So How Often Should You Actually Be Washing Your Bedding?

There’s really nothing quite like lying down on freshly laundered sheets after a long day and a nice shower. However, how often are you washing said sheets? Also, what about everything else that’s in your bed? After all, other bedding items like comforters, pillows, and blankets share your bed space where you spend a significant portion of your life, and let’s be honest, we ourselves are not always perfectly clean when we crash. Therefore, it’s pretty important to maintain their cleanliness to preserve a healthy sleep environment.

Although the frequency of washing bedding varies depending on specific circumstances like eating in bed, sleeping with pets or kids, allergies, and excessive sweating, there are general guidelines to ensure a clean sleep environment. This is how often you should be washing your bedding in order to keep things healthy and clean.

Wash your sheets weekly, at a minimum:

According to the Sleep Foundation, it’s recommended to wash your sheets, including pillowcases, weekly. However, if you own pets, especially if they sleep with you, more frequent cleaning is necessary. Even after a few days, bed sheets can accumulate a significant amount of dirt, dead skin cells, body oils, sweat, dust mites, including their carcasses and fecal matter. While the thought of dust mites and their waste might be repugnant, allergy sufferers should be especially cautious and keep their bedding clean to minimize symptoms. Note that if you use a duvet cover without a top sheet, it should be washed as frequently as a top sheet, which is weekly.

Wash comforters monthly or a few times a year:

How often you wash your comforter depends on whether you have a duvet cover on it. If you don’t have a duvet cover, you’ll need to wash it about once a month (assuming you use a top sheet) since it’s more exposed to body oils and dust. If you have a duvet cover on it, washing your comforter a few times a year is sufficient. You can remember to clean it every season change.

Wash duvet covers weekly or monthly:

If you use your duvet cover as a sheet, it should be washed weekly since it’s in direct contact with your body. But if you have a top sheet between you and your duvet cover, you can wash the cover monthly or as necessary.

Wash pillows twice a year:

It’s best to wash pillows at least once or twice a year. However, just like your sheets, you may need to wash them more frequently, depending on your sleeping arrangements, and if you sweat while sleeping. Always check the labels, but most pillows can be washed by hand or in the washing machine.

Wash decorative pillows every other month, at most:

If you treat your bed as another couch and lounge on it with decorative pillows, you should wash them every other month, like other throw pillows in your home. This may seem like a lot, but it makes sense since they come into close contact with your body. If your pillows have removable covers, you can wash them more frequently.

Wash extra blankets according to usage:

If you snuggle up with a throw blanket every night, wash it weekly. But if your blanket is solely for decoration, washing it once a month should suffice. Remember that dust accumulates on the surface, even if you aren’t using it. Keeping dust out of your sleeping area is crucial for a good night’s sleep.