A Step

Apr 28, 2023

The idea of rotating your winter bedding may seem like an intimidating task—especially depending on how much you bulked up for the cold—but it pays off when you’re not tossing and turning in a hot stuffy bed on a stifling summer night.

Over time, sweat and oils from your skin seep through your sheets and blankets into your mattress and your pillows, meaning everything will need a bit of freshening up. Depending on how much bedding you have to get through, the entire cleaning process can take hours, not including drying time. We’ll walk you through the step-by-step checklist of everything you need to do to clean your mattress and bedding ahead of spring—you can either break it up as you have time or finish the job in one fell swoop.

If this seems like a lot, getting bedding that won't require much turnover as the seasons change can cut the chore in half. The L.L.Bean 280-Thread-Count Pima Cotton Percale Sheet Set and the Brooklinen All-Season Down Comforter is a great baseline to build a comfortable year-round bed.

Let's start from the bottom up. Is your mattress already fitted with a mattress encasement? If so, after completely stripping the linens off your bed, cleaning your mattress is only a matter of unzipping your mattress encasement and throwing it in the wash. (We like the Protect-A-Bed AllerZip Smooth Mattress Encasement). Fortunately, you can get away with washing your encasement once or twice a year—washing it too much can loosen the fibers and make it less effective.

If you don't have an encasement, you should clean and vacuum your mattress at least once a month. Make sure to use an angled, hose-like attachment to really get in all the nooks and crannies.

Whether you have an encasement or not, remember to rotate your mattress (or flip it, if applicable), to make sure it's wearing evenly.

If you need step-by-step instructions, check out our guide on how to clean your mattress.

Next you’ll want to turn your attention to your sheets. You should really be changing them every week given the amount of dead skin cells and moisture they soak up every night, but we understand if you’ve fallen a bit behind. For this spring cleaning, we recommend swapping your warmer set (like sheets made from cotton flannel or synthetics like microfiber) for a lighter, more breathable set for the summer. We like the L.L.Bean 280-Thread-Count Pima Cotton Percale Sheet Set for its breathability and affordable price tag.

Read more in our detailed guide on how often you should wash your sheets.

According to senior staff writer Jackie Reeve, comforters should only be deep-cleaned every three to five years. So, luckily, you won't have to do this every time the weather turns. We strongly recommend a duvet cover to prevent having to wash the comforter any more than that. If you’re washing your comforter because of a spill or stains, spot-clean first with a stain remover from Shout or Zout. Old or tough stains, such as blood, might need an overnight soaking in OxiClean.

If this is your year to deep-clean your comforter (sorry), let us walk you through it here.

Though you may think that pillowcases pull their weight in protecting our pillows from the sweat and dust buildup that happens over time, Jackie explains that good pillow hygiene includes washing them once or twice a year. Pillow protectors also can't hurt—we like the Protect-A-Bed AllerZip Smooth Pillow Protectors in our pillow protector guide.

If you have a stain or spill on your pillow, simply spray your favorite spot cleaner on the area and let it soak for several minutes (or overnight if the stain is stubborn), then use a wet rag to blot and rinse the area.

For more-thorough washes, the method you should use depends on what kind of pillow you have. For single-piece foam pillows, you’ll have to remove the foam and throw just the cover into the wash. If the pillow is made from shredded foam, you usually have to dump the contents in a big container to store them until the cover is washed and dried (the shredded foam in our Nest Easy Breather Pillow pick comes encased in a fully-washable inner pouch that you can toss in the washer). For down and down-alternative pillows, you should wash them once in cold or warm water on a gentle cycle with a small amount of detergent, then again with no detergent on a quick cycle to make sure you’ve gotten all of the soap residue out.

Just as with comforters, you don't want to bake down or down alternative in the dryer with high heat, so take them out every 20 minutes or so to give them a good shake to ensure all of the filling is drying evenly.

Looking for more guidance? Check out our article on how to clean your bed pillows.

Though some may not mind the pressure of a weighted blanket in the summer (or simply put away their comforter to solely use the weighted blanket), many find it too hot to use all year-round. Even though all of our favorite weighted blankets are machine washable, you may be nervous to put a 15- to 20-pound blanket in your washing machine and risk breaking it. In this case, spot-cleaning can be your best friend—simply spraying the area with Shout, letting it soak for a few minutes, then running the soiled area under cold or warm water to rinse it out can do the trick.

If you really feel like your entire blanket needs a wash, consider taking it to a local laundromat for its commercial machines. Either way, wash in cold water and either air-dry it flat or dry it on low heat (be warned—weighted blankets feel like they weigh 1,000 pounds when wet). You might have to dry it a few times to get it back to its original, fluffy shape. You can fold and store it through the sweltering nights, and it’ll be ready and waiting for you in the fall.

Read more in the care and maintenance section of our guide to weighted blankets.

Although the laundry list looks long (pun fully intended), the payoff is worth your time. Nothing beats climbing into bed on a hot summer night, burrowing your face in the cool side of the pillow, and drifting off to sleep breathing in that fresh, linen-scented air.

This article was edited by Brittney Ho, Sofia Sokolove, Daniela Gorny, and Jackie Reeve.

Caira Blackwell

Caira Blackwell is a staff writer at Wirecutter covering sleep and mattresses. Her work has previously been published in Okayplayer, The Knockturnal, and Nylon magazine, and her book A Lullaby for the End of the World is available on Amazon.

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