out during summer, and have done with duvet cover topped with 1-2 fuzzy blankets since, depending on the temperature. (no blankets in summer, 1 in fall/spring, 2 in winter).

Sometimes there's a little bunching but I've never woken up due to cold. It probably helps that I roll myself in all three layers by using side to side movements to get the edges underneath my body, in effect making something like a sleeping bag.

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