Can you wash a pillow?

tibberous

My pillow stinks - can I wash it, or do I just buy a new one?

It's not made of feathers or anything weird, just a regular, cheap, pillow.

joecaption

Sure can, just put the washer on the gental cycle if you have one.
Use a dryer sheet in the gry to make it smell better.

Polmki

Yeah,Some pillows will never come back to their unique situation after clean / dry. If it is really unclean, you might try getting a new one?

creeper

google dust mites and we will see how fast you replace that pillow. That thing was humming with activity long before it started to smell, so for the price of a new cheap one...

notmrjohn

Two choices, toss it and buy new one, wash it. If you wash it and it wrecks it, you're back to choice one. Whadda ya cot to lose, except pillow falls apart and stuffing clogs washer drain. So make sure pillow is in good shape.

Aw, creeper, dust mites don't creep me out, sure they look creepy but ya gotta have a micro scope to see um. Unless your especially sensitive due to asthma or allergies they do no harm, and ya can't get away from them, they're every where. They feed on partially deomposed dead human skin cells. Which does sound creepy but they been doin it for a long time.

If ya really wanta creep out look up eyelash mites. If you got eyelashes you got eyelash mites. And you can't toss your eyelashes in trash or washer. They too eat dead skin, as well as skin oils, they just don't wait for it to fall off you.

If it wasn't for dust mites and eyelash mites we'd be up to our eyelashes in oily dead skin cells. Now that's creepy.

__________________

sdsester

All things said, you can get a decent sythetic pillow for $5 at Target.

If you have an expensive goose down pillow, you should have it cleaned by someone who cleans down.

__________________

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

notmrjohn

You can clean down pillows in washer. I've washed my down mummy bag a few times. Really make sure no holes in ticking. Gentle cycle, cool water at highest level, two pillows at a time to balance load 'cause they get real heavy, (this good idea with any pillow). Rinse at least twice. At least two slow spin cycles, then a couple of fast ones.

Tumble dry on low, medium low, Toss in a pair of tennis shoes to fluff and distribute down, take pillow out and fluuf aby hand a few time, takes a while ( hour for smallish pillow) to dry. Don't get anxious and turn up heat, in fact stay around and check for scorch feather smell. Turn off heat immediatly. Scorch smell will never go away. If there is musty smell set out in sun.

Its a hassle, best to take feather pillows to sd's pro who knows how to clean down up.
If you do try it at home and there is small hole in pillow you will have to clean up down.

__________________

JenTough

Certain materials inside the pillow absorb water differently as well as the lining holding the water in. I washed two 'non' feather' pillows recently. One of them got so heavy the washing machine drum got off balance. I was able to remove the 30 lb soaking pillow and heave it to the tub... Be careful.

Jess_718

I wash my pillows but I put it on the gentle cycle on the wash machine. I agree with others posts. If you put it in the wash machine and it gets wrecked buy a new one. It would not hurt to try washing it.

Jim F

I have to wash pillows frequently due to a kid with a bedwetting problem. Out of the washer the filling tends to get turned sidways. I turn it back, which takes a little manipulating until it is reorented right. I've learned not to put them in the dryer. The poly fill material dries pretty fast on its own and drying just gets the filling turned around and if it's too hot, the filling could melt. Hanging them on the line or flat drying them work pretty well.