Preparing for Winter V

newlywed

Fiona236 said:

Laura_Elsewhere said:

It is the second week of October and I am sitting here in a t-shirt (and skirt!) in our unheated flat, with the flat below currently unoccupied and no flat above or to the side, and feeling uncomfortably warm and no, it isn't a hot flush! 

Sorry laughed at not a hot flush! After having hot flushes all my life I'm cold at 50 and suspect in menopause. How does one know one is in it ? 

GP will send you for blood tests - there is an inconclusive marker in your blood if you are, but perimenopause means it rises and falls so therefore not completely conclusive if it says no.

menopause is actually after you have had no menses for 12 months.  The rest of it leading up to it is peri menopause.

MandM90

No experience of professional cleaning CJ but I’m going to invest in a duvet cover for mine, it too is superking. Everyone else’s will fit in the machine here.

Small progress here -washed some of mine and tots coats. Will keep on going with the ones that can be machine washed. Some will need the cleaners.

C_J

Thank you all for your duvet wash experiences!  I phoned the laundry and they have suggested that I leave my duvet with them for 24 hours for a service wash and dry. They said they could do it all in a day, but they'd rather not - even when it seems dry, it probably isn't completely dry and they prefer to hang them in a hot room overnight. She said I would thank her for this, and that it would come back like a brand new duvet, as fluffy as a giant marshmallow. 

We have a spare (thinner) duvet to use for the night we are without the main one which will be fine as it's quite mild at the moment, so I have booked it in with them on Friday. Is it wrong that I am excited?

Siebrie

DD2 (10) has managed to lose her gloves on the first day she wore them, so prepping should have included marking our belongings!

Laura_Elsewhere

C_J said:

I had been half thinking of buying a new duvet this winter. Some of the pockets in the current goose feather and down one are looking a bit flat now and the filling has bunched up in other places, but it was an expensive one originally so it seems extravagant to just replace it. I'm wondering whether taking to a laundrette in for a service wash and dry might fluff it up again - £20 to clean and refresh it is more frugal than splashing out of a brand new one, after all.

It's a superking size so won't fit in my washing machine at home, and I'd rather pay to have it completely cleaned and dried in a day without having to drape it on the bannisters etc.

Has anyone any advice (or horror stories) about getting duvets washed, before I rush headlong into this? 

Timpson's! They are absolutely brilliant - we take our feather duvets to them twice a year, the summer one in autumn, and then he winter one in spring - it's just over 20 quid but it's a full proper wash and dry, no mustiness, no chemical smells, and you get it back in a handy paper-fabric duvet-carrier, cylindrical with a zip round one circular end and a good carrying-handle. 
Also, Timpson's are one of the only places that released convicts wanting to get away from their old lives can get really good employment and training (with superb outcomes over many, manyyears now, pretty well nobody goes back to crime!), and as if that wasn't nice enough of the company, they also do things like free dry-cleaning of your interview outfit if you're on benefits and have a job-interview somewhere, and various other things! 

But mainly, if you want your duvet properly cleaned and thoroughly fluffed up, then we reckon Timpson's are not just good, but excellent. 

Primrose

C_J said:

We have a spare (thinner) duvet to use for the night we are without the main one which will be fine as it's quite mild at the moment, so I have booked it in with them on Friday. Is it wrong that I am excited?

Well the promise of an "as new" goose feather duvet for £20 is worth getting excited about especially as it will probably give you sevveral more years of use , 

Auntycaz

I don't think it's already been mentioned, but what about door worms to keep the draught out. I bought one a couple of years back and it wasn't wide enough, so I made my own out of a couple of pillows I was going to throw out and made the cover from some curtain material I had left from shortening my curtains. It works a treat. 

C_J

@Laura_Elsewhere : I had no idea that Timpson's offered a wash and dry service for duvets!  I'm sure our local ones (they seem to be in tiny portakabins outside large branches of Tesco) only do engraving and heel renewing. I really like the idea of the duvet being returned to me in a zipped dustcover, which would probably be useful for other items afterwards.

The laundry I have chosen is a small but long-established, family-run business in a nearby town and they do get very good reviews for cleanliness and helpfulness etc.

Laura_Elsewhere

@C_J, they don't do the washing and drying on-site - ours is a tiny shop, not much more than a counter and a heel-machine, but they do all kinds of things via their larger centres that have the machines. The convenient little branches are handy for drop-off and collection. 

It's definitely a good idea to have feather duvets cleaned - I hope yours lives on many years longer, but if you feel it's really gone a bit thin and flat, then there are companies that will add more feathers or down to your feather duvet or pillows, either adding more or replacing it completely...  this is the classic one with good reviews over half a century now!

They'll replace old stained covers, as well as topping-up or replacing fillings - UK-wide, by post(which is less than you think - ask them ... https://thefeathercompany.com/services/

cornishchick

Laura_Elsewhere said:

They'll replace old stained covers, as well as topping-up or replacing fillings - UK-wide, by post(which is less than you think - ask them ... https://thefeathercompany.com/services/

that reminded me of  this              "This old broom has had 17 new heads and 14 new handles."