Bedding question that frankly, I am ashamed to ask

[roaringwater]

I have had a home of my own for 22 years, been married for 20 of those and have quite old children.

However, I am embarrassingly clueless about some elements of housekeeping. While I do change the bedlinen (even I am not quite this filthy), I don't really know what you're supposed to do to keep the actual pillows and duvets clean. To be truthful, every now and again, I just crack and buy some new ones in IKEA. Surely there must be a better way?

Also, I have no idea why I don't know this stuff - my parents' home is immaculate. I was a very studious, bookish child: this was greatly lauded and encouraged and I wasn't ever shown how to do practical things (e.g. figured out for myself how to clean a bathroom when I bought a house.)

Advice from more capable people would be great.

Two DCs with asthma caused by dust mites (their secretions). So I have the thick pillow protectors and I wash the synthetic pillows and duvets every three months or so. Also have pillow and mattress protectors on that are washed more frequently. Some of my pillows are 15 years old and are still in great condition (I think they were BHS ‘washable’ ones). King duvet fits in the washer with no hassle.

My pillows are dunlopillow and washing them hasn’t affected the shape or comfort at all.

I change bedding for clients and some of their pillows are almost vomit inducing. The smell of one particular client’s pillow has taken over the top floor of their house.

Use pillow protectors people!!

My husband and DC are dribblers. So I wash protectors along with cases each time I change the sheets.

Our big feather duvet I take to the laundrette before it goes on the bed each winter.

Summers ones are lighter and cheaper so generally they get hung out on a sunny day and febreezed.

Kids ones can fit in the machine so they get the odd wash. Mainly when we swap weights so they're fresh to start with.

Or of course if they get vomited on. Nice.

I wash my lightweight king-size duvet every now and again (learnt that it would fit in the washing machine when I had a incontinent cat)
I have memory pillows which don't wash, so they will get replaced if they get stinky.
I change bedding weekly-is.
The heavy duvet gets slung on the line to air, but we hardly use it.

I've never washed a duvet or pillow, just buy new once a year or so. Not sure if that is more often than the average person but we do have small children so sick and other things tend to get on our bedding when they are ill and camp out in our bed!

Out of interest, per the poster who referred to environmental vandalism, is it particularly bad to wash duvets? (Not that I'd just hang out a duvet that had been vomited or peed on)

I used to have a lovely laundrette near here with a big condenser washing machine for doing duvets and pillows. Then it closed down and there isn't another one for miles around!
I have only a 7kg machine, can't do the duvets in that - and tbh, I don't wash them that often but had a couple of sickness incidents which meant they had to be washed - luckily I have friends with much larger machines who kindly do them for me. Bastards to get dry again though, especially the pillows (all feather, duvets and pillows) - multiple tumbling to make sure they're dry all through.

I've never washed a pillow or duvet in my life. They have covers, so unless you actually spill something on them, they should be fine. On the rare occasion I've spilled something that goes through the cover I just sponge that bit, and hang out to dry.

I wash my duvet at least twice a year, pillows slightly more often. I vacuum my mattress every so often with a small handheld UV vacuum to get rid of any bed bugs/germs etc. The one thing that does get me though... How the fuck do you clean a memory foam mattress topper and pillows? Vacuuming them doesn't work.

However... None of this has stopped me getting carpet beetles!

I'm surprised how infrequently people wash mattress covers. I have asthma and mine is washed every other bed change when I also hoover the mattress. Other beds in the house it's monthly also with a mattress hoover.
I don't think you would notice your own smell on duvets? I know when DC brought theirs back from uni they smelled awful.

I wash mine once a year then take to launderette for tumble drying. I use pillow protectors which I wash about once a month or so.
Those filled with goose feathers take ages to dry so still need hanging on the washing line for one or two days during hot weather so I do this exercise during the summer.
Every now and then I replace maybe every 7-10 years or so.

We notice smells. Especially my OH who has an extremely keen sense of smell. But we are also one of those households where all windows are open as a matter of course, even throughout winter. We also shower daily, more if needed or desired. We don’t heat our bedroom as we both like to sleep in a cold, fresh room. We don’t make up our bed, just fold back the covers so the bedding can air daily. We go to bed clean, so our bedding is generally fresh and smells good. If we have sex more often we change bedding more often.

I don't use feather bedding as I don't like the cruelty with live plucking, plus one of us has allergies so or bedding is man made and cotton or cotton mix covered and the duvets go in the washing machine, I chose a large drum for the purpose.

Pillows have protectors on and I used to wash my pillows by hand as it is difficult to find comfortable ones, machine washing ruined them. I bought some spares once I found ones I liked.

Old duvets go to the pet rescue as eventually they get very thin which is fine as they can still be used but we tend to end up with too many that are past their best.

our bedding

Nope. I bin pillows when they're lumpy and horrid, I've never washed my duvets, I think they're at least 10 years old. I don't wash my sofa either, only the covers (much like the duvet), I don't sleep well, so I reckon I spend more time on that than in bed.

Washing your sofa would be wierd, so why is not washing your duvet grim? I have sex on my sofa, I nap on my sofa, it gets very similar treatment really.

Also, I used to sell rather expensive duvets, £450 upwards. The company training rep (for the duvet company, not the shop) said pretty emphatically that they should not be washed. At all. Just no. That they would suffer for it and they were fine if aired regularly with frequent bedding changes.

Do people realise how much perspiration you give out over night, never mind the fact you dont swallow while asleep, so yup, drooling on the pillow,mattress.Then theres the dust mites, their poo, if you get a virus, or scabies, you need to wash the pillows and duvet, not just the covers. Would you say, you dont need to wash your shirt, etc, because you have underwear underneath it, I doubt it. A cotton cover wont magically stop bodily fluids passing through, (and yes, of course, ther are a few more I havent mentioned) I cannot believe people dont wash their duvets or pillows. As for replacing them, have seen the dreadful ammount dumped in landfill.

I don't care. I am not OCD about cleanliness. So meh.

I wash duvets in my machine though not very often. I change duvets between summer and winter. I don’t wash pillows but buy new ones maybe twice a year when they’ve flattened out a bit.

All you people chucking pillows out for losing their shape need to get yourself some decent pillows!!

I wash them in the machine on the 'duvet' setting, then dry outside on the line (I wait until it's really hot weather). Probably don't do it enough though!

I tend to replace pillows when I feel they look a bit worse for wear (usually once a year when we go back to school in September)

We don’t have any laundrettes round here, our dry cleaners wanted £30 for our quilt.

I double cover the pillows - they have an under pillow case (which probably gets washed once a year) and another one on top (once a week.) I don't do that with the duvet. I dry clean it and then air it outside approximately every five years. (I thought I did it more but I've just thought back and realised I don't.) Then about every 20 years I buy new pillows (have done this once as a grown up.) This is mainly because I have feather pillows and so can't wash them and my son has a dust mite allergy and dust mites love feather pillows. His is hypo allergenic so I can put it through the washing machine.

I use mattress protectors and pillow protectors (as did my mother.) I washed my mattress protector today, mostly because I bled on it, but it was due for a change anyway (I have two for this very reason.) Fortunately, it stopped the blood reaching the mattress, which is only a few months old (and has instructions not to vacuum it.)

Pillow protectors get washed every now and then, usually on a hot summers day or when I can dry them on the radiator, so a bit less in spring and autumn. Thin duvet is washed at changeover and occasionally on a hot summer's day. Winter duvet is too big for machine, and I haven't been bothered to find out if there's somewhere local where I can wash it (we haven't got a laundrette in town - more likelihood of one near work, as that's a university town.)

I don't have a tumble drier, so I just work off stress by punching the feather pillows to plump them up again. :-)

The mattress I slept on in the '80s at home was an original Edwardian horsehair one, which had been reconditioned in WW2. It was not comfortable, but no one seemed to worry about the hygiene (it was a working farm, so it probably wasn't the biggest risk anyway.)