The Great Mumsnet Laundry Debate, Part I. £300 Love2Shop voucher to be won NOW CLOSED

[PoppyMumsnet]

To celebrate Fairy Non Bio’s sponsorship of the Mumsnet Talk App, we’re launching the Great Mumsnet Laundry Debate – as with all great series, it's a three-parter. Part I is about how often you wash your bed sheets (as we know, always a hot topic on Mumsnet).

We all know that washing bed sheets can be total faff: there’s stripping the bed, then there’s putting the wash on (are you a warm 40C or a hot 90C type?) Then there’s hanging it out and the struggle for drying space (unless you use the dryer ?) After that there’s folding - and, for the super-keen, perhaps even ironing. Finally, there’s getting the darn things back on the bed.

So - how often do you wash your bed sheets? And how often do you wash your DC’s bed sheets? Do you have a specific process? Perhaps you change pillow cases weekly, but sheets and duvet covers every two weeks? How often do you change your mattress protector ( again)? Do you use softener?

Whatever your bed sheet-washing process, do share it with Fairy Non Bio in the thread below, and maybe even give us a live update from the Mumsnet Talk App as you're waiting for the load to finish .

Everyone who posts will be entered into a prize draw to win a £300 Love2Shop voucher.

Thanks and good luck!
MNHQ

T&Cs apply

Aim for every 2 weeks (we shower before bed so are clean).

Wash on 30, occasionally a hot wash (when i remember bed bugs exist and get a bit freaked out).

Washing powder and fabric conditioner.

Dry on the line in the summer (❤️) or dryer in the winter and then straight back on.

Usually fortnightly for sheets/pillowcases - think I might switch to kids one week, mine the next, as someone suggested up thread so it doesn't take over the house for a whole day! Mattress protectors usually get washed after 2 sheet changes. The kids have various woollen knitted blankets on top of their sheets which I wash now and then on a delicate cycle when I have other wool things for the machine.

I wash all the white cotton stuff at 90. I use a sensitive skin no fragrance at all laundry liquid, and then either line dry when it is warm enough outside, put on airers indoors if we have the heating on, or tumble dry otherwise. I always iron the cotton sheets and covers, even if I've tumbled dried them.

every week for duvet cover sheets and pillowcases, washed on 40, with white booster, laundry liquid and my favourite fabric softener, dried outside if possible. I have a super tall pulley washing line so hang from the edge straight down to allow for maximum blowiness mattress and pillow protectors get done every month or so more if the weather is unusually lovely as I love getting into a super clean bed. I love watching the duvet blow into a big puffball in the wind and nothing smells nicer than sun dried laundry, especially sheets.

I love slipping in to a clean pair of sheets, especially when they've been dried outside and you can smell the ozone!

Friday is change beds day for the DDs and Saturday is change beds day for our bed.

I am a Kiwi and have been raised to always have a top sheet - which is perfect in summer as you can fling off the duvet but still have something to snuggle under without over-heating.

It also cuts down the washing as you don't have to wash the duvet cover every week (it might just be me but I HATE putting the duvet cover back on and it must be ironed which is not a favourite job, so washing it every so often and using a top sheet is a great solution although English people tend to think I'm strange and not know what to do when confronted with a pair of sheets in my guest room!).

I wash at 60 (although my mum washed EVERYTHING in cold water - in a top loader where you had a choice of cold. medium or hot) and we never died....

I always use fabric softener after being a militant anti fabric softener user for years and hang my sheets up by the ends with the folded edge down so they can be folded efficiently from the line. Fitted sheets are hung from the corners with the folded edge down so they can be folded from the line.

I never use the dryer as they crease, in the winter they get hung on a heated airer or draped over a door.

I spent hours on Pinterest and You Tube mastering the folding a fitted sheet technique and felt quite grown up when I'd cracked it - now my sheets are folded flat and stacked neatly. no I don't have a neatness disorder.

I think sheet and towels need washing once a week minimum, any less than that is minging IMHO, though each to their own of course.

Pillow cases and duvet covers are ironed and if I had loads of money I'd send them all out to be professionally laundered if only.

DD2 often has nose bleeds so some weeks I end up washing the sheets several times but hey ho, what can you do?

Everyone's bedding is changed every other Friday, unless it needs to be changed sooner. Washed at 60°, using fabric softener and tumble dried at a high temperature (except for my silk pillow case which is air dried) unless the weather is especially good. Mattress protectors and pillow protectors are washed with bedding.

Mine and DS's sheets get washed maybe once a fortnight. I don't have any strict schedule. No mattress protectors here...DS has never wet the bed. I do have a thicker, brushed cotten fitted sheet which goes under the standard fitted sheet to protect the mattress a bit more. Everything goes into the wash together, 40 degree standard wash with softener.

My nearly teenage son gets his bedding washed on hottest wash every week because he stinks! He gets his own bedding back because i don't want it muddled with other sheets.

Everyone else less often 2-3 weeks. I tend to wash my pillowcase far more often. These all go on a normal 40 wash.

definitely no ironing for bedsheets (lifes too short) and i definitely prefer to hang them outside to dry (don't have dryer and hanging inside can end up smelling musty)

I should add that I have a merino wool mattress topper and a mattress protector on top of my mattress and underneath my sheets. I am utterly gobsmacked that people have the same sheets for several weeks.

Every week on 40 for me - I'm very lucky in that we have solar panels though, so I pick a sunny day to wash them & can dry them in the tumbly for free with no guilt!

I wash out bedsheets about once every 2 weeks. More often if we have been on a boozy night out.

I love hanging my sheets outside but the weather has been terrible. We usually have laundry hanging off of every surface but this year we have invested in our first tumble dryer!!!

Bed sheets dry within a day- amazing!!!

Every 2 weeks, wash at 40. Currently waiting for a dry day to wash the sheets currently in my laundry basket!

Can't actually remember when I last washed my sheets....does that make me minger of the year ?
Children's sheets washed on average every two weeks, but sometimes more regularly. Always 60 degree wash for sheets. Fabric softener as well. Try and line dry where possible, but given the rain, normally get tumbled. Then folded (our lovely au pair taught me how to fold fitted sheets! )
And put in draw with bar of lavender soap, which helps keep moths away and makes them smell really fresh when put on the bed.

our bed weekly, los beds daily as they have terrific reflux and always throw up in the night

our bed weekly, los beds daily as they have terrific reflux and always throw up in the night

I aim for weekly, but it sometimes goes to fortnightly. Wash on 40mwith some added oxi powder. I like to dry outside, but in winter they aremdried in the radiators, in summer if it's raining I take the edge off with a bit of time on the dryer setting (I have a washer drier), then dried over the airer. We iron pillow cases and duvet covers, but not the fitted sheets.

The mattress protectors get washed every few months or if there has been a spillage of bodily fluids (menstrual blood for example) that has seeped through the fitted sheets.

In theory, every fortnight - ours one week, DC's the next. We don't have a tumble dyer so prefer to space out the washing of larger items. In practice, probably every 3 weeks - I HATE changing sheets! We do shower every night without fail, but I know that's no excuse. Iron pillow cases but not sheets or duvet covers unless it's for guests.

Wash every week - just one double bed to do
Have lots of passing visitors and I change the beds for them each time they have been, even if someone stays for just one night

Wash bedding at 40 degrees
Prefer to dry outdoors if possible and then just a quick 20 mins warm in the tumble dryer
Fold and put away in airing cupboard ready for next time

1 - 2 weekly.

Washed at 40 degrees.

Hung in the garden or tumble dried.

Dp irons them and then each set is folded into one of the pillow cases.

All bedding in the house (us and 2 DCs) gets done weekly. Theirs on Saturday and ours on Sunday.

Theirs is done with other light washing and Napisan on 40 degrees and ours is done on its own at 60 degrees.

The mattress protector gets done every month or so.

It's generally line-dried unless it's wet, then it goes in the dryer.

Every 2 weeks or so, if it's nice weather (sweaty!) I can wash more often. I wash bedding at 40•C and use fabric conditioner so it smells divine!

I don't wash our mattress protectors as they're plastic waterproof ones, too many times the kids or cats have peed or puked on our beds!

every other week

Ummmm usually about once a month unless noticeably dirty!

Every couple of weeks and every other wash is usually a hot wash. I have a tumble dryer for bad days but I love washing that's dried outdoors.

And washed at 60 degrees

I wash ours every 1-2 weeks.
Usually just a 40 but every now and then do at 60 to kill mites...never at 90 though!
Love hanging them on the line as always smell best then. So tumble sometimes though.
Never iron just smooth and fold.