Just a Gen X girl in the world
Thursday February 9th 2012

How often do you wash your bedsheets?

OK, I’m officially grossed out. Apparently the reputation the poms have for being the great unwashed extends to their bedlinen. A recent poll conducted by the Daily Mail suggests that half a million Brits wash their bedsheets just three times a year.
 

 Read it again, three times A YEAR. Can you imagine the smell let alone the unique cardboard stiffness that four month old sheets would have? And some of the comments attached to the article weren’t much better. I especially liked the one that said in the olden days you rotated the top sheet with the bottom sheet and just washed it. All that effort and your sheets are still half dirty. Anyway, I’m appalled.

But it got me thinking about different people’s attitudes to what is OK in the way of bedroom hygiene. What do you do when you have expected guests to stay-and I’m not talking about that one night sleepover that you drunkenly brought home from the nightclub? Do you make sure that their bed is made with fresh linen, or do you let them sleep in pre-used sheets? Now me, I’m all clean linen that is changed when they leave. However a friend of mine has no problem in letting a succession of guests share the same linen. I’ve made a note to never, ever attend a slumber party at her house.
 
Apparently we Aussies aren’t all that squeaky clean either. An online forum reveals that while most of us wash our sheets weekly, one poster revealed that she washed hers every six months because she wasn’t that dirty. OKaaay!

So how often should you do it? According to various web authorities and my own personal code of hygiene, you should be washing those sheets every week. I reckon more than that if you allow random strangers into your bed. Heaven knows what they’ve got.

So here’s some gross facts about sleeping, hygiene and why you should wash you sheets. Y’all hear!

  • A two year old pillow’s weight is 10% dead skin cells and dust mites
  • 16 species of dust mites can be found in the average pillow
  • A typical used mattress can have anywhere between 100 000 and 10 million dust mites living in it
  • Human shed 1.5g of skin every day of which 1/3 goes into your bedding

Makes you want to rush into the bedroom and change your sheets right now, doesn’t it?

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2 Responses to “How often do you wash your bedsheets?”

  1. ick … I so believe that of the poms … I must admit I am a fortnight girl … and when i was a kid mum did the top to the bottom thing … but if you are in our spare bed the sheets and pillow cases will all be clean – just for you – then stripped and remade for the next person … ick ick ick le

  2. BEDROOM HTGIENE and HEALTH is getting more international attention. Without fail we end the day in our bedrooms for a good rest, sleep and to recuperate from the day’s toll on mind and body. However bedrooms have become the dirtiest place in the house. Bedrooms have earned a label, “BAD ROOM”
    The amount of linen in the bedroom includes the bed sheet, comforter, curtain, our clothes hanging behind doors and thrown over chairs and clothes stand are all home to dust, dust mites, bacteria and a host of pollutes very detrimental over time to our health. Bedsheets and mattresses must be cleaned 3 times a week at least. The accumulation of dead skin cells, dust mites droppings ( and that is a lot given the fact that a mattress is home to 2-3 million dust mites and all of our dead skin cells are their food). There are more people with sinus and respiratory related illnesses and increase in asthmatics are evident proofs for the need to change and wash bedsheets, and to keep the bed room with least furniture and clutter and to have the air “washed” daily before sleep. http://bedroomupkeep.blogspot.com discusses in greater detail.

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