Battling with the duvet...

[fajrdrako]

I did my laundry today, no big deal. And just now I was struggling to get my duvet into its cover, and I thought: I bet there's good advice online as to how to do it better. It always takes me ages; it's frustrating and difficult, and makes my damaged arm hurt. So, I thought, there must be gems of advice out there from the likes of those who taught me how to fold fitted sheets.

So I looked. Found the following:

1. How to put on duvet cover fast. Is it true that Americans call duvets "comforters"? I thought a comforter was something different, more like a quilt... Hmm. I see that Wikipedia says "Duvets are a form of comforter". Who knew?

Anyway, this gentleman does pretty much what I try to do, and he makes it look easy. Shaking doesn't work for me. My duvet doesn't shake; it flops and lumps and sags. I think I'm just not strong enough, or my arms aren't large enough, to shake it out.

2. How to put on a duvet cover doesn't feature a long-armed man, but it does feature a normal-sized woman whose arms both work, and a tiny duvet. She makes "The Flip" look easy. Hah! This is the method that doesn't work with my arms, my queen-size bed, and my ample comforter.

3. Many more examples of the same thing - yup, people putting only duvet covers just the same way I do, only being successful in doing it. Tips & Tricks: Putting on a Duvet Cover.

4. Some sites (like this one) talk about the duvet cover having little strings inside to tie to loops in the duvet itself. What a great idea. My cover and my duvet both lack strings and loops. I could sew them in. Might be worth it. The using clips and turning it inside out method doesn't work well for me, either, because I really can't reach the corners - which is necessary for the 'give it a good shake' thing. Some sites suggest that I stand on the bed while doing this - I can't see how that will held. The problem isn't that I can't reach upwards. The problem is that I can't stretch my arms wide. I don't often feel handicapped - yeah, my left arm is a little wonky but there are only a few things it can't do, and this is one of them.

5. Yahoo!AnswersAbout.com laundry looks like a sensible approach, but again, wants that shaking-it-out business to finish it off.

6. Most of these instructions seem to think that the duvet cover is entirely open on one end. Mine is not. The opening is about half the width of the duvet. This is a good thing: it keeps the duvet from slipping out when I'm sleeping. But it makes the stuffing job a little trickiet.

7. All things G&G advises getting 'indispensible' clips to help with the job. I like that idea. This looks as if it might work.

8. This vid shows Becky doing it with ties and clips. Yeah. That looks good.

9. Having bored myself watching several dozen videos on YouTube (and elsewhere) on the subject, my favourite is this one: How to put a duvet cover on with minimum effort by rolling it like a burrito. I don't know if it will work, but at least it's different, and it looks like something I could do.

10. Even though I said it took me 'ages' to get my duvet cover onto my duvet, I smiled at the site where someone said the 'simple method' saved them hours. No, it doesn't take me hours. Five to ten minutes of annoying fiddling, perhaps. My problem is the inefficiency of my method, rather than the time it takes.

Amazing what you can find on YouTube. And how much of it there is.

Comments

[sraun]

Is there a 'turn the cover inside out, attach duvet to inside, pull cover over duvet' procedure in there?

[fajrdrako]

Any of the items that advocate ties and/or clips would be one of those. Anything involving attatchment. I'm thinking of adding ties (or getting clips), which would make it all easier. Not easy, but easier.

[lasergirl]

I added ties to my duvet and cover(s) as soon as I got them. It takes minimal shaking if you tie your corners and then align the top edge of the duvet with the cover. I find the process of remaking the bed deals with the rest of the shaking issues.

[fajrdrako]

Yes - I'm going to put in ties as soon as I can. Next time I do laundry!

[mmegaera]

I don't think of a duvet and a comforter as being the same thing at all. A comforter is basically a puffy, tied (as opposed to quilted) quilt, and doesn't have a separate cover (as it's meant to be used with sheets).

Speaking as a quilter of 20+ years experience [g].

[fajrdrako]

Yup, that's the way I've always heard the words used. And duvets always have a washable cover that you take on and off - comforters don't.

Amazing the way some people use words one way, some another.

[ceruleancat]

My dad used to do the attaching thing with safety pins.

Instead of shaking, you can cover yourself with the duvet, hold tight to one edge (duvet and cover, of course), and kick it into place. That's what I do every night when I find my duvet has travelled inside the cover.

[fajrdrako]

I was afraid that safety pins would make the duvet tear. The kicking method sounds good - I'll try it!