I heard this thing recently where this lady said that you should get new pillows every couple of years. Maybe she is a servant of the pillow council or something, but it got me to thinking about my down pillow, and how its been feeling a little flat lately. So when I was with my friend last week, I asked her about her down pillows, and she automatically said, "I know, they're flat, I need new ones." But what I wanted to know is how often she buys new pillows, and she said that hers were a few years old.
I did the math, and here's the thing: The pillow I sleep on now was $80 at Macys when my mom bought it for me before I went away to college. I have been laying my pretty little head on the same, probably dustmite* infested, bag of feathers and dead skin and oil for 23 YEARS!!! I've never washed it. Didn't know you could wash a down pillow, until the internet told me I could.
23 years. I told my mom this, and she gave me permission to buy a new pillow. My husband said, Good God, woman, buy a new pillow. But its my pillow! I love my pillow! I get nervous about hotel pillows when I travel because they might be too hard or soft and they're not the same as my pillow. Of course, I don't worry about the hotel pillow being nasty since I haven't washed my pillow in 23 years so mine is probably nastier than anything Marriott can come up with. Although, now that I'm thinking about it, I don't really want to think about how gross hotel pillows can be...
So, rather than spend money on a new pillow, I washed mine today. It is currently in the dryer on the delicate setting bouncing around with a tennis ball, just like the good housekeeping website told me to do. If it falls apart or doesn't come out good, or the dust mites get angry and carry it away, I will buy a new pillow, but for now, its my beloved pillow and I'm keeping it.
So there.
* Dustmites are a microscopic bug that love California. Everyone here has them, even if they are super clean freaks. They cause lots of allergy problems for me, my husband, my dog, etc. The idea of them is gross, but not as gross as, say, bedbugs.
3 comments:
John just retired the pillow he has had since God knows when. It smelled. I tried to wash it and it was not the same. We did find a replacement that he is surviving with.
BTW, if you wash your bedding in hot water over 140 degrees you will kill them. My washer heats to 170, so that is how I wash all our sheets and towels. This also gets rid of the nasty towel smell.
love the pierced ears too!
Will try the hot water. I'm out of De-Mite juice...
Ha! Ew.
I am IMMEDIATELY washing my husband's yellowed greasy down pillow, never thought to do that!
Your next post should challenge people to honestly admit how many times we change our bed sheets in a month. There's the number that we hold in our imagination and then there is the actual number....
~K from Ed.
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