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How to Properly Care for Your Fine Bed Linens

Follow these tips for the best care of your sheets and duvet covers.

Congratulations, you’ve made the investment in some quality bed linens (like ones from Peacock Alley, DEA, Boll & Branch, Hotel Collection, Matouk, etc.). I don’t know about you, but one of my favorite things to do is crawl into a freshly made bed after a long day. Good sheets and duvet covers are expensive, but you already know that. You spend as much as 1/3 of your life in bed, so why not do everything you can to maximize the quality of your time there? You want your investment to last, here’s how to care for them (see this post for a complete guide to washing).

Wash your sheets, pillow cases, and duvets in loads by themselves, not with other items, particularly not with towels. Towels, especially new ones, will produce all kinds of lint; this will stick to your sheets and make them look like they are pilling and wearing faster. Also, avoid over-filling the machine. When fully loaded, you should be able to reach in and touch the back of the drum.

Separate the individual pieces when placing into the washing machine. Rolling everything into a ball when removing the sheets makes transport easier but doesn’t allow them to clean properly. Also, separate the pieces again when switching to the dryer.

Skip the bleach. Traditional bleach you might pickup at the supermarket or hardware store is made from chlorine. This will cause your items to grey, and/or yellow over time. It will also more quickly degrade the integrity of the fabric itself. You can use oxyclean if necessary, or just work some soap directly into any stains (like blood) before washing.

No Fabric Softener or Dryer Sheets. Quality bed linens are going to wrinkle in the wash, but there are other ways to minimize this. Fabric softeners and dryer sheets can coat the sheets to make them less absorbent, not breath as well, and can even cause them to smell bad over time. If you’re not going to iron them after washing, dry with wool dryer balls instead. Also, once dry do not crush them into a laundry basket (use the basket, but just like the washing machine, don’t overfill it). Either fold or place back on the bed right away while they are still warm.

Of course, you can skip all of these steps and send them to a dry cleaners who knows how to properly care for your fine bed linens. A quality place will gently wash, extract, then press them on a flatwork ironer that automatically feeds your items across the pressing surface to minimize wear and time against the heat. The result takes that freshly made bed feeling to the next level (possibly multiple levels higher). If you haven’t at least tried it, you don’t know what you are missing.

I hope these tips will help your bedding stay beautiful and comfortable for years to come. What other tips have you learned along the way? Share in the comments section below!

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