How often do you wash your sheets? Do you wait until you can’t remember the last time you changed your bedding before you change them? Do you change your sheets on a specific schedule? Do you wait until someone else in the home takes on the daunting task?
Washing your sheets isn’t just a task your mom nags you about. If you don’t wash your sheets (and clean the rest of your bedding) often enough, you are lying in some pretty gross stuff.
So how often should you wash your sheets? The answer probably won’t surprise you.
As a general rule, you should wash your sheets at least once a week. At a push, you can change them every two weeks.
While you won’t die from sleeping in dirty sheets, rolling around in dirty sheets will impact the health of your skin. And if you have allergies, you could be making them worse by waiting too long to wash your bedding.
Tip: the rule changes if you have recently been sick. If you get a cold or the flu, you should change your sheets as soon as your symptoms disappear. Washing them on a warm wash will kill the germs to prevent you from reinfecting yourself. See our last blog post on what else you should immediately disinfect if you or anyone in your household has been sick recently.
The Gross Things that Happen When You Don’t Wash Your Sheets:
Every night, you crawl into bed and await the sweet release of sleep. But while you’re sleeping, you’re sweating, drooling, and shaking off dead skin cells. While you might not notice for a while, someone will. That someone is a tiny critter called a dust mite. Dust mites love skin cells, and only 1.5 grams of skin feed 1 million of these little buggers. Yes, you have dust mites as bedmates. And while you won’t see to feel them, allergy and asthma sufferers will feel them.
Washing your sheets gets rid of all the junk on your linens and kicks dust mites to the curb. Plus, if you have acne or another skin condition, your skin will thank you.
Keep in mind that when you share a bed with someone or your pet sleeps in your bed, then the number of skin cells shed doubles or triples. That makes it an even better idea to wash your sheets once a week. Don’t forget your mattress, pillows, and blankets.
Changing your sheets is only the start of bed hygiene. You also need to clean everything else, including your:
- Mattress
- Pillows
- Blankets
- Duvet
These need cleaning less often because your sheet set covers them. However, you should give them your attention once or twice a year (or more often if you have allergies).
Even though washing your bedding is a chore, clean sheets are part of good hygiene. And if you still hate the idea, just remind yourself of how good it feels to climb into a freshly washed and made bed. You will sleep better and thank us for the reminder.