How to Wash Your Pillows

After you finished Cleaning and Freshening Your Matress, you maybe wished your pillows could also be made fresher without buying new ones.  Many of you may not even know you can wash your pillows without taking them to the dry cleaner.  Well instead of buying new ones every year or so, try washing them to get that fresh feeling back.  Keep reading to find out How to Wash Your Pillows at home.

Pillows should be washed at least twice a year, but depending on how well your pillows hold up to a washing, I would do them more often.  If your pillows don’t necessarily need a wash, but just a refresh, you can always hang them outside in the sun and let them air out.

Before you put your pillows in the washing machine, check your pillow’s care label to make sure your pillows can be machine washed.  Most pillows are able to be stuck in the washing machine.  When putting pillows in the machine, it works better when you use two to keep the machine balanced.  You also will want to use a liquid detergent as powder can sometimes leave residue.

After the washing machine cycle ends, make sure they are fully rinsed.  You can always run them through another rinse cycle to be sure.  And water should not come out if you ring out the pillow.  If this happens, put them through another spin cycle to get rid of some of the excess water.  Then they are ready for the dryer.

You want to make sure the pillows are completely dry before taking them out.  Mold can grow in damp pillows.  For synthetic pillows use the lowest heat setting possible.  Higher temperatures can sometime cause more clumping than a lower setting.  If you have down or feather pillows, use an air dry cycle if available.

A pillow drying tip is to throw in some tennis balls wrapped in a sock in with the pillows.  This can give them an extra fluffing.

If you feel like your feather pillows just aren’t as fluffy anymore, lessen the times you wash.  The feathers have oils that can be reduced with too many washes making them less fluffy.  And similarly with synthetic pillows start to get lumpy I would scale back as well.