AIBU to ask how often you wash your pillows?

[StrawberrySundance]

In the last couple of years I have been getting spots on my face.

I bought new creams, drank more water, washed my pillowcase more often ... but today I realised that I have not washed my pillow once in the 10+ years since I bought it

Anyway, I am off to buy a new pillow.

DP is horrified and I feel very very judged, but surely I am not alone in my slatternly ways?!

after a few washed pillows and duvets need to be replaced

If people apply this principle across their lives no wonder so many are claiming to be perpetually skint and no wonder the planet's fucked.

Most stuff can be cleaned or mended. I wash duvets every 6 months and pillows annually (have v good protectors that get washed regularly though) and they last 10-15 years!

If you can afford it, invest in good quality bedding, it lasts way longer than the cheaper stuff. One of my duvet covers is still going strong after 30 years. Am about to replace dh's and my pillows after 15 years.

You don't even need to spend a lot. We get most of our household goods from Ikea and it all seems to last a good few years or more.

We have the £15 shaped memory foam pillows that have to be several years old, no idea how long and they are still in the correct shape and seem to be supportive.

I wouldn't wash them but they do have a removable cover that is washable.

Never. Pillow protectors and pillow cases. Never occurred to me to wash them tbh!

I'm with the pp who said it's the thorough drying of the pillow that's the problem, not the washng! I worry that they will be damp in the middle!

I buy new pillows every four years. However, I do use pillow protectors and two pillow cases on each pillow, changed frequently.

Usually about once a year I put all four through the machine. But I double cover them now, so probably won’t do them quite as much.

Buy new pillows - non-feathered - frequently - much more frequently than every 6 months. It’s basic hygiene.
Buy a new planet too. Or a conscience.
How some people on this hemisphere can be so wasteful???!
It is not basic hygiene, that is your excuse to justify this nonsense

Washing pillows is a thing?

I don't use pillow protectors (but feel I might need to invest in some now) but pillowcases get washed once a week(ish).

I buy new pillows when the old ones are no longer supportive, a process which takes years. Just wash the cases and the protectors.

When you do replace your pillows (and duvets), it's worth contacting a local animal shelter if you have one - quite a few rescue places will gladly take them to use as bedding so they're not going straight into landfill.

Also do you use protectors on all or just the ones that you directly sleep on?

You can wash most pillows but I generally replace them if they’re looking manky. I have a pillow protector and pillow case on each. The protector is slightly padded. I wash the pillow case when I wash the sheets, the protector about once a month unless stained.

I left home at 23 but I had the same pillows and duvet as when I was a toddler (they had protective covers which were washed regularly) My parents were of the generation that didn’t throw anything away. I had just two new duvet/pillow cover sets in that time and my bed was around 40 years old by that point.

Use protectors and do wash them yearly but the synthetic ones go lumpy.

Feather ones wash better but smell if not t totally dry.

I hate the fact that old pillows go in the landfill so every 6 months is not long enough before buying a new pillow

I could cry at posters like notheresa no wonder the planet is on its knees with that attitude. What the hell is wrong with people.

It reminds me of the John Finnemore sketch where he thinks that everyone buys a new set of towels each week and throws them away rather than washing them 🤣🤦‍♀️

They don't wash well so I just replace them when they need it. Pillow cases are washed maybe weekly.

Duvets are washed only in cases of spills, poops, sick or other bodily fluids. We replace them annually. Old ones go to the dogs.

@NoTheresa

By the same logic, do you also buy a new mattress every 6 months?

Ridiculous.

It looks more like people need to buy pillows that wash well.

The same for duvets. Nobody needs to replace them annually, fgs.

I wash my 5 year olds way more often then everyone else's, because he makes them smell bad. I used to change all his bedding really often, I've very recently realised I can put all the spare pillow cases on his pillow and take the top one off every other day.
He eats and exercises the same as everyone else, doesn't have the hot room - just sweats excessively from his head.
So, when necessary is my answer. Rarely for dh, occasionally for me and DD, and maybe monthly for sweaty head. Monthly would seem excessive for the rest of us.

My duvets are washed annually and changed from Summer to winter but rarely replaced. Someone the spare single ones are from my dps house from the 80s.

I've never washed pillows, have pillow protectors on all pillows current pillows are about 8 years old and memory foam. The pillow cases get washed every week, the protectors every 2 weeks. All bedding gets washing on a hot wash.
The pillows get sprayed with disinfectant spray and aired when the protectors are off and if the weather allows I peg them on the washing line to air.
I suffered with terrible skin and doing all this along with a good skincare regime means my skin is clear for the first time in years.

Picked up by the DM.

This is why we can't have nice things

The comments in the DM are as bad as some on here. I'm shocked, saddened and disgusted that people are replacing bedding every few months.

I know some people struggle financially, but for a lot of people, life in the UK is just a little bit too comfortable when people value resourses so poorly that they see perfectly satisfactory products as cheap disposables in this way.

I have never washed a pillow. I buy myself a new one occasionally , maybe every 5/6 years. DH slept on the same two pillows for nearly 30 years and refused to let me change them until we came into some money a couple of years ago and to celebrate he ‘allowed’ me to buy 2 new ones at JL for the princely sum of £.499 each. He still misses the old ones.

The pillow cases are washed at least weekly and we are both very healthy with no breathing problems and only the occasional cold. In fact in the 32 years we’ve been married DH has only had 1.5 days off sick, the half day for a vasectomy and the day after as recovery time.

I am always reluctant to dispose of old duvets and pillows even when they are past their best as they can’t be recycled.