Changing bedding - how often is too often?

[SorryButThatsAFact]

So, a friend of mine recently popped over for lunch and as she stayed a little longer than expected, I asked her if she wouldn't mind giving me a hand to change the beds.

Somehow we got on to the topic of how often bedding should be changed and I said I did mine twice a week. She was completely aghast and said she only changed hers once a fortnight and that twice a week was 'far too often'

I've always done mine twice a week, just like my mum did, so have never given it much thought.

So now I'm wondering what's a 'normal' number of bedding changes.

Any thoughts?

I doubt this will change anyone's minds if they're really averse to doing laundry, but here are some stats...

After 1 week, your pillowcases have 17,000x more bacteria than a toilet seat.
That's 3 million bacteria per sq in.

After 2 weeks, your sheets have 300x more bacteria than a pet toy that rolls around in your dog's mouth. 5.73 million little guys per sq in.

Staph is one bacteria that proliferates in bedding. Dust mites (and their poo) live in them too. Sadly, fungi grow inside our pillows. It's not pretty.

While, as some posters have pointed out, your bedding may not "smell" or "look dirty", you can't see bacteria - just like when your hands are dirty.

If you don't believe me, here are some articles:
Dead skin, bacteria, excrement, accumulates in one night
How often should you wash your sheets?
Unwashed bed sheets have dangerous bacteria
Bacteria in your bed
Do bedsheets have bacteria?

Twice a week may be necessary if you have acne on your face or on your body if you sleep nude. If you have a weak immune system, allergies, or asthma, washing twice a week would also help cut down on systems. If OP has any of these issues, it's not unreasonable. Even if OP just likes how the bedding feels when washed twice a week, it's not a problem.

See, you're getting the hang of it. Now lose the attitude and you'll be fine here.

Thank you! 😊

I change the bottom sheet every week and the duvet cover or top sheet twice a month. Sometimes more often, eg this summer when it was so sweaty hot!

@jollyroll

TMI

It's a wonder any of us are still alive 😳

Still don't care. I've got a strong immune system 🤷‍♀️

The amount of umbrage OP is taking to commenters is very very funny. God, I love MN!

We change the sheets the next day, if we have sex in bed. So, twice a week sounds about right.

Every 10 to 14 days for my bed …me and doggie share . Everyone else in the family can decide for themselves…am not too invested TBH .

What can I say? My threshold for stupidity is exceptionally low.

Guess I was expecting too much that people just respond to the question, rather than give unsolicited opinions.

Once a week. Is the right answer.

Maybe slightly less if you're a non-sweaty person who sleeps alone, or with a very well-behaved and non-sweaty partner.

Twice a week is bonkers unless, as someone already said, you make your bed unusually grubby. But in that case you wouldn't ask a friend for help.

Either way, it's a grim task to ask someone to help with. I would be suggesting meeting somewhere else next time if we were friends!

You’re made of bacteria. Your microbiome consists of around 39 trillion microbial cells including bacteria, viruses and fungi.

Always change them after having a cold or a bug. Otherwise normal ie fortnightly.

Washing at 60 must kill practically every mite or bacterium, surely. How long do they take to grow from prac nothing?

I love sleeping with the cat - he has his afternoon nap on the duvet too. It’s his fave. Why on earth is that not hygienic?

How many billions of bacteria does the average person have on their skin at any one time, many of them doing important things? I've just googled and according to one source it's 1.5 trillion. Comparing the kind of bacteria found on a toilet seat to the bacteria found on a pillow is disingenuous. Please stop encouraging hygiene anxiety.

And we certainly do have a problem (and it's going to get more and more of a problem) in the overuse of water and electricity and also the pollution caused by washing liquids and powders and conditioners, all of which are slowly changing and destroying our water courses and oceans. And then there's the danger of damp and mould spores in homes without adequate ventilation where laundry is left to dry indoors. Far more likely to cause health problems that only washing bedlinen every couple of weeks.

@pattihews Thanks for the sanity check. Not as much fun as hygiene hysterics for some tho.

There used to be a poster who changed hers daily many years ago

When I was newly married, 35 years ago, I changed our 400 thread ( comparatively cheap, probably) Egyptian Cotton flat sheets every day, like what they did in the hotel we had stayed at a few months before. Crisp cotton sheets every day (I inexplicably even starched them!} seemed like the absolute dream we were destined to live. Envelope corners and all. It lasted a week and a half until reality kicked in.

By 10 years married it was once a week.
20 years married once a fortnight.
Nowadays it's when I feel like it, or the sun's shining and I can get it dry.

We do shower regular like, dh has been known to indulge twice in one day if he's been working hard up the garden with his veggies or the occasional autumn
leaf sweep.
And we don't have any unhygienic smelly pets sleeping in so pretty much only our own germs to live with.

Still an improvement from my early childhood. No bathroom, outside toilet halfway up the street. Tin bath filled from the geyser every Sunday night.
Thankfully I was first in because I was the youngest. We used to joke that my eldest brother was dirtier when he got out than when he got in.

I now feel as though I ought to explain that was because the water wasn't changed. Hot water was limited in those days through slowness of delivery, and of course, cost.

How times change. Now it's normal to bathe or shower every day and have clean sheets every week. And if you don't, you're manky or grim.

Regardless of cost to the environment, or household bills.

I think it’s interesting how many posters are saying I change the sheets as opposed to we or he. Changing sheets is apparently a gendered task on MN.

This thread is really making me laugh. 😂

I believe Jackie Kennedy insisted on fresh sheets every time she got into her bed, including her afternoon nap. If I ever win the lottery and have a daily housekeeper, so shall I.

In the absence of someone to do it, I’ll stick to weekly-ish. If it wasn’t such an enormous faff (I have lots of pillows to support my decrepit joints and a ridiculously huge bed/duvet for no reason other than I was given it and it doesn’t need replacing) I might do it twice weekly. I love fresh sheets, but it’s SUCH an enormous faff. My bed is two loads if laundry on its own! I’m trying to save money and do them every ten days or so instead, although my daughter did announce she hadn’t had clean sheets for two months yesterday. I’m certain that’s untrue, but can’t pinpoint a date, so settled for pointing out she’s perfectly capable of doing it, or even just asking me if it was that important…

I had a daily housekeeper when living overseas and she changed it every three days. Absolute luxury. Got used to it and now change mine every week.

Previously, it was every 2-3 weeks - same as when I was a child, my mum did this. Five beds is a lot. And we lived in the cold wet north.

So every week feels luxurious to me, not ‘normal’ as others are saying!

That said, I’ve just started another thread bemoaning the fact I can’t get my laundry dry, so may need to revert to less often…

Thank you for responding, guys. I appreciate all those who gave an answer instead of an opinion 💗

Well I don't have sex in my bed, fart, or drool that I'm aware of and I'm not a sweaty person - am generally cold so I do fail to see how any of those things could actually be harmful in any way on sheets not changed for a few more days than some would like

Likewise. I always wear full length cotton in bed, hate being or feeling naked. Fully fleeced and socked up in winter. The sheets on my bed rarely have contact with human skin. And let's face it, the few hot weeks we had are pretty rare here.
10 months of the year we need maximum body snugness. That is at least pyjamas. If colder, then a dressing gown as well.

My sheets do not get sweated or snotted or farted on. They are like an outer coat, if you will. I am cocooned in first my pyjamas, and secondarily a fleecy dressing gown. No way any sweat will get through to the sheets.

Basically. If you are very sexually active couple who have 'relations' all day and every day, and sleep naked and can afford to have your heating turned up high to accommodate comfortable nakedness then maybe your sheets could get manky

So wash them.

If you are like me and go to bed dressed like Scott of the Antarctic, with not an inch of skin to identify you as human. Not so much urgency to wash them.

Thank you for responding, guys. I appreciate all those who gave an answer instead of an opinion

There's not really an answer though. Only you know if your sheets need washing once a week, or less, or more. It depends how soiled they are likely to get.

Some people, very soiled.
Others, moderately soiled.
Some who go to bed in jim jams and dressing gowns not soiled at all.

So the answers you get will not really answer your question.
I change mine every 2 or 3 weeks, but I sleep alone and I wear cotton nightgown or pjs. My skin doesn't contact the sheets directly. I change pillowcase every day.

Perhaps we need a new board: Factual Answers Only, No Opinions Please.

I don’t think the poster’s questions were rude.

You can’t expect to post on an open forum and then dictate what people post. It doesn’t work like that.

Your husband returned from shift work and gets straight into bed, sullying your fresh sheets. No wonder you have to change them so frequently.

Was I the only one wondering why the husband couldn't have helped change the sheets when he got back?