washing pillows

[brettsomers]

why wash pillows?

Perhaps we should all use pillow covers under our pillowcases? I dont, and i have oily skin, and i sometimes drool in my sleep. Thats why i wash. I also use polyfill pillows. My current is from w-mart and washes wonderfully. Im sure when i go back to w-mart to replace it, it will be discontinued or nla.

I cant imagine repeatedly washing a down pillow and having it last.

Btw, i work as a bellhop as a large hotel and many guests prefer to bring their pillow from home, a practice i approve of. However, many of the pillows these folks have me bring in are NASTY, with heavy, hideous saliva/sebum stains barely hidden under a pillowcase. Surely nastier than anything the hotel can offer!

 

[DADoES]

I have no control over what my friend does with her bedding in her home.

I do use protective underslips on the three (newer) pillows in my MBR. The other two BRs I don't (I routinely rotate amongst the rooms). In any case, I'm very warm-natured and my head tends to sweat a lot. My pillows aren't particularly expensive, although the last purchases were from the upper-end choices that WM offered. I simply like to freshen all the bedding pieces occasionally, pillows included.

 

[jeffg]

I didn't even know down pillows can be machine washed until I read this thread. We tried it with two standards in our SQ TL and they came out absolutely perfect. Took forever to dry but it was worth the wait.

We did a quick spin-rinse on the pillows before starting the wash cycle, to get most of the air out of them. Worked great.

 

[whirlcool]

We use thick linen cotton pillow protectors on our pillows under the pillowcases. We wash the protectors every three weeks or so. We have nice down pillows. But in three weeks time it's amazing how dingy those pillow protectors will get.
We always buy blankets and comforters that are washable. We take them to the laundromat when they get dirty. With the dogs getting up on the bed, we used to wash those monthly. But strangely enough, since poor Kurt has been gone, the remaining two dogs won't even go in the bedroom at all now. So the bed stays a lot cleaner!

 

[DADoES]

I washed Brenda's comforter. Three times. Twice @ 125°F (input temp) in All HE liquid (no enzymes listed) with 3 oz. Oxyclean. Third time in Nikwax Down Wash at 105°F.

I should have taken a "before" picture. It was awful. She has been telling me it was originally white. I thought, yeah, right, maybe light beige. Now, other than a few stubborn stains (a couple of which have been there through two previous washings), it's WHITE. Oxyclean apparently made the difference. I never thought to use it previously.

 

[dcgriffin]

I have 2 down comforters and I usually do the normal wash cycle and throw tennis balls in the dryer to distribute the down. I have 5 year old Martha Stewart down pillows and they say "Dry Clean only" and being a cheapskate I got a box of those bojack dry cleaning dryer sheets and tried them just to freshen them up and to kill dust mites and other microscopic cooties, did no such thing. I just do what Court does, throw them in the dryer on high heat.

 

[vintagesearch]

washing pillows.....

i have a pair of standard size set pillows and i have pillow covers on them for allergies as well as regular pillow cases. When i change the sheets i wash all the sheets and pillow cases and slips together and use hot water. i always do my comforter too in a toploader by the way with no problems and no out of balance issues i usually wash the pillows about every 2 months with a hot wash and soak extra rinse and no fabric softener and air dry. Now i purchased a body pillow thats very light weight and looks like two standard pillows put together and now i use that it says "dry clean only" but i will run the damn thing on a handwash setting with warm water and respin it all in our kenmore toploader its very capable.

R

 

[oldhouseman]

Lots of

good pillow washing but pray tell, what are these various and sundry pillows made of that are being washed? Foam, cotton, feather-down, etc?? The materials a pillow is made of determines how it gets washed here.