‘Like sleeping in dirty clothes’: how often should you wash your linens?

Is there any domestic task more sisyphean than laundry? No sooner have you pulled a crisp, clean sheet on to your bed than it is time to strip it off and start over. Blink and a clean towel becomes dirty. Somehow, lives, careers and relationships must fit into the tiny slivers of time between loads.

I don’t enjoy laundry; give me dish duty any day. I do, however, enjoy living in a clean space that doesn’t smell like a locker room. Textiles can really trap scent – and bacteria.

“Just because you can’t see dirt doesn’t mean it’s clean,” says Melissa Pateras, laundry expert and content creator. “Dirt, skin, sweat and sebum are all invisible. Same with dust mites.”

We asked experts how often one should wash the various linens around the house.

In the bedroom

There are broad guidelines for washing frequency, but each individual’s needs may vary based on their habits, health and lifestyles, says Lori Williamson, a lifestyle and cleaning expert.

“What I do and what other people do might be two different things,” Williamson says. If you sweat a lot when you sleep or have aggressive allergies, you may need to wash bed linens more frequently.

How often you wash each type of item depends on how much contact it has with your skin.

Flat sheets, fitted sheets and pillow cases should be washed once a week because “they’re touching your body every single night for eight hours”, says Melissa Maker, a cleaning expert and founder of Clean My Space in Toronto.

When you sleep, Maker explains, you produce sweat, body oil and dead skin cells. And if you use products on your hair and skin, “all of that is transferring onto your sheets and they get dirty quick”, she says. “It’s effectively like sleeping in dirty clothes.”

How often you wash each type of item depends on how much contact it has with your skin. Photograph: omersukrugoksu/Getty Images

If you use a flat sheet, duvet covers can be washed less frequently because they make less direct contact with your skin. Pateras recommends washing duvet covers every two to four washes of the sheets – so once or twice a month. This can be stretched. Maker says that getting her duvet cover on and off is a complicated endeavor, so she only washes it on an “as-needed basis”, like when her daughter was playing with makeup and smeared some lipstick on the bed.

Pillows don’t make direct contact with the skin, but still need cleaning. Pateras recommends washing cotton, feather and down pillows every 3 to 6 months by washing them in the washing machine on a gentle cycle, then air drying them or drying them on low. “Foam memory pillows cannot be washed in the machine – they can only be spot cleaned,” Pateras says, adding that pillows should be replaced every two-ish years.

Washing pillows can be tricky, Williamson says, because it can be difficult to get them completely dry. If this is a concern, she recommends putting them through either a refresh cycle on your washing machine, which steam cleans fabrics and eliminates bacteria, or running them through the dryer a couple of times. “Just getting air and heat to it can also help,” she says.

In the bathroom

Fabrics in the bathroom face two major problems, Maker says. The first: “This is gross, but the plume from the toilet can land on soft surfaces in the bathroom,” she says.

So close the toilet lid when you flush, she says.

The second issue is mustiness. “That comes from damp fabric sitting for long stretches of time,” she says.

Bath and hand towels should be washed at least once a week – Pateras suggests hand towels be washed every two to three days.

“A towel can only sit wet so many times before it starts to smell,” says Maker.

Williamson says she uses bath towels three to five times before washing. Between washes, make sure to air your towels out, she says – hang them out to dry rather than crumpling them in a corner where the wet fabric might collect foam and mildew.

Bath mats are often “a forgotten part of the bathroom”, Maker says. But they can quickly collect moisture, toothpaste and splashes from the toilet, as well as develop mold, mildew and bacteria. Experts recommend they be washed at least once a week. “Just bunch it up and throw it in with the towels,” Maker says.

If that’s too hard to remember, you could always do away with fabric bath mats entirely. Williamson says she uses a stone bath mat that dries quickly. “You’re not dealing with any kind of smell,” she says.

Bathrobes live in a damp environment and spend a lot of time in direct contact with our skin, so Pateras suggests cleaning them once a month.

In the rest of the house

“The kitchen is where you’re going to see the highest spread of bacteria and the sink is generally the dirtiest place in the kitchen,” says Maker.

As a result, dish cloths should be washed daily, says Pateras. No need to run a full load for a single dish cloth – stock up on multiple, and when you are done with one, swap it out for another. Just make sure to rinse the old one and let it dry completely before you throw it into the laundry basket with other fabrics, Maker says; if it stays damp, it could make the rest of the laundry moldy and smelly.

Williamson suggests paying attention to the state of your tote bags. “People are using them frequently, they’re being put into grocery baskets and food is being dropped into them,” she says. Throw them in the laundry as needed.

Throw blankets are often overlooked, but should be washed about once a month, Williamson says. “They collect dust, different people around the house are using them, and pets snuggle up in them,” she says.

In the washer

When you wash your linens, make sure to do so in a way that will actually get them clean.

“People are overloading their machines,” says Williamson. If you put in too many items, each one won’t be able to get clean and rinsed during the cycle.

And don’t overdo it with detergent, says Maker. If there’s too much, fabrics – especially absorbent ones like towels – will absorb it, and the retained detergent can then trap odors.

When in doubt, just follow the instructions on the label, says Pateras.