General Chat

When it's really (UK) hot in the summer, we'll use a flat sheet as a cover. As OH likes to hang his toes over the bottom it gets untucked and in a proper tangle!

When I got married in 1980, ex's aunt bought us a 'pair' of percale sheets - I say 'pair', as one was double, one was king sized!
In those days, we didn't use a top sheet with the duvet in the winter.
The double was always on the bottom, the king-sized - which we only used in the summer, on the top.
I'm still using that king-sized sheet :-D
The double 'wore' in the middle, so I cut down the sides and made a bolster cover.
My bed-base is a 1930/40's sprung metal frame with solid wood veneered headboard and footboard. On top of that, I have a sprung mattress. :-D
There's a gap between the mattress and headboard, hence the bolster.

Brenda ..........

we'd been married about 20 years before we finally bought fitted sheets .............. we did the same as you with flat sheets.


but fitted sheets are so much easier to keep in place, and therefore I think more comfortable.

Sylvia,
I like cotton sheets..and I used to have a guest house with monogrammed flat sheets and was used to doing hospital corners,but like you,I only tuck the sheet in at the bottom along with the blanket/s.

Im not particularly keen on fitted sheets as they dont fold as easily,but I do use them these days for the bottom sheet,but it was more practical to have both as flat sheets so you could alternate top to bottom and spread the wear...suppose people dont think that way these days!

I come from an age when we have turned sides to middle....and I have made under pillowcases out of older sheets!....those were the days!

Just the duvet, would get tangled with a sheet as well...not changed a duvet cover for over 5 years HID does it :-D

Never heard of a maiden till HID said it (scouser) we called them a clothes horse (Essex girl)

Why iron bedding? it's creased after one night anyway

Brenda ...........

I've always bought my sheets separately



we have a double bed made in Denmark bought in the heyday of teak furniture back in the 1970s ........... but which turns out to be longer than the standard North American double bed


Add to that, the fact we like to have hang over at the sides for the top sheet ...................


so I buy double fitted sheets ............. which fit fine if tightly.

but I buy queen size flat sheets so I get enough tuck in at the bottom, plus hang over at the sides



I also don't see how anyone gets tangled more with a top sheet and duvet than with a top sheet and blankets


but that may be because I hate to be tucked in tightly down the sides, so my top sheet and blanket were never tucked in ........................... just as the top sheet is not tucked in now.



When we stay in hotels ................ I have to untuck their very carefully tucked-in sheets :-)

Reading these posts,and being of a certain age...I am like uzzis m.i.l.and I do like to be covered in a sheet .I also,at home,have light blankets and bedspread,so that you can choose to throw off a layer if necessary .

I can't see that you get tangled up in a sheet if it is tucked in properly at the bottom.
I believe the Queen also has sheets, blankets and bedspreads in the traditional manner!

Whatever you're comfortable with,but changing big duvet covers is not for me.
I have duvets in my guest room but with a top sheet as well.

We used to buy a pair of sheets,but seems they sell singly a lot of the time now.

LS ............


:-P :-P

Ok if you can afford to wash sheets daily and have heating high rather than add a layer of clothing but it isn't very environmentally friendly. I am a very chilly mortal and love clean linen etc but manage in a house with no central heating so no rads to dry clothes on. We have a washer drier but I rarely use the drier, maybe sometimes for towels if the weather is bad. We have a gas fire in the livingroom where there is an open plan staircase so heat goes to landing and bedrooms.

Yesterday we arrived home to a house that had been unheated for a week of very cold weather, the temperature was 10 degrees inside! We put the gas fire on high for an hour and put on an oil filled radiator on the landing. We kept several layers of clothing on while we unpacked the car and by the time we sat down the temp was up several degrees and increasing enough to warrant turning the fire down to 2. We were quite comfortable and today the room is 20 degrees and I am happy.

Lizx

You keep a maiden in your basement?

Poor girl ~ do you let her out on holidays?

:-D

we have a top-loading washer. Never had a dryer ......... we have lines strung in the laundry part of the basement as well as a maiden, and hang all our clothes.



I would not have a front loader machine (either washer or dryer) .................. my experience with ones in England was that I had to iron things that had never needed ironing before!




I don't iron sheets ...............

.................... or towels or underwear :-)


I iron only when absolutely necessary .............. and make sure that we don't buy clothes that do need ironing.

My ironing board and iron have not been out for about 6 months.

We have a laundry (known as a utility room in UK)... a big tub, the washing machine, dryer & a couple of cupboard for things like vacuum cleaner, brooms, mops, cleaning products etc). Our washer is a top loader (I couldn't cope with a front loader, with my wonky hips) and the tumble dryer is mounted on the wall, with a vent going outside. We have a washing line that gets used most of the time, but in January & February we have to use the dryer to "finish off" things, because of the humidity.... the washing is slightly damp, and if I put it away like that it would quickly go mouldy.

We had a front loader washer/dryer when we lived in Europe, and I hated the thing. It took about 6 hours to wash and dry one load, so I had to do some laundry every day.

Heating the house? It doesn't get very cold here in winter, but we have a gas heater in the living room. We use bottled gas, as we don't have mains gas here (we've used 4 bottles in 8 years). It's usually enough to heat the whole house, but on the really cold nights (when the temp gets down to a freezing 10C lol) we use other heaters in the house. We use the aircon more than the heater. Very important in Oz... we have ceiling fans in all the bedrooms.

:-)

No way in the world would I iron sheets!

OH's parents were the first English people I knew who had central heating ............. radiators.


My father died very suddenly in late September 1970, both of us went back for the funeral ............... and I well remember walking into the in-laws' house, and m-i-l saying ...............


"we knew Sylvia would feel cold, so we've turned the heating on, to 50"


That was 50F :-)

LS


ah yes, the (coloured) skinny throw across the foot of the bed .....................


that's the "designer" touch :-)


most of the places we've been to seem to go for browns or burgundys




As far as heating is concerned ......................... we have 2 types of heating in our house.

One half is heated by blown air from a gas furnace. The other rooms by individual baseboard heating


We have the heating thermostats set at 20C during the day (effective temperature about 21C), and about 10-12C at night. In very cold weather, we set the night temperature at 15C ................ mainly because it can take so long to warm up in the morning after below freezing temperatures.


We don't have automatic sensors ................ we control turning on and off ourselves ................. so the thermostats are turned up when we get up in the morning. The thermostat for the gas furnace is turned down at about 10 or 10:30 pm, thus allowing the bedroom to cool down. We spend the rest of the evening in one of the rooms with baseboard heating ........... and that will be turned down when I go to bed (anywhere from 11 pm to 12:30 am)


This system works for us.



The bedroom window is open all year round ................. as little as about 1" on the coldest nights to as wide as possible on hot nights.

The kitchen window is open on all but the very coldest days.

Uzzi :-D Didn't notice the sheets were not ironed, neither did himself!! But theyw ere line dried so creases dropped out. That will be nice, thank you.

Rollo our washing machine is under the draining board of the sink, would look very strange with a tumble drier balanced up there in front of the window. One thing we missed when we moved here 23 years ago was the utility room.

I have shelves over my washing machine and a lot of others have work tops so no space for a tumble dryer. I do have a tumble dryer (under another set of shelves) and luckily it doesn´t need venting through a wall as my utility room is on the semi wall and I don´t think the neighbours would be too impressed. Not that I ever use it as the electric it uses is high . I will say that I couldn´t be doing with washing sheets everyday or even every other day although one summer I have been known to change the sheets twice a week ....must have been a warm flush :-D :-D. The cost on the electric would be enough to change that habit.

I don´t iron sheets, sorry Ann there is an iron and board upstairs :-D. but I do fold immediately when I take them off the line.
Rollo if ironing is a waste of time is not changing beds, especially duvet covers also time consuming ?

Ann you will get 2 sheets and duvet cover :-D

I stack the tumble dryers on top of the washing machine so there is no space problem. Venting is through the wall though some dryers nowadays don't need venting. What else would you put on top of a washing machine ?

The cat can open the dryer door and sometimes he'll go to sleep on the warm dry clothes real pain if I end up with a hairy shirt.

Washer dryers have never been efficient or reliable. AFAIK nothing much has changed.

I never iron anything it is a disgraceful waste of time. There are plenty of inexpensive ironing services who need the £. I do have a steam iron setup and an electric iron for emergencies. It was last used to iron a tie for Remembrance Sunday. The steam one is v dusty lol. In France we even have a flat iron heated on the gas. It works quite well.

Last night one of the Dragons was debating whether or not to invest in a custom clothing service. Initially he was sceptical of the need but later made an offer. No wonder, he obviously he hasn't someone who does his ironing - camera zooms in on stripy socks with stripy trousers. :-D

Well yes if your OH is disabled then warmth is necessary. As I said no tumble drier, hence the need to iron sheeets dried indoors in the winter. (No room for a tumble drier either.) Last washer we had was a washer drier and it was not efficient, maybe they are better now so the next time the washing machine packs up we shall see. In the summer, line dried sheets don't always get ironed if I can sneak them in before he sees. :-) :-)

My OH is disabled and needs to be warm. Away from London I am the "person wot does" and don't find using an automatic washing machine + tumble dryer particularly onerous. Iron sheets? What on earth for.

In London I do have someone what does. Although the place is in chic (?) Islington I could not even contemplate buying it at current mad prices. It is what the estate agents call "unimproved" except for CHS as a modern system turned out to be cheaper than the pre-ww2 heavy cast iron rads. Rebus would prob. find it to his liking if he ever made a journey south.

Much of the nearby property has either been knocked down and rebuilt as apartments or converted resulting in a gross loss of neighbours or at any rate English speaking neighbours.

All the little ads offering to wash & iron duvets and other services though are still there though in the newsagents even if the phone boxes have disappeared lol. Back in the 1960s it was not uncommon to see people hanging out their washing but all that sort of thing is no longer tolerated.

If a person doesn't mind the laundering or has someone 'wot does' then fair enough. On the other hand, many people prefer a cool bedroom and if not too cold outside, fresh air. People with a physical disability are more likely to prefer a warmer room.

It's like the discussion on one of G007's threads - we all get used to different climates/temperatures.

Cotton flat sheets and duvet covers of what ever material get ironed. Fitted poly cotton sheets get folded and put away.