Sleeping in Germany: Do German couples use separate beds and blankets?


If you've been following me, you'll remember my rant about how expensive bedding is in Germany in my last post. I also speculated about why it was so pricey -
" Why is bedding so expensive? One of the main reasons is definitely because we have a 'king' bed (they go by sizes here, we went with the biggest size at IKEA 180x200cm). If you don't need a large bed, I'm sure you'd have more options & cheaper prices!
Also, in some parts of Germany, couples like to have their own duvets and sometimes even beds! We've definitely met some people who say that's not common anymore, but we've also come across hotels, AirBnBs, and people here with separate comforters (the photo shows what I mean). So maybe the demand for larger blankets isn't there?..... "

This was a funny discovery for us. In the US, my husband and I slept on a 'Full' sized bed and always thought it was too small with our two dogs. So when we moved to Germany, we took full advantage of needing a new bed and bought the biggest size available at IKEA! Only to struggle finding affordable bedding. IKEA's cheapest 'King' sized duvet was €80! That didn't even include a cover - it was just the stuffing. We thought it was simply overpriced so I found a TK Maxx (Germany's TJ Maxx) thinking they'd have duvets like they do in the US, but they only had a few jersey fitted sheets that were too small for our bed. So then I went looking on Amazon.de and the cheapest they had was €55! And any cotton sheets are pricey! (Read about that in my previous post) All of the furniture stores we went to didn't have sizes that big either.

Confused, I started asking around. Seems like large sizes aren't in demand here because it isn't unusual for couples to have their own duvets. One of my husband's coworkers said that his parents have always had separate blankets and that some of his neighbors even put smaller beds together so they each have a mattress. Curious, I looked online to see if this was common and looks like it is! This Bielefeld blogger mentions it along with a couple of other blogs I've seen that also state it's popular in Austria and Switzerland. And if you look through TripAdvisor, you'll find plenty of reviewers talking about the separate duvet/bed system at all of the hotels! But some have also said in some areas, this isn't that common anymore and more outdated.


Funny thing is, everybody seems to love it! No more fighting over the sheets! If you like soft mattresses while your partner prefers it firm, they even have bed frames specially meant to put two mattresses in (refer to above photos)! You'll even find products to prevent the bed gap (below). Sounds like the good life to me. Thankfully, my husband and I both prefer firm beds. We decided to buy a 'king sized' flat sheet (which aren't common here) in the end to keep the dog hairs away and layered with some smaller blankets German style to keep us warm! With the larger bed now, my husband seems to 'alligator' less, leaving my blankets intact even with our shared sheet 😂


*This is simply what I learned from my personal experiences/research. Please always make sure to consult with the proper authorities and take this post with a grain of salt.
**This was not an ad; I was not compensated in any way for writing about any of these products/brands in this post.

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