Cleaning cotton sheets once a week is usually often enough to ensure a healthy sleeping environment but not so much that you'll break down the fabric prematurely. Weekly washes should include your pillowcases, fitted sheet and top sheet if you use one, as these pieces are in direct contact with your skin.
The general recommendation for everyone is once a week. And even if you bathe before hopping under the covers, the short answer is still once a week. Just because you clean your skin and hair before bed doesn't prevent sweat, body oils, and dead skin from rubbing off onto the fabric.
Joining you in bed are countless dust mites and bacteria, not to mention lots and lots of your own dead skin. Dermatologist Alok Vij, MD, says you should wash your sheets at least every two weeks — maybe more, depending on factors like whether you live in a warm climate and whether your pet sleeps in your bed.
Bacteria on your linen can cause breakouts, whiteheads, skin inflammation, and intense itching. They can also cause skin problems like acne or eczema or worsen existing conditions. Bacteria, dust mites, bed bugs are all responsible for affecting the health of your family's skin.
We'll cut straight to the chase: You should be changing your bed sheets once a week. "The longest you should wait before changing out your sheets is two weeks," says Carolyn Forté, executive director of the Good Housekeeping Institute Home Care & Cleaning Lab "Weekly is even better."
Without regular cleaning, dirty sheets can contribute to allergies, skin breakouts, asthma, and more. For your health and sleep quality, it's important to keep things clean – but how often should you wash your sheets?
Bedding may turn yellow for a variety of reasons, such as body fluids, sweat, even the body lotion we use! In the article below, we will look deeper into those reasons and will explore some of the most effective methods to prevent your sheets from yellowing.
It may surprise you to learn that bath towels should be washed after every 3-4 uses to keep them hygienic, according to our experts at the GHI. And for towels used at the gym, we recommend washing after every use; not only are your gym towels covered in sweat, but they can also come into contact with airborne bacteria.
You may be thinking, can you get bed bugs from not washing your sheets? No—bed bugs have absolutely nothing to do with cleanliness levels. However, washing your sheets regularly gives you the opportunity to look for and remove any possible bed bug infestations.
Bottom Line: How Often Should You Wash Your Sheets? You should try to wash your sheets every one to two weeks. Changing your sheets weekly is ideal and can help prevent illness and skin issues related to dust mites, bacteria, and fungus.
Men are more likely to wait longer between sheet changes than women (29.6 days vs. 19.4 days). On average, single people go 37 days before changing their sheets, while those in relationships go 21.8 days, and married couples go 19.9 days.
“If you're taking care of someone who's ill or you're sick yourself, steam from a steamer or an iron is enough to sanitize sheets,” Richardson says.
Sanitizing towels and bed sheets
To wash bleach-safe bed sheets and towels, machine wash in the hottest water recommended using a good detergent and ⅔ cup Clorox® Disinfecting Bleach in a traditional deep-fill washer, or ⅓ cup Clorox® Disinfecting Bleach in a high efficiency clothes washer.
Use a few simple household items before, during, or after washing with your regular laundry detergent to turn your sheets white. It's best to wash sheets in hot water because the high temperature kills allergens.
A. Generally, it is best not to mix the bathroom cleaning cloths with those used to clean food preparation surfaces or dishes. Bathroom cleaning cloths could carry a risk of contamination with fecal, skin-borne or other pathogens.
Here's what should happen: The standard operating procedure is for towels and sheets to be changed between every guest, according to Joe McInerney, president of the American Hotel & Lodging Association (www.ahla.org). Towels are also swapped out every day at some, but not all properties. "Some do, some don't," he says.
In the shower, you can use it to clean your body better than you can with just soap and your hands. That's because one major skincare perk of washcloths is that they provide gentle physical exfoliation for the face and body.
You should probably change your bedsheets once a week. Think about it: You spend hours in bed every night, and your sheets collect skin flakes and an assortment of bodily fluids and oils. Then there's stuff like dust, dust mites, and (if you have a cat or dog) pet hair.
Sweat, drool, wet hair, and even skincare products can contribute to yellow stains on a pillow. And these stains are more than just unsightly. After a while, they can harbor bacteria and allergens, potentially affecting the quality of your sleep and your health.
But still, the slight majority, 54%, do not wash their sheets often enough — only a few times per month or less. Of the 523 people surveyed, about 30% said that they wash their bed sheets a few times per month; and 22% said they wash them once a month or less.
Typically, hotels wash their bedding once every week including various kinds of comforters, sheets, and pillows. However, they often swap out the pillowcases and linens between the guests. It's a common practice that the hotel comforters are rarely automatically changed – unless a guest requests it.
"If you or others are using a blanket every day, you may want to wash it once a week or once every other week," says Dr. Engelmen. "But blankets that aren't coming into contact with the skin's oils and bacteria may only need a wash every month or so to eliminate things like dust and pet dander."