For most of us (with the possible exception of Martha Stewart), despite having mastered many of the domestic arts, something falls through the cracks. Like one day someone suggests that you make a souffle, and you have to bashfully admit that you’ve never made one before. Perhaps you’ve always been too afraid to tackle pie crust, even though you’re a whiz with yeast breads. Even the best Modern Domestic has a domestic blind spot or two.
For me, it’s the duvet cover. I don’t have a method of putting on a duvet cover that doesn’t make me look like an idiot. Despite owning them for many years, the way I still put on a duvet cover is to lay out the cover, crawl inside with the comforter, carefully lay out the comforter, crawl out, and give the comforter/cover a good shaking. Not only is it laborious, but it looks like I’m trying to build a fort in there. Above, you can see Wonk the Plank demonstrating my duvet cover method, or lack thereof.
I always thought that this was the way duvet covers were put on. But I recently did a little research and found that there are much easier – and much more dignified – ways of putting on a duvet cover – methods that involve carefully folding the duvet cover over the comforter, or shimming the duvet cover over the comforter.
In fact, when I look back on it, the fact that I blindly accepted that this must be the only way to put on a duvet cover, makes me feel a bit like a modern jackass, blindly accepting knowledge for years that turns out to have been wrong.
Of course, I have many other domestic blind spots (gardening comes to mind), but this is one I have to deal with on a fairly regular basis, depending on how ambitious I get with the laundry.
What are your domestic blind spots? Is there something you’ve always meant to do in your home that you’ve never done? Have you overlooked a certain area of domesticity?
ModernDomestic 
Rebecca said
I would say that my blind spot is cleaning. Do I mop, sweep or vacuum a hardwood floor? Please don’t say I should do all three. What products should I use? How can I make homemade cleaning products for a third of the cost of the nicely packages cleaning product that does the same thing? Is there any way to clean grout? Oh dear.
moderndomestic said
I also have this blind spot! My mother never forced me to clean growing up (besides picking up my room and cleaning the bathroom), so I’m not so hot on the cleaning of the floors, or establishing a dusting routine. I have yet to find a way to clean the floors that doesn’t seem like it just pushes more dust around the floor – and I refuse to buy a swiffer that will force me to buy replaceable inserts all the time.
The Simple Dollar has lots of good tips on homemade cleaning products: http://www.thesimpledollar.com/
prbrowneyes said
Very funny video and article! I completely understand what you went through with the duvet cover. It took me a while to finally realize that I was doing it all wrong. Glad you finally figured it out 🙂
Check out this great video on a squidooo lense about duvet cover. You would have to scroll down a little to find the video. The quality of the video isn’t so great but you will be pretty surprise how easy it could actually be. The link is the following: http://www.squidoo.com/DUVETCOVERSETS/