To think changing bedsheets once a week is ott

[Moomoomango]

Another week has whizzed past, feels like yesterday I changed all the beds. They look and smell fine, surely if I only change beds once every 2 weeks we will still all survive. I could spend 30 minutes with my feet up drinking tea once in a while. Aibu?

Every two weeks in our house on the morning the cleaner arrives. She must think we sleep on pristine beds.

It depends, but generally once a fortnight. If DS drools in his sleep a lot or something his get changed more often. If my lover comes round, mine get changed more often.

DD1 changes her own if chivvied. DD2 changes hers when she bores of the duvet cover pattern. She also puts everything in the wash basket every day, even if only worn for a few hours (except knickers: there must be a secret stash soemwhere ...). DS looks baffled if he is told/asked, as in 'that's your job!'

Towels: sniff'em regularly, and washed when they fail the test - probably about every 2/3 weeks.

In summer and sweating, or if anyone has a cold/cough, changed more often.

When I was young my mother still had a mangle, and that put me off 100% cotton sheets and too much washing. Setting fire to myself with static put me off nylon sheets. Modern polycotton sheets however are a dream.

Every week in the summer when they can go outside on the line and every 2 weeks in the winter, as it all takes ages to tumble dry and I use the cheap rate electricity while I get ready for work. I never iron them

Depends entirely on DH. In the depths of winter it's once a fortnight, high summer can be every couple of days.

DS is done fortnightly, he wears pjs though.

Maybe once a month here. I'm not sure to be honest, dp usually does them.

If sweat and dust were that unhealthy for us we would know by now from the media. I change mine every 2 weeks.

This sort of attitude makes me LOL, especially when the person in question is using her precious life energy to read and post on Mumsnet!

Says the person who is also on mumsnet...

I know full well I'm a slattern by MN standards .

Two weeks.
Hate changing duvet covers. Hate, hate, hate.

Think of the environment!!! every 3 days is insane. (IMHO)

Chuckiling at a line from the uk.businessinsider.com/how-often-you-should-wash-your-bed-sheets-germs-2015-10 article, though:

'You only have to wash your duvet cover periodically, about every six months, Tierno says, depending on use.'

What sort of 'use' are they anticipating for a duvet cover?! The mind boggles.

Everyone in our house has 100% cotton sheets and duvets, so I even iron them! How sad is that. But climbing into fresh crispy bedding on a Sunday is such an enormous treat. I used to do every week. Now I leave it to the teens to change their own (so, once every 8+ weeks probably!) and do ours every two weeks.

Ours are changed religiously once a year and let me tell you they get changed whether they need it or not!!

Haha, totally this:

PageStillNotFound404 Thu 10-Mar-16 06:05:11
I shifted to changing the sheets every 2-3 weeks years ago OP. Neither DH or I have died yet, nor developed any disfiguring skin diseases. No one has forced me to carry a bell and croak "unclean" as I approach. The only material differences were that my electricity bill went down a fraction because I'm using the tumble dryer less frequently, and I swear every 2-3 weeks instead of weekly.

... our homes are too clean these days. It's not doing us good.

We have washable mattress and pillow protectors that get washed as often as the covers, so every 2-3 weeks, so the pillows and mattress beneath are pristine. The mattress still gets an occasional hoover and the pillows occasionally go through the wash too... so it's not like it's building up anywhere anyway. Fortnightly-ish is enough.

"If it takes you 30 mins to strip the bed and wash them your doing it wrong"

Takes me a long time to put the clean sheets on the bed. That's the hard part. Trying to get the fitted sheet to fit around the mattress. Getting one corner to fit then when I get the other, it comes off that corner. Putting the duvet on.

Washing obviously takes more than 30 mins then 1-2 days to dry as I don't have a tumble drier.

I find it a huge chore tbh. I would only do it once a month if it wasn't for dust mites. People with no allergy to dust won't come into any harm by sleeping in their own sweat and skin flakes.

Hey Moomoomango. The boarding school I went to would change ONE sheet every two weeks. The bottom sheet would go in the wash. The top sheet which had just been use for 2 weeks, would become the bottom sheet, and a new sheet was provided for the top sheet, and so on at two week intervals. So our sheets would be used for 4 WEEKS!! Slept under for 2, slept on top for 2. So your not gross if you use a boarding school as an example.

At my boarding school, we changed sheets and pillowcases once a week and duvet covers once a fortnight. I guess that's why once a week seems normal to me.

I think people underestimate how long things actually take. I read so many housekeeping type threads where everything is a 'five minute job', band it very rarely is actually 5.

All those not quite five minutes add up. I feel like I'm always busy but never quite on top of things to the point that an extra bedsheet change half way through the week wouldn't be an enormous pain in the arse.

Well, it depends. I wear PJs and bedsocks and sleep by myself. I shower and hairwash every night before bed, so I tend to change my own bed one a fortnight, more often in summer. Some may find that grim. I don't.

When my ex lived here, he slept naked, showered a couple of times a week, had a hot sweaty commute on his bike (bleurgh) and as a result I changed the bedding twice a week until we ended up in separate beds (due to a mix of my snoring, his stink, baby sleeping in my room). He then had to be nagged to wash his sleeping bag (couldn't be arsed to wash proper sheets) once a month or so. He couldn't smell himself at all.

3-4 weeks. We wear pjs and pants, shower every morning and so face each day nice and clean. The bed never smells, the pj's must soak up most of the sweat/skin shedding and I have enough washing without doing all the beds every week.

I have clean PJs every day and change my sheets once a week: I feel like I don't have much that is pleasurable in my life, and this is something that is inexpensive and pleasant. Nothing to do with the cleanliness/hygiene (well, more now that I have hideous side effects from meds that include night sweats ) and everything to do with a cheap treat - even if you take into account the cost of a load of laundry (and I can do two sets of bed clothes in one wash - they hang up on the backs of doors to dry as no outside space and no tumble drier).

Can't imagine asking my cleaner to strip a bed .make it up ,maybe ...

My boarding school doesn't exist anymore. Must have been consumed by all those dust mites.

Honestly - do what makes you happy and try not to be sniffy about other peoples choices. (this is my answer to most questions on housework)

I change ours every 3-4 weeks, DS 's once a week and more often if he has a cold, is dribbling a lot etc.

It would be interesting to compare people's replies on the shoes-indoors-thread with this one. I think shoes indoors are yuck, but don't see the point in changing bedclothes once a week unless you have a cold, eczema etc. Our ideas about hygiene seem to be a bit arbitrary!

I change my husband once a week, sod the sheets.