Archive for the ‘clean it’ Category

I’ve been making my way through the bedding in our home giving it a good Spring Cleaning. It feels so nice! Saturday we even had enough warm weather to open up the windows!  My home always feels cleaner after it has been aired out a bit after the long winter.

Spring cleaning mattresses is a simple process for me.  I start by removing all the bedding, including bed skirts and mattress covers… and putting it all into the wash.

Next I lift the mattress and box springs off the bed and thoroughly vacuum and dust.  I also love to wipe down the wall and floorboards behind the bed.

I lay the mattress back into place and make my own special concoction.  You could just use straight baking soda, but I love to pour about 1 cup of baking soda into a mason jar and drop in 4 drops of lavender essential oil.  Put on the lid and shake up the jar.

Using a kitchen strainer sprinkle the baking soda mixture all over the mattress and let it sit.  I leave it for an hour or more, usually the time it takes for me to finish washing all the bedding and press the bed skirt.

Using the hose end of your vacuum and an upholstery attachment, thoroughly vacuum the mattress.  Bye, bye dust mites and other nasty things.  The baking soda helps draw up any moisture and deep dirtiness.  It deodorizes and leaves the mattress smelling fresh and clean.  I also love the faint scent of lavender left by the essential oil.

The word lavender is derived from the Latin “lavare” meaning to wash…. I guess I’m in good company with the Ancient Romans in thinking it smells nice and clean.

When I get in bed after a deep clean like this, I wonder how I ever slept a wink in my dusty bed.  I am pretty much guaranteed to sleep like a baby tonight!

Next step is washing the quilts on our beds…. but that’s for another day.

I change out clean sheets on the beds once a week.   It’s called “Clean Sheet Day” at our house and I love it.  I could swear I sleep better on clean sheet day!

But once a year in the Spring, the bedding gets special treatment in the form of spring cleaning.

This week and next I will cover several topics about bedding, beginning today with down comforters.  This post was inspired by a conversation I had with my sister-in-law the other day.  She was surprised when I said something about washing our down comforters.  She never thought you could wash them… and was curious how.

I love our down comforters so much that we have one on every bed in our home.  They keep us toasty warm in the winter enabling us to keep our heat low at night, saving us big bucks on our heating bill.  The only time of year we don’t use our comforters is in the heat of summer.  Other than that, our comforters keep us quite temperate throughout the year.

Since I don’t want to strip the natural oils from the feathers of the down, I limit the washing of our comforters to once a year.  To keep them as clean as possible in between washings I use a comforter cover.

Cleaning bedding as large as a down comforter requires a large front load washer.  My large capacity front loader handles our queen-sized comforter… but if you have a top loader or a smaller washer… do what I used to do and head to the laundry mat.

I always wash our comforters, one at a time, on the gentle cycle using a gentle laundry detergent in a small amount.  I always add a second rinse cycle when washing comforters as well.  You want to make extra sure you get all of the soap out.

Next comes the dryer… and the important part:

Add some clean tennis balls or a clean canvas shoe (no buckles or sharp metal!) to the dryer along with your comforter.  The tennis balls will knock around and fluff up the down. I always dry my comforters on low heat.  It takes a while, but isn’t as hard on the down.

Once the dry cycle is complete, I remove the comforter and hold it up to the light.  If I see any clumps it means there is still some dampness (not good) so it goes back in for a little more drying.   If the day is nice and warm, the comforter could also go outside to blow in the breeze.  There is nothing like sunshine and breeze to make something feel really clean.

So there’s the first in my little series on bedding.  I think I love my bed a little more than is healthy… after a long day, there is nothing quite so nice.

O bed! O bed! Delicious bed!
That heaven upon earth to the weary head.

~Thomas Hood