I Tried 3 Ways to Wash Pillows, and the Winner Was Transformative

When it comes to keeping your sleeping spaces clean, you might know you’re supposed to, say, wash your sheets once a week along with your pillowcases — but when was the last time you washed your actual pillows? 

Pillows can accumulate a lot of germs, including body oil, sweat, and dead skin cells, which makes them yellow. It’s easy to forget to clean them, as you end up putting the pillowcases back on, but learning how to wash a pillow and actually cleaning it is so important. 

Recently I decided to do something about these yucky pillows, so I tried out three popular pillow cleaning methods. The results shocked me — and now I have a new regular chore on my schedule (one that should have been there all along). 

Experts Delah Gomasi, managing director and CEO of Australia-based MaidForYou; Katie Dills, brand president of The Cleaning Authority; Julia Forbes, a sleep product expert at Sleep Advisor; and Marten Carlson, a certified sleep science coach at Mattress Clarity, previously told Apartment Therapy that the best way to clean pillows depends on the type you’re dealing with. 

Machine-washable pillows can be washed on a delicate cycle with warm water (unless the tag says something different) as long as you use less detergent than you would a typical load of laundry and run a second rinse cycle to ensure all the detergent is rinsed out.

Hand-wash-only pillows require you to fill a sink or tub with warm water and a tablespoon of liquid soap and then submerge and knead the pillow. Once you feel satisfied with the wash job, rinse the pillow until there’s no soap left and squeeze out all the water you can. Lastly, it’s best to air-dry pillows (but if you are not able to do so, you can use a dryer on either air tumble or the lowest heat setting). 

So I decided to test the following cleaning methods and then air-dried every single pillow for consistency.

• Machine wash with warm water and a delicate cycle, using less detergent and adding a secondary rinse cycle.
• Machine wash with cold water — to see if the water temperature would make a difference and because tags can differ — and a delicate cycle, using less detergent and adding a secondary rinse cycle.
• Hand-washing the pillow with warm water and liquid dish soap.

I pulled three pillows out of their cases, all the same size with roughly the same amount of staining. I labeled the tags on two of the pillows: one B, and one C. The one with no tag was designated pillow A. 

Ratings: I gave each of the methods two scores: one for the overall results, and one for ease of use (read: how easy it was to implement the method). One is the lowest score, while five is the highest. 

Results: 5/5
Ease of Use: 4/5

Method: To try this method of washing a pillow, I placed pillow A in the washing machine, making sure to wrap it loosely around the agitator of our top-loader. I knew that the machine would be unbalanced during the spin cycle, so I added a couple of large towels opposite the pillow. I set the water temperature to warm and the cycle to delicate. I added about two tablespoons of liquid detergent, and started the machine. I did an extra rinse and spin cycle, and then placed the pillow outside to dry. 

How it went: Honestly, I was shocked at how clean the pillow was once this process was complete. It looked almost completely white and new — and with very little effort, too. It would have been easier to dry the pillow in the dryer than take it outside, which is the reason for the ease of use score of 4. 

Results: 3/5
Ease of Use: 4/5 

Method: To use this method to wash a pillow, I completed all the same steps as above: I put the pillow in the washer, added towels for balance, used a small amount of liquid laundry detergent (two tablespoons), and set the cycle to delicate. The only difference is that I set the water temperature to cold. Once the extra rinse and spin cycle was done, I set the pillow outside to dry. 

How it went: This pillow also came out relatively clean, and if I hadn’t done the warm water test first, I would have been even more impressed with the results. But it was clear that the warm water wash produced superior results. 

Results: 2/5
Ease of Use: 2/5

Method: To hand-wash my pillow, I filled our laundry room sink (after making sure it was clean) with warm water, added about a tablespoon of dish soap, submerged the pillow, and swished it around. I left it to soak for a bit and then emptied the sink and rinsed the pillow out. I squeezed out as much water as I could before setting the pillow out to dry. 

How it went: I didn’t enjoy this method. It was difficult to rinse the pillow thoroughly and I still wonder if I got all the soap out. (I’ll probably run it through a rinse cycle in the washer later.) It was also really cumbersome to deal with a sopping wet pillow. It was heavy and awkward to carry outside and it dripped all over the floor while I was doing it. The pillow definitely came out cleaner than before I washed it, but it wasn’t as clean as either of the machine wash methods. 

I’m actually thrilled that I found out how easy it is to get our stained pillows nearly white as new. A simple wash with warm water and a small amount of detergent is all it takes to transform pillows from dingy and yellow to clean and refreshed. I’m for sure going to wash the rest of our pillows — because everyone deserves a totally clean pillow to sleep on!