How often to change the beds?

[dalziel1]

I saw a news article recently that said that about a quarter of people "admit" to changing the beds monthly. I do that and I didn't realise it wasn't nearly enough!

How often are we supposed to wash the pillow cases, sheets, duvet cover etc? The article implied weekly was about right. But in my case that would be around 3 more loads of washing every weekend.

That can't be right, can it?

Honestly, it takes a week for me to get it all washed and dried, how do you all turn it round so quick? Having said that, my latest discovery is that £10 in a laundrette can wash and dry not only a full set of bedding but the duvet too, so maybe I will just do that in future!

YY my slatternism housekeeping is all in aid of the planet

I fully accept that we don't change our beds as often as many people would feel desirable or even necessary, but so far nobody has come to harm and I truly don't feel there would be an advantage to doing it more often.

A superking, a double and a set of bunk beds. That's four sheets, five quilt covers and 10 pillow cases. Additionally, there are four mattress protectors and 10 pillow protectors.

That's a lot of extra loads of washing. e.g. I just stripped one of the bunks and the double and put the first load into the machine and I could only fit in the two mattress protectors.

i reckon I will get those two beds done in 3 loads, maybe 4 today.

Its not a huge capacity washing machine, but its not abnormally small either.

Just musing here, and I do have a mattress protector, but surely the point of the sheet is to protect the mattress? Otherwise what's it for? Ditto pillows and pillow cases. Seems we have all just added another layer to our beds and another load to our washing quantities!

Bauer - to me a sheet protects from say daily sweat and is washed weekly.
The matress protectors protects matress against things that's don't happen daily but when do more of a mess ie period leak/ child being sick/ child weeing bed / really excess sweating if ill etc. Hence washed about 4-6 weeks here

The average adult loses about half a pint of sweat every night. Is a sheet on for weeks at a time enough to soak that up?

By that logic gamer if you wash it every few days it should be fine?

What I'm saying is that if the sheet isn't doing the job why do we even bother with it?

Once a week or bi weekly, depends.

I had a friend who did not know about bed linen. I saw her bed, and I asked her if she did not use linen on her bed? She looked a picture when I explained what bed linen was, then exclaimed "oh, that would explain it, I was wondering why other people had such colourful beds and mine is just white and with stains!". She graduated with a first though.
She also did not realize one had to clean the house to get a clean house. She would look at my flat in amazment and ask me how come it was so clean, and her so dirty, and how come my towels smelt so fresh and kept their colour.....

I don't use a mattress protector. I change my sheets regularly. Just using Henry on the mattress before each bed change makes me happy.

Bare mattress is not the nicest of feelings on bare legs

Christ quint I think I would have been actually speechless

Monthly?
I feel ill. That's disgusting. It is. No matter how much anyone bathes.

I do use a mattress protector (because never again will I suffer the shame of moving house with a clearly period-stained mattress) but I don't wash it unless I obviously need to. DH and my bedding is washed weekly or more, depending on whether the cats have slept on the bed - I'm way more lax with the DCs, who are unbothered. Towels also weekly.

I was pretty speechless yes!

Beds changed weekly here. I love getting into a bed with fresh bed linen.

Wash almost every day to keep on top of it. There are four of us, inc. 2 teenage boys who play sport regularly so they generate a lot of laundry.

Well, if you're so stinky that you need to change your bedding weekly fair enough. I'm not.

I'm as fragrant as a spring breeze .
And still change the beds weekly.

My mum didn't really believe in doing the laundry. I can tell you for definite that a month's worth of sweat stinks.
The dust mites feed on shed skin, a month's worth of it, they must be all morbidly obese
Yes, my house looks like a chinese laundry mon-thursday. But the linen gets done weekly. Whatever is still damp on friday gets to go into the tumble drier.
I am getting an electric clothes horse soon, I am putting a lot of hope into that!

Weekly - one king size, one single, one cot.

Growing up there were 9 of us - 7 kids and my parents. My mum did all 8 beds every week. I have no idea how on top of the normal washing, cleaning a big house, doing school runs and looking after whoever the baby was plus other preschoolers. Suffice to say we had two long washing lines in the garden that were always full

The neighbours asked her how she ever found time to do anything else....I think she deserves some sort of sainthood now I've got two myself with only 11 months between them and ridiculous amounts of washing already.

Must have rubbed off though cos I have to change the beds weekly come hell or high water.

I met a woman once who changed her bed every day. Every day! She got up at 6am to do it every day before going to work

I would love that clean sheets feel every night, but nuh uh, that's a bridge too far!

My sheets I aim for weekly but they often end up being fortnightly (unless I have a gentleman caller ). Towels the same.

Children's beds are done fortnightly when they go to see their dad for the w/e. Towels the same.

There are five of us in the house - me, two teens, one KS2 and one in nursery. I generally do a load a day although if the weather is really good I get through as much as I can. I don't like to use the dryer at all if I can help it. So probably that averages out at about 8 per week?

I do ensure that I use the less water/eco/lower temp button on the machine as I'm conscious that our carbon footprint is not brilliant with 4dcs in the house.

I'm also at weekly, clearly we are slovenly.

This also came up recently with my friend, a mum of 4, who was saying how exhausting it was to keep up with all the housework and washing, asking me how I did it. It transpired she changed everyone's bed linen weekly. I was not as stressed as I'd for for every few weeks.

I also love that fresh clean sheet feeling, so perhaps should do that more often.

I do find though, that the house ends up like a laundry with sheets hanging over doors and banisters as there's nowhere else to try them. Obviously not if it's good weather but how often is that?

We do tons of washing (or so it feels like) and have two large clothes airers, plus two of those victorian style wooden racks hanging from the ceiling on the landing. Plus a line outside. You can see why I'm not so keen on washing all the bed linen weekly too? :)

I'd say we do 2-3 loads of nappies a week plus 6-10 loads of clothes/towels/tea towels/cleaning cloths per week. Washing machine is used a lot! (should probably get a bigger maching, it's just a standard size).

I don't get why people are getting so judgemental about things.
Why compare yourself to other people and tell yourself you 'have' to do things because other people do?! Each family is different, size, demands on time, space to dry washing etc. Everyone should just do what they feel comfortable with and sod what anyone else is doing!

Hassled - that sounds like you wash you dh weekly along with the washing :)

I change our bedding, one king size and two cot beds every fortnight. Or if they get something on them then obviously before that. Dh uses his towel for a week (4 showers) but I use mine and the kids use theirs twice and then I wash. Plus with twins in cloth I do a nappy wash every day. I'd say I do roughly 10/11 washes a week plus the bedding every other week. I never knew you were meant to hoover your mattress but I think I will start next time I change them.

What is a thread worm? Hmmm, I have no routine. As and when I think it needs changing/ I remember. Prob more often in the summer when can hang out. I hate having wet washing hanging round the house all the time. Blush to admit it, but once hoovered the bedding to save washing it.

I change mine weekly but then I have more sex than average in it

I change the kids every ten days.

However I also pull back the duvet and air the sheet in the morning and make sure my bedding is actually clean (as opposed to bunged in a 40 degree wash) and properly iron it.