Keeping guest bedding sweet-smelling

[PrettyCandles]

I made up beds for guests over half-term, and noticed that the pillow-cases smelled less than delightful. Not nasty, just a bit musty and stale.

I hadn't used them for some months, but they'd been kept in the airing cupboard, together with all the rest of the bedlinen and towels. So everything was clean from the laudnry and quite dry.

I don't use fabric conditioner, so wonder whether that was why the pillowcases smelled a bit off.

What can I do about this? How can I ensure that stuff that goes a long time between uses still smells pleasant?

You could put small pieces of perfumed drawer liners between the sheets in storage, or use something more natural like rose/lavender sachets, or just sprigs of dried lavender. Or use a nice linen spray just before use, or iron the sheets with a scented ironing water. But personally I discourage anything which means more ironing than absolutely necessary.

aha, have a look here

I'm sorry, you used a word I don't understand: "iron"?

Scented papers - that's a good idea. Lakeland here I come!

If you find a good solution then let me know. I find that my stored bedding always ends up smelling musty and yucky unless its one of the 2 sets that gets used in rotation each week. Oh and I do use fabric conditioner so its not that.

I think it just gets stale and needs airing, but I can't work out why its an issue for bedding and not for anything else thats stored long term (clothes, towels etc) - is it just the size or maybe not properly clean when put away (horrid thought but keep reading about washing machines not being that good nowadays).

I think that guest bedding (and towels) needs to be washed at 90° in order to ensure there isn't any body grease/sweat at all left on it.

A good point, Bonsoir. However our 'guest bedding' is just whatever complete set of our regular bedding is available. As it happened we hadn't used this particular set for several months. Perhaps I should pay more attention to rotating the bedding, but when the laundry is dry by bedtime it seems an awful waste of energy to fold and put away, when it can just go straight back on the bed.

I have special guest bedding because visitors sleep in the DSSs' beds more often than not, and I would not inflict teenage boy tastes or hygiene upon anyone else