How Often Should You Wash Your Sheets? (And Your Pillowcase, and Your Pillow)

Hotels wash the sheets after every guest. The nice ones, and I'm thinking of one in Biarritz, change the flat sheet every day whether you ask or not. For five years that was my normal, and when I finally had my own bed again the question of how often to wash it stopped being theoretical. Once a week? Every two? What about the pillow, which I'd never washed in my life and had strong feelings about?

Here's the schedule I landed on. It's not the strictest one you'll find, and it's not the laziest. It's the one I actually keep.

Sheets: once a week

You lose sweat, skin cells and oils into your sheets every night, whether you notice it or not, and dust mites feed on the skin cells. The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America recommends weekly washing for the same reason. A week is about how long it takes for a sheet to go from clean to noticeably not, at least to my nose. If you sleep hot, work out in the evening, sleep with a dog, or it's summer with the windows open, cut that to every four or five days. If you shower before bed every night and sleep alone in a cool room, you can stretch it to two weeks, but I wouldn't go further, and I'd notice.

Having two sets is what makes weekly easy. One on, one drying, and the bed never has to wait for the laundry.

Pillowcases: twice a week if you can

The pillowcase gets the worst of it. Your face, your hair, whatever's in your hair, the drool you'll deny. It's the smallest thing on the bed and the dirtiest, and it's also the easiest to throw in with any other load. Two pillowcases a week per pillow is my rule, and I'd rather wash the case more often than anything else in the room. Our pillowcases slip on with no zipper, so it's a ten second swap. If you're a hot sleeper this matters even more, because a case full of a week of sweat feels warm regardless of what the pillow is made of, and I said as much in do kapok pillows sleep hot.

The zip on pillow cover: about once a month

If you use a zippered cover under the pillowcase, the way we do, the case takes the daily wear and the cover is just there to protect the pillow. Once a month is fine. Cold, gentle, low heat. I laid out how the layers stack in pillow cover vs pillowcase vs protector.

The pillow itself: don't

This is where I'll surprise some people. A kapok pillow does not go in a washing machine, ever. The fill will clump and never recover. What it needs instead is air. Take it outside on a dry, sunny afternoon every couple of months and leave it. Sun and moving air freshen the fiber and bring the loft back up. If something gets through the cover, spot clean the shell. The whole routine is in how to clean a kapok pillow. Down and foam pillows have their own rules, and most of those don't love the machine either.

Duvet cover: every two to four weeks

If you use a flat sheet, the duvet cover is one layer removed from you and can go a few weeks. If you sleep with the duvet directly against you, treat the cover like a sheet and wash it weekly. Either way, the flat sheet is the cheapest way to make the duvet cover last, which is exactly why hotels use one.

Duvet insert: air it, don't wash it

Our organic cotton duvet insert is spot clean only. Layered cotton batting doesn't survive a wash, and a lot of down inserts don't do well in a home machine either. The cover is the washable part. Give the insert an afternoon in the sun every few months, the same as the pillow, and store it loose and breathable if it goes away for the summer.

Mattress protector: monthly

Whatever sits between your fitted sheet and the mattress, once a month is plenty, and more often if anything's spilled. It's doing the job of keeping the mattress clean so the mattress itself never has to be.

If you only do two things

You will miss weeks. Everyone does. The two things that matter most are the pillowcase and the sheets, in that order, and if you only ever manage those two, you're ahead of most people. For how to actually wash cotton sateen without wrecking it, including the trick that means never ironing, read how to wash organic cotton sateen sheets.

And if you notice you're washing your sheets more often because you like getting into them clean, that's not a chore anymore. That's the bed working.

Anthony
Founder, MAREA Sleep

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