We posted this tip in February when really only LA was getting lots of sun. It's one of our favorite ways to kick off spring cleaning on a sunny day. If you've got good weather this weekend, take the time to spruce up your pillows. Jump below for the full scoop:
Our families teach us a lot, and in our family we learned how to take care of the health of our home in natural ways. We learned that solutions are often very simple. Like putting our pillows out in the sun.
We try to do it every couple of months with our down pillows because, somehow, it makes our bed feel that much more comfy and clean. According to our family, the sun is a natural disinfectant and just being outside, the pillows are spruced up, cleaned up and fluffed up.
It's something we'd like to do every month, but we're human and we forget, but we definitely do it after we've been sick (in addition, of course, to washing our sheets). But especially living in Southern California where we get so much sun it's easy to just put an old sheet out on the ground and plop our pillows down to hang out (on each side) for about 30 minutes in direct sunlight. Sometimes we really indulge and will leave them out there all day. This might not have any real effect, but it's something mom and gramma taught us to do and we think there's real wisdom in that.
Is this something you do?
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I would like some sun. I am in Chicago. In a snowstorm predicted to last until tonight.
I haven't seen sun in days........
I hear you Janella13. I'm in Chicago too. People need sunlight more than pillows.
:)
Hmmm... I'm in Vancouver and its windy and rainy. Some Vitamin D would be nice... (:
Yes - I do this is the summer and I do it in dry winter days too - specially if the temperatures are sub freezing the effect is the same - those temperatures kill every living organism.... I learnt from my grandmother who told me that her family did this every first sunday of the month with pillows, mattresses, quilts - everything in human contact. If you walk thru the back streets of Amsterdam, Rome etc in europe - you will still see people doing this in their balconies. No one is afraid what will the neighbours think or say.
It would be great to lay the pillows out in the sun, but I live in Seattle where it is usually overcast for 8 months out of the year. Is it Ok to send pillows out to the tanning salon instead?
Also from Seattle, but I have a UV light at work (I work in a chem lab) I'm not sure if bringing the pillows to work and sticking them in there would be a good idea...
I'm in Chicago too! And I would like some sunshine also.
To your point on the sun exposure being a disinfectant, my folks did cloth diapers in the 70s, before wide-spread diaper services, and they would hang the diapers out to dry in the sun for that very purpose. Saves having to bleach them, and baby bottoms are much happier!
Good idea. People in Japan do this everyday with their futons. Lightly beat quilts with a rug beater and you'll be shocked how much dust (and who knows what else) comes out. Unfortunately sunny weather's been spotty here in SF.
I'm in western Illinois. I remember when we used to see the sun.
thanks for the tip! It's supposed to be in the 70s this weekend in Tucson--time to drag ou the quilts and pillows to the line, methinks.
I think this trick is as much psychological as it is hygenic. If you make a point to put your pillows out in the sun, you are aware of the sunshine itself more and have spent some time outdoors dragging the pillows, arranging them, breathing the air etc. And afterwards you bedding feels warm and smells of the outside world.
Ick, no. I live in a filthy city, next to a construction site and I'm not into soot covered pillows. If I lived in the burb's though...I'd consider it.
I have also heard that if you put your pillow in the freeze (in a bag) it will kill all the little ickies too...Don't know if it's true, but living in MI that seems more likely to be able to do this time of year!
I put them in the dryer for a few minutes. To me it seems like the hotter is gets the better. And perhaps I'm too impatient to wait for them to bake in the sun.
Down pillows CAN be washed too! Just remember to tumble dry gently, and add a tennis ball so they get all fluffed up again. Same goes for down comforters. Although, here in Denmark, we hang them outside the windows in the morning to air them out. The cold gets rid of the bedbugs.
great tip! thank you! I have been doing it every summer. It does feels so much better and healthier. It's dready wet day here in CT coastline, but reading your post instantly transferred me into hot summer day with all my pillows and comforters on the back yard, getting purified! Nice mental image. Makes me already feel better. Thank you again!
Living in San Francisco I have to go to the Caribbean to do things like that...
...and the cruiseships supply their own pillows.
i would NOT put my pillows outside my apartment. i fear for what they might encounter. but it might be nice to put them in the living room with the blinds open so they can safely get some sun.
I would love to put my bedding out on a clothes line, but can you believe we have a ban on them where I live (Canada) I guess it makes the neighbourhood untidy or something. What a bunch of yo-yo's
Hey would that work if we put our children out??? :) Seriously though, I am a firm believer, especially when illness has been in the house to throw open the windows and air it out so putting the pillows out makes sense. I'm going to give it a try. Thanks
Aside from the winter weather, if we try putting our pillows outside - our shared terrace is the only 'outside' available - our neighbor's cat will probably sleep on them...or worse. But I do remember this tip from my childhood, and just thinking about it makes me happy.
I hang my no-wash items outside periodically in winter here in Minnesota. It's natural dry-cleaning. I just finished a business meeting in Las Vegas and one of my jackets smelled like smoke from the route I was forced to take through the casino to my meeting room. It took only one 24 hour session in sub-zero weather for it to smell perfectly fresh again.
I have been putting my pillows, and judiciously my bedding, out in the sun for as long as I can remember.
Another "natual" idea is to put your woolen rugs face down on top of fresh snow. Leave them for while, then beat them with the rug beater. This way you get much more dust out, and the colors seem refreshed afterwards...
Petra (the Netherlands, Europe)
i grew up with my grandparents who always did this once a week. I didn't know why, but my grandmother's pillows were always really fresh and comfortable. Now, I know.
i just wash and dry my pillows. they are like new afterwards and so fluffy and smell great!
it totally renews them. i do not have down pillows though, but you can wash that too.
My parents do this, and I always thought they were crazy. Who knew?
so does this mean the icky furniture you see lying behind buildings is actually germ free? Ha. jk No idea where I could hang my duvet, but what a good idea.
a perfect compliment to my weekly American Life in Poetry email...
Part of a Legacy
by franke steele
I take pillows outdoors to sun them
as my mother did. "Keeps bedding fresh,"
she said. It was April then, too--
buttercups fluffing their frail sails,
one striped bee humming grudges, a crinkle
of jonquils. Weeds reclaimed bare ground.
All of these leaked somehow
into the pillows, looking odd where they
simmered all day, the size of hams, out of place
on grass. And at night I could feel
some part of my mother still with me
in the warmth of my face as I dreamed
baseball and honeysuckle, sleeping
on sunlight.
it's funny to read all these comments and to see how many of you want to be in warm weather, and then there's me who wants to be in cool weather. I am in sunny Miami, and it is oddly HOT here (90 degrees already).
I will def give this a try. I don't think I will lose anything by trying it, right?
Suppossed to be 100 this weekend. If ever there were a time for this to work, it would be now. With two sick kids at home, I'll definitely give it a shot.
I DO WANT TO LINE DRY MY SHEETS AND SUN-BATHE MY PILLOWS, BUT every time I look at my car in the morning, being all covered with the yellowish pollen, I realize it won't work! And the worst part is - I still have no idea where the pollen is coming from!? We don't have any trees
i really need to do this as soon as it stops raining....
there are alot of birds in my backyard though... hope they don't poop on my pillows
alas, boston is headed from several days of rain.
Considering it was NINETY SEVEN DEGREES in San Francisco yesterday (seriously, seriously, seriously unheard of, and a record!) this may be just the time to try this!
I remember my grandma doing this... nice memories.
Anyway, will allergens get to the pillows? I think I'm allergic to something. Will bugs and ticks get to the pillows?
There's a lot of birds in our backyard too. Combine that risk with the pollen, and I'll stick mine in the dryer, thank you.
I like to do this right after my lawn is just mowed. The smell of fresh cut grass combined with the sun makes it all the better.
Mmmm. Warm, sun-baked pillows invite much-needed nap-taking.
umm my upstairs neighbors complain about all the pollen stuck on their window screens.
i'm not allergic to anything, but i'm not crazy about pollen and bird poop on my pillows. i think i'll just get a uv light like lurker2209.
The dryer is my best friend - all pillows, blankets and duvets. With a thick layer of pollen on my car, can't imagine how it would be on pillows. I have enough issues with allergies.
Even if I don't leave my bed linen and pillows outside (Ireland) I do make sure to throw my duvet back off the bed and let the sun hit my unmade bed and pillows because the UV kills dust mites. Meanwhile you're airing the bed that may have absorbed up to 1 pint of your sweat as you slept the night before!!!
I do give the whole duvet a good shake out and remake the bed eventually
YES!!! Sun bathe pillows and futons are very common in Tokyo where I was born and raised. I really missed the smell of the *sun* on my pillows! Here in the states (city area), often times we're not allowed to hung stuffs at the outside of the condo/apartment. Using the full sun coming in through my bedroom window I line up our pillows on the bed and let them indoor sun bathe as often as we can :)