You Can Never Have Enough Duvet Covers

You probably can. I might.

Every time I find myself at TJ Maxx or a Marshall’s, killing time on a weekend afternoon, I convince myself within minutes that all of my bedding is garbage and must be replaced at once. It’s only a half-truth; my sheets aren’t Pratesi but they’re not that nice either. They serve their purpose — covering my bed — but beyond that, they’re nothing special. I never buy sheets during these excursions, preferring to gasp quietly in shock about why a fitted sheet, a flat sheet and two pillowcases should cost anything close to $60.

What I do end up buying at almost every chance I get, however, is duvet covers. For a while, I attempted a bare comforter — very clean, very youth hostel in the Alps — and tried to play off my laziness as an attempt at having any sort of design vision or sensibility. My aesthetic is nothing more than an aggressive lack of sensibility at all, defined most strongly by whether or not the item in question cost me any money. Duvet covers, I quickly realized, are an easy shorthand for looking like I give a shit. And, if you play your cards right, they can be cheap.

I have duvet covers from IKEA, from Kmart, from Target. I’m less concerned about quality — though perhaps I should be — and focused solely on the aesthetic. I want my things to look nice, in part because I care and in part because I feel like I should. Surrounding oneself with things that are pleasant to look at boosts the mood; reveling in the trifles of a life lived with champagne tastes on a bodega coffee budget is an excellent balm against malaise. If my house is in some semblance of order, the idea is that the rest of my life will neatly fall into place.

Duvet covers aren’t really an item that one owns in multiples. “I just stopped using the one I had in college,” a friend told me when I asked. “How do you have so many?” The answer to that question is the same reason why I have so many books and so many striped shirts from different companies that are basically the same: the make me feel like I have my shit together. They make me feel sane.

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