Blanket versus Duvet

Someone asked me why I prefer a duvet rather than a blanket when it comes to bed linens. The reason is partly because, being English, that is what my family and I have always used, and partly because it just makes more sense to me.

If you use a blanket then you always have a problem when the time comes to wash the blanket. Generally, you can either have one thick blanket which is too large for the home washing machine to wash and requires professional cleaning or you can have multiple thin blankets which you can fit in the home washing machine but only one or two at a time. Consequently, it seems that there's a strong disincentive to wash blankets and you end up sleeping in quite filthy conditions.

If you use a duvet then you simply remove the duvet cover once a week, or more often if desired, and wash it along with all the fitted bed sheets and pillow cases in one single washing machine load. You may take the duvet itself to be dry cleaned once or twice a year, however, the duvet generally remains clean as it has a duvet cover that keeps the dirt away from it. Consequently, as it is very convenient to clean a duvet cover along with the rest of the bed sheets and pillow cases, your bed is kept reasonably clean.

Unfortunately, duvets are very expensive in the US. I would say that this is probaly due to a lack of supply, since they are a European phenomenon, however, there is also a lack of demand for some reason despite apparent advantages that a duvet has over a blanket.

Do you use a duvet or do you use a blanket?

There's nothing I like more than wrapping up in a crisp clean duvet on a cold night, if you have any comments please let me know and if you have any other questions which you'd like me to answer for free please send them to Ben Dash at ben.dash@gmail.com