Whatever is going through your head right now, just to let you know quickly that this post is about BLANKETS.
I am about to leave the country after a couple of years here and I recently started thinking about what I found strange when I first arrived. I did find strange (and I still do) the system of having 2 separate blankets on a double bed, without a top sheet. It still makes me feel like I have a roommate rather than a partner, and it's hell to every time have to remove the quilt covers, wash them and then struggle to put them back on (I'm petit) instead of having a top sheet beneath one blanket, and then washing this one sheet.
Thoughts?

It's not just a Swiss thing - it's pretty common in northern Europe. I like the separate blankets (I tend to steal all the covers in the night), but I get too hot with even the thinnest summer duvet.

I have to say that we are, as an experiment, trying two smaller duvets instead of one big one.

I have to admit that we're both sleeping better than we were before as there's no more nicking the duvet, and the duvets are of different weights as I don't feel the cold as much.

I do know of quite young Swiss couples here who sleep in separate bedrooms so they can get a better night's sleep (sometime because one of them snores).

Well as a woman (you know, the sort with ice cold limbs), I miss the one blanket thing cos that warms up faster....but yes, as I said, the main problem is how inconvenient it is to wash the quilt covers.

The overall solution is an over-sized waterbed with one mattress instead of two, and yes, we bought ours in Switzerland. It's much nicer for [insert word here] too.

Just stick them out from under your quilt and under your obliging partner's quilt ... unless you've taken separate quilts to the separte bed stage .. and then you need the legs of a giant ...

???????????????

I do, but I can't do that as descretely as when there is only one blanket...Boyfriend sees it coming and blocks the way!

What did you all think?

This was something that struck me some when I first moved here - I was hurt and insulted that hubby didn't "want" to share a blanket with me.

It didn't take long to figure out just how much of a blanket thief he is and how much better it is to have two, even this way, sometimes I wind up without any, he is that much of a blanket thief.


Also, while I do agree that the duvet covers are a pain when it comes to washing, after getting a queen sized blanket from a friend (along with some covers), it is sooooo much easier to change out the smaller ones (two even!) than to change out the larger one.

I hate the separate sheets/duvets thing, but I understand why it's done:

Those d*mn tiny washing machines!

I refuse to use the single sheets/blankets, preferring my US sized bed linen on my US sized mattresses. Unfortunately I don't have my US sized washing machine here - even with an 8kg machine it's a minimum of three loads to do the bed linen - one for duvet cover, one for the flat sheet and pillow cases, one for the fitted sheet plus a few other odds and ends.

(Still have to have the duvet itself commercially cleaned, at ca CHF 100 a pop. )

True, but what I mean is that where I come from, we have a sheet UNDER the duvet (so between yourself and the sheet on the mattress), so that you wash the sheet, rather than the duvet cover, and only wash the duvet cover like once every season.
Also, Swiss people 'steal' blankets because they have to wrap their tiny blankets around them to feel warm...as opposed to how a big blanket would work, which simply rests on you, as it were...Boyfriend doesn't really get that and while on holiday tried wrapping the one hotel blanket around him, hence the blanket stealing.

Even in the US, I never used a top sheet, I just prefered the weight of the duvet. But I am suprised here you can't even buy them. My mother came to visit me from the US, and the only top sheet I could find was an ugly grey at IKEA, the stores don't even sell them.

I never liked sharing my duvet with somebody, I hated the fight over it and I always got hot and sweaty with two people under one blanket. But just recently we bought a new duvet that's more than 2meters wide and made of very fine Chinese silk, and that works. Enough space for each of us and not too hot (since the water mattress is heated).

...........................

Let me say it SEX!!!

Is it going to be censure?

I like my American bed and my American sheets and my American blankets and my American quilts

... and my American boy

We've always had just one, and we have a 180 wide bed!

In fact, to me one is the norm, not two.

About the only place I've seen two is in hotels.

Tom

My husband keeps me warm at night.... we recently stayed in a hotel with separate duvets and I needed both duvets to keep warm

However, I don't understand the lack of top sheets...having a top sheet keeps the doona/blankets cleaner.