How often should you wash your bed linen and pyjamas?

Any regular visitor to my home will know that it is always fit, sparkling and spotlessly clean. It doesn’t smell like wet dog or unemptied garbage cans when you cross my threshold. Instead, it permanently smells of bleach and disinfectant. I’m the type of person who can’t sleep if I know there’s a dirty cup in the kitchen sink.

However, when it comes to some clothing and bedding. . . is another story entirely. Here, I have to confess, my clean freak standards can take a bit of a nosedive.

The thorny issue of how often we should wash our sheets came up again recently when TV host and tidiness guru Stacey Solomon did a radio interview on the subject.

When asked how often she changed her own bedding, Stacey said it was once a week. But when the host of the show admitted that she made the only allowance from her, she said that she was probably fine too.

Monthly sheet washings sound pretty nasty, and this particular exchange sparked a fierce debate.

But, at a time when everyone is aware of skyrocketing energy bills, there’s no question that people are trying to reduce their laundry loads.

I wash my sheets, pillowcases, duvet covers, and towels weekly, because it seems like the most hygienic option, and there’s nothing quite as wonderful as slipping under freshly laundered sheets and using a soft, clean, fluffy towel.

However, I’m sure my synthetic comforter must be about three years old and I’ve washed it exactly zero times. It doesn’t fit in the washing machine and I’m too lazy to take it to the laundry or dry cleaning.

It’s buttoned up in a sleeve and most nights I take it off because I’m too hot. I reasoned with myself that, under the circumstances, it can’t be that dirty.

And while I acknowledge my dubious bedding habits, I can also admit that I have a protector covering my ridiculously expensive Tempur mattress, which is also a stranger to a washing machine drum. There’s a sheet on top of that, so it surely prevents the protector from becoming a petri dish of bacteria.

So what do the professionals say about how often we should wash our household items? Can there really be any harm in extending the time between washes if it saves us time and money? Get ready for some hard-to-hear truths…

LINEN RULES

Research by the Sleep Foundation found that most people report washing their bedding weekly.

Professor Sally Bloomfield, Chair of the International Scientific Forum on Household Hygiene, says: ‘Items that come into direct contact with the skin should be washed regularly.

‘Weekly would be fine for most people, but much more important is how you do your laundry. Visible cleanliness is very different from hygienic cleanliness.

‘Washing at 60 degrees is the best way to kill germs. For those who wish to wash at lower temperatures, make sure your detergent contains active oxygen bleach. It should also be in tablet form, as lye breaks down in liquids.’

We shed around 12 million dead skin cells per night and lose 200 ml of sweat.

For a couple sharing a bed, you can double that. . . Doing monthly sheet washes is a very bad (and dirty) idea.

DON’T MISS THE QUILTS

Sheets, pillowcases, and duvet covers may be removed regularly, but the things they cover are often ignored for months, even years.

Unlike sheets and pillowcases, mattress protectors and comforters have a barrier between them and our skin (a duvet cover and a flat sheet). But does that mean we can leave them unwashed for long periods of time?

Professor Bloomfield says: ‘Expecting people to wash pillows, duvets and mattress protectors every fortnight is probably asking too much.

“Every two months should be fine, but remember that bed bugs and dust mites thrive on the flakes of our skin that accumulate on our beds until we wash them off.”

ELIMINATE BACTERIA FROM THE BED

Although most people don’t wear underwear under their pajamas and wear them to bed when we might get overheated, we seem to think of them much differently than the rest of our clothes when it comes to cleaning them.

On average, pajamas are washed once a week, but a recent survey of people aged 18-30 revealed that this age group typically goes a fortnight before putting their sleepwear in the laundry basket.

Professor Bloomfield says: ‘The reason we need to wash our clothes is to minimize the risk of infection.

‘About a third of us carry an organism called Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in our nasal passages or on our skin. It is mostly harmless, but if it enters the body through a break in the skin, it could lead to an infection.

“The more we allow this bacteria to build up on our clothes and bedding, the greater the risk we are at. Once a week should be the absolute minimum to wash pajamas.