Cleaning Your Bed Linens
By LRP from LOWELL, MASS
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RE: Cleaning Your Bed Linens
I'm with you Robin! I can't even imagine going a month without washing my sheets! Yuck! Like Maria, I wash my sheets weekly and my blankets monthly. When we are sick, I wash the pillow cases daily and air the pillows out. I have 2 sets of pillows for each bed. While one set is being used, I air the other out. I also like Lynda's idea of using alcohol to clean with! Never would have thought of that in the bedroom!
Post by Cricketnc
RE: Cleaning Your Bed Linens
When I had my own washer and dryer I did my bedding on a weekly basis. Now I live in an apartment and it costs $4.00 a load to do a load and the washer and dryer isn't large enough to do more than my queen size bedding and maybe a towel or two, it isn't near as easy to do the bedding that often.
Post by redhatterb
RE: Cleaning Your Bed Linens
Lynda,
I saw your post and was very interested. Do you mean you spray your carpets and baseboards with full strength alcohol? I know I use it to clean in my bathroom fairly often but never knew I could spray it on other things that were fabric or on carpets. Thanks ahead of time!
Post by bachish
RE: Cleaning Your Bed Linens
Honestly, being 19, going to school and having a job I will be lucky if I change them once every two weeks! I need to do it more often because I think that's whats causing me to wake up sneezing with a runny nose every morning. Should I vacuum the mattress too? I've been looking into it and I think dust mites get in there and stuff.
Post By Michael (Guest Post)
RE: Cleaning Your Bed Linens
Washing bedlinens once a week is a good practice. Use warm water and a little bleach, and dry thoroughly on medium-high heat. This will kill some of the dust mites and bacteria. For extra dust mite protection I recommend you purchase zippered allergen-barrier covers for your box springs, mattress and pillows. These covers are available in vinyl but I prefer the newer and slightly more expensive fabric variety which "breathes" and doesn't make that crinkly plastic sound! You should also vacuum under and around your bed regularly.
Post by ShellR
RE: Cleaning Your Bed Linens
I feel guilty if I don't change the bed linens once a week...and I never even think about the "mites"!!
Post By Enter your name. (Guest Post)
RE: Cleaning Your Bed Linens
Yes, I change all my bedding weekly, including the mattress protector that is over the top of the mattress, but under the bottom sheet. If the temps are above 30C or particularly humid, then it's more regular. Showering before getting into bed will also reduce the amount of skin cells flaking off during the night onto the bedding & floors.
I also agree about dust mites. I used to work in Asthma & Allergy research ... & dust mites can & do often cause both asthma & allergies, especially in bedding, then they drop onto carpets as well as on wooden/tiled floors, which is why all need to be vaccumed (while also making sure that the fliter is clean) then hard floors should also be washed.
I always vaccumn after the bed linen has been removed from the beds .... to ensure that the skin particles are vaccumed up, that have been scattered over the floor when the bedding is removed.
The alcohol is also the reason that dust mites aren't found in hospitals. All hospital beds are wiped over with an alcohol. Beds used to be 'carbolised', which was the old term used for when carbolic acid was used to wipe over every part of a hospital bed, including the mattress & all other surfaces, as even many years ago, it was understood that dust mites were a danger due to the much higher number of skin cells from patients in beds.
There was also a good health reason that Granny used to hang blankets & doonas on the clothes line for the sun to shine on them, as well as for them to be 'beaten' regularly, just the same as floor rugs.
It's important to care for the living enviornment of our families, just as much as it is to provide good, healthy food & clothes for their bodies.
It's even more important to change bedding more often when we have a family member sick in their bed.
Good hygene in the home is not just 'being fussy', it actually has a very important role to play in keeping our family healthy.
Post By Wendy Hervey Bay, Australia (Guest Post)
RE: Cleaning Your Bed Linens
I wash the bottom sheet once a week, use the top sheet as a bottom sheet and put a clean sheet on top. Pillowcases are washed weekly; towels as well.
Post By Willem (Guest Post)
RE: Cleaning Your Bed Linens
I wash my bed linens [sheets & pillow cases] every week, Blankets once a month, I air them and fluff them outside too, OH! and when we are sick with colds, I wash the bed linens in hot water, and spray lysol, I love a clean bed and clean bed rm.
Post By Maria 214 (Guest Post)
RE: Cleaning Your Bed Linens
Thank you so much for this reminder. Having sold vacuum cleaners one year when desparate, learning about how to demonstrate just how many dust mites in an avg. sq. inch are
in a person's home, I also learned that
COMMON RUBBING ALCOHOL KILLS DUST MITES which SURVIVE/FEAST ON HUMAN FLESH WHICH FLAKES OFF ALL THE TIME, MICROSCOPICALLY, (THE BODY SHEDDING COMPLETELY ABOUT EVERY SEVEN DAYS)ONTO FABRICS LIKE UPHOLSTERY/PILLOWS, BEDDING (THE DUST MITES WHICH TRAVEL IN COLONIES ON DUST PARTICLES IN THE AIR) AND MATTRESS/BED PILLOWS, BLANKETS/ throws, coats/winter hats AND RUGS! Alcohol is fairly cheap to spray on colorfast fabrics, dries quickly, and does a great job,( I feel it does even better than steam cleaning) since it can get into the
corners/cracks better if sprayed until covered well.
Even if it takes 10 bottles of alcohol to kill large colonies in the home, it prevents most of them from causing/spreading infection.
Although few of us have the time to dust often and very thoroughly, it is much more important than we realize IF we can use alcohol rather than something that only gives the dust mites a new zip code.
The battle with them can only be reduced, NEVER WON, but don't let that prevent you from being aware and tackling the places where the mites can get to your bare body parts where they "dig in" and
make tiny sores that can lead to larger ones.
Pets who are not frequently bathed can carry lots of them off the floor/ground onto areas you might not want them to be.
Everyone LOVES clean linens and home, so now that I'm more confined inside due to the weather and my
car in the shop, I plan on prevention. Body oils mixed with flesh flakes make for an oily dust mite
colony (which is most often the case), and this is
another reason plain alcohol works so well to both break the oil barrier and to kill the pests on fabrics.
I spray my home about once every two months, although I'd like to do it more often. It takes a little while but can accompany your cleaning routine, once you know about these microscopic critters.
Good luck, and God bless you in your cleaning. : )
Post By Lynda (Guest Post)
RE: Cleaning Your Bed Linens
Don't know about everybody else, but I feel like I'm not being clean if I don't change my bedding weekly. I wash our bedding every Monday.
Post By Robin (Guest Post)
RE: Cleaning Your Bed Linens
It depends on the season too. In the summer months I wash the sheets and pillowcases once per week but in the winter I wash them once per fortnight except for Dad's - he works outside a lot so his gets wash every week. Towels are changed one or twice per week. Blankets usually only get washed once a year but they aired frequently.
Post by Sharylesley
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