Sorry for the super sporadic posting. Still in the process of moving and everything. I am giving updates on my Mastodon and !stamets@lemmy.world if anyone is interested but there's really no reason to be.
Hope everyone has a fantastic Friday. Live long and prosper, you glorious bastards.
TIL not everyone uses a duvet (also TIL that that thing's called a duvet). That's really surprising to me, so some people just use the blanket directly? What do you do when it gets dirty, they're really hard to wash?
duvet cover - something to wrap a duvet in to keep it clean
comforter - duvet + cover
blanket - single layer
A duvet is hard to wash, but a blanket is about the same as a duvet cover, it's just thicker and thus takes up more space in the washing machine. My washing machine does a good job of spinning out the water, so it doesn't take forever to dry.
A duvet by definition is down. Duvet is the French word for down. Though I'm sure most people don't realize this and use duvet to refer to just about anything blanketlike.
No, people use "duvet" specifically to refer to the blanket-like things that go inside duvet covers. Sometimes those are filled with down, but many types of filling are used these days. Back when the word "duvet" originated, down was probably the only filling used, but now that we have alternatives, it makes sense that the word "duvet" is still used to refer to non-down alternatively-filled blanket-like things, because language evolves.
I think you mean a duvet cover, a duvet is a thick (cotton or down filled) blanket.
Also called a comforter or quilt in America.
I find it absolutely insane that someone would use a duvet without a duvet cover.. I change my duvet cover once or twice a week, can't imagine these people are washing their entire duvets once a week.
So I shower, put on clean pajamas washed every 1-2 days, comforter is separated by blanket or sheet depending on temp, most of the year it's just a sheet anyway, blankets and sheets get washed 1-2 times a week and comforter maybe once a month, maybe that's gross but without surveying a bunch of Americans I'd say that's pretty common. I don't really see how it's gonna get but so dirty with 3 layers of fabric between me and it.
So, your pajamas and your sheet or blanket function as a duvet cover.
That seems perfectly fine, albeit quite a complicated way to do it compared to just a duvet cover.
Perhaps it's regional? Or even generational? I'm pretty sure I've never heard anyone say "duvet" in real life. I've heard "comforter" many times in real life. The item described has never included a (removable, anyway; I inferred that from your descriptions) cover.
I did once accidentally buy a duvet cover on Amazon after learning the term "duvet" on Reddit and was very disappointed to learn that it provided no warming benefits.
ETA: After reading your other comments, I think what is a comforter to me would probably be just a (perhaps thick / heavy) blanket to you.
I think generally a comforter doesn't have a removable duvet, so it would need to be washed on its own, but I've heard duvet + cover called "comforter" quite a bit.
I see a blanket like this:
A comforter like this:
A duvet is this:
And you would wrap the duvet in a cover, with whatever pattern you like. You'd probably have a few duvet covers, but only one duvet for a given bed.
Those are reasonable. Based on your pictures, I would not differentiate between a comforter and duvet; and would use what you describe as a duvet without a cover. I would just wash the item on its own.
Maybe the biggest difference is that comforters come in many colors and patterns, whereas duvets typically only come in white, and you customize the colors and patterns with the duvet cover. Functionally though, a comforter and a duvet are the same things.
Seems like a duvet cover is often called just a duvet in parts of the US, while a duvet is called a comforter.
There's so many types of duvets here in Norway where I live, there's summer duvets, winter duvets, extra warm duvets, light duvets, heavy duvets, lumpy duvets.... Etc
I can't speak for other duvet covers, but the one I got was essentially just a wrapper for what I would consider a comforter. It had a zipper on one end and was very thin. It wouldn't be impossible to use as a blanket, comforter or duvet, but I don't think that was the intended use.
Seems like this is a regional thing, a duvet is a duvet in europe, a down/cotton filled blanket. (obviously with the language variations that come with europe, like here in Norway a duvet = dyne)
A duvet cover is, a cover for it.
Meanwhile in parts of the US they call duvet covers just duvet, and duvets comforters.
Decke - a blanket.
Bettdecke - one intended for a bed.
Bettbezug - bags you put pillow and blanket in.
Bettlaken - sheet you put on the mattress. Generally sold separately because any pillow and blanket fits on any size mattress.
Having mattress or any part of the pillow or blanket exposed is completely unheard of in Germany, so is two people not having their individual blankets, it's just an unnecessary point of contention. I mean you can come and snuggle up but if you're stealing mine I'm stealing yours and we're even.
The French, OTOH, seem to be big on the two sheets and exposed blanket thing. Utterly impractical to the point that there's no German word for it.
Oh, while I'm at it: Linen. Get yourself linen stuff. Expensive, yes, but the moisture regulation is out of this world.
I was also gonna ask why you couldn't just put your weighted blanket in a cover, only to realize that I don't know the right words in English. Also weird that people just don't use covers for their blankets, but if you're not happy with the color of your blanket, that would be a good reason to start using one.