How I crossed “duvet” off my To-Get List without buying a duvet

Coop-life has its share of complications. In addition to virtually never meeting half of the Engineering faculty at uWaterloo, it can also cause a change of residence every 4 months. This summer, in class, I lived in a regular on-campus residence. This fall I’m living in an apartment that is a convenient 15-minute walk from both my work and Uptown Waterloo. The weather is starting to get colder, so I put “duvet” on my list of things I should acquire next time I have the chance. I already had a duvet cover I got when I was at the IKEA in Montreal.

In the meantime, I used an unzipped sleeping bag on loan from my cousin (originally for a camping trip that was a few weeks ago) for warmth. Reflecting on my need for a duvet, I realized that I’m only going to be in this Queen size bed for 3 more months… so buying an $80 duvet is not really a good investment, especially since they’re also large and inconvenient to store. A few quick measurements later, and I decided to just buy my own sleeping bag instead. Turns out an unzipped rectangular sleeping bag is about the same size as a Queen size bed.

Two photos - on the left, a packaged sleeping bag and duvet cover; on the right, the sleeping bag being unzipped.

Opening the sleeping bag and duvet cover.

Two photos - on the left, the duvet cover laying on top of the the sleeping bag; on the right, the sleeping bag inside the duvet cover

Putting the sleeping bag in the duvet.

Two photos - on the left, a bed with just olive green sheets on them; on the right, the same bed with a dark striped blue and purple duvet on top.

My bed, before and after.

A portrait of Malcolm Ocean

I'm Malcolm Ocean.

I'm developing scalable solutions to fractal coordination challenges (between parts of people as well as between people) based on non-naive trust and intentionality. More about me.

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