CHEAT SHEET
Crafty tips will ensure your bed linens last long
If you’ve ever been fortunate enough to sleep in a four-star-hotel bed, you know there is nothing like the crisp, clean feel of fine white sheets.
I cherished my first set, a wedding present, and was dismayed when, over time, they yellowed and eventually ripped.
Here are tips from the pros on how to wash, dry and stain-treat your bedding so that you can prolong the life of your linens.
George Matouk Jr., whose family’s business, Matouk, has been making luxury bedding since 1929, warns against using too much detergent when washing your sheets and towels. The rule of thumb is approximately one tablespoon of detergent for each regular load.
Use too much, and your sheets and towels will end up with a soapy residue that will attract dirt and leave them feeling slimy.
Matouk also cautions against detergents that have bleach or added whitening agents, particularly when washing bedding that has delicate contrasting colour embroidery or embellishments. Not only can bleach ruin colourful threads, it also weakens the fabric fibres.
Annie Selke, owner of the bedding company Pine Cone Hill, also advises against using bleach because it can cause whites to yellow over time. Instead, she recommends treating stains right away with plain club soda. For really pesky stains she uses Oxiclean, but she says that lemon juice, baking soda or vinegar are great natural substitutes.
Wash sheets once a week and be mindful of water temperatures, Selke says: Wash linen sheets in cold water and percale sheets in warm water. While thread count has minimal impact on washing, she points out that the higher the thread count, the more threads there are to break, so washing on a gentle cycle is best.
As for liquid fabric softener and dryer sheets, Matouk says never to use either, especially on towels because they absorb liquid fabric softener, affecting their absorbency. Bedding and towels should stay soft on their own as long as they are properly laundered and not overdried. To prevent overdrying, remove bed linens from the dryer as soon as they’re dry or even a bit damp, which will keep them softer.
Selke prefers line-drying sheets. She and Matouk agree that ironing sheets comes down to personal preference, but the best way to minimize wrinkles is to remove sheets from the dryer the moment they’re dry, even if that is well before the end of the cycle. If you iron your sheets, you will get better results if you do so while they are still a touch damp. The heat of the iron will complete the drying process.
To save time, Selke suggests ironing just the portion of the sheets you see when you make your bed, a trick she learned from watching a hotel room “turnover” where the workers ironed only the top of the duvet cover once it was in place.
Another hotel trick: make the bed, lightly mist the sheets with water, then run your hand over the sheets to remove any creases.