Summer bedding

[Daphne70]

Hello Fellow Hosts

I would love some advice from other hot climate hosts. Our summer temperatures can stay above 30 deg for weeks and often exceed 40 deg Centigrade. Very few folk will want to sleep under a duvet in those temperatures. I have been making the bed with the duvet but offering a lightweight soft blanket to use instead of the duvet. There is always a top sheet on the bed. 

But this means that even if the duvet is not used at all it is bundled up and shoved in the cupboard or left on the floor and I have to wash and iron it anyway. 

What if I left the duvet off but folded neatly in the cupboard for the guest to use should they want / need to? All the sheets are white. Would the bed look too undressed with a soft coloured blanket folded across the bottom of the bed on top of the sheets?

We live in a water scarce area so I would prefer not to do unnecessary laundry.

Very interested in your feedback.

[Kath9]

Hi @Daphne70, I think that would be perfectly fine. It doesn't make sense for you to have to wash the duvet if it isn't used. I would be quite happy as a guest if the bed was made as you suggest. 

[Andrea-and-Francis0]

That sounds like a great idea! We are in our cold season so I leave out am extra blanket & duvet cover in the closet so if guests are chilly they have extras to use on the bed. This way we don't have to constantly wash it if it's not being used 🙂

[Sarah977]

@Daphne70  I do basically exactly what you are doing, except that the duvet isn't even anywhere accessible to guests during the hot months when they wouldn't need it at all. 

Then when the weather gets to the stage where it might be chilly for a couple of nights in a row and then get warm again, that's when I start leaving it folded in the closet for guests. When the nights get consistently chilly, I fold it and lay it over the end of the bed.

If you think the bed looks too bare with just a light blanket, look for a very light cotton bedspread which suits your decor. I use Indian print bedspreads myself.

[Jennifer1421]

@Daphne70 

I'm a fan of weight when I sleep, even in hot weather. This isn't germane to my listing, which is in my basement and thus needs a duvet year-round, but for my own bed I use a coverlet in the summer. It's cotton, so breathes and washes well, but it has a bit of "heft" so I feel that comforting weight. In the winter, I put my duvet between the top sheet and the coverlet.

Sidenote: when I was a kid living in Queensland, my mother simply couldn't understand how I could use a wool blanket or 2, even in the heat of January. Maybe I'm just an oddling...