Household Tips

Someone recently wrote (while I was being a very bad and very absent blogger)…asking how to easily put a duvet on a comforter.

HA!

I truly believe that a whole industry has grown around making duvets the most incredibly complex household items possible! But there is hope. For one, choose a better duvet! Several companies now make duvets with hand slits at the corners. That way you don’t have to actually crawl into the duvet with your comforter! If your duvet doesn’t have hand-slits, you can easily make some!

Find a seam ripper (you can buy one for $1 at any store that sells sewing supplies!) Now, very carefully remove the stitching on the edges a right angles with the nose seam. (By nose seam, I mean the top of your duvet! The seam that would touch your nose while you sleep.) Carefully remove about 6 inches of stitching. If you sew, you can now apply bias tape and re-edge the seam. Otherwise, simply iron it in place. If you’re afraid of the fabric fraying, you can apply a small amount of fray check along the unfinished seam.

OR… You can simply go with the old standard method. Grab one corner of the comforter. Insert that corner into a nose corner (see above) of the comforter. Hold the joined corners in one hand. Take the opposite corner and insert into the opposite nose corner. You should now be holding both nose corners — duvet and comforter. Shake the duvet down over the comforter and button.

Good luck. I hate this chore!

Sometimes I come across a press release that is just funny. Like today. I can name a number of good reasons to buy a new mattress. They all involve getting a better night’s sleep. According to a recent survey, though, you should buy a new mattress to improve your sex life!

Americans aren’t getting the satisfaction they deserve in bed. But according to a recent Better Sleep Council (BSC) survey, the secret to a better, healthier relationship may be hiding under the sheets.

In the BSC’s latest consumer poll, one out of every two respondents identified an old mattress as the culprit in an unsatisfactory night’s sleep and a leading contributor to increased irritability and stress in their romantic relationships.

According to BSC findings, an overwhelming 78 percent of respondents agreed that a new mattress could be the key to a better relationship with their significant others. Among leading relationship benefits, people noted that a new mattress could:
– Leave them more rested at night and more cordial to their partners throughout the day (52 percent),
– Reduce tossing and turning by their significant others, leading to fewer disturbances and annoyances during the night (40 percent),
– Encourage them to spend more time in bed with their partners (27 percent),
– Improve their sex lives (26 percent).

New BSC Consumer Resources Make Mattress Shopping E.A.S.E.ier

Wondering when and how to shop for a new mattress shouldn’t leave you tossing and turning. To determine whether your mattress is ready for retirement, and to learn the correct way to shop for a new one, the BSC offers the E.A.S.E. method. Here are a few tips to get consumers started (to view the complete mattress buying guide, along with entertaining video clips demonstrating the dos and don’ts of mattress shopping, visit http://www.bettersleep.org)