Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Aftermath

I spent today cleaning the house. I figure that with 2 confirmed cases of flu plus two bacterial infections, and a week of sick people, that we could use a little freshening.

I cleaned all of the bathrooms, including wiping down the faucets, light switches, and door knobs. The kids each got new toothbrushes. I had done a mini-clean of sorts on Monday night (after the strep diagnosis, before Char had taken enough antibiotics to be considered non-contagious), soaking them in Listerine and then rinsing well. Honestly, I don't know if that did anything, but figured it couldn't hurt.

I then washed all of the sheets and blankets on all of our beds (we were due anyway). We have those zippered covers on most of our pillows, so I removed and washed those as well. Then I bought my husband a new pillow.

When I removed the cover from that feather pillow, the pillow was brown. Yuck. Double-yuck to me, as I really don't like feathers (animal materials in general tend to act up various allergies...). But that pillow used to be white. And it was NOT.

That got me thinking: How often do people really replace their pillows? I've read that you're supposed to do it yearly, or to wash them every 6 months, and a million other variations.

How about you?

I'm attempting to embed a poll in this post. Vote and let me know if it worked!

3 comments:

Bethany said...

I would think it would be a waste to just toss a pillow every year. BUT I could see that a good spring cleaning where you air them out in the sun (like the Germans do with duvet covers) might be beneficial and probably reveal if the pillow is uber-gross or not. I vote for yearly inspection.

flatflo said...

After noticing that sleeping on wet hair was doing nasty things to my pillow, I invested in some Teflon(R) pillow covers and now wash those about twice a year, replacing pillow (actually, relegating them to the guest bedroom) every 2-3 years. My personal pillow rate has gone up lately, as I can't find one that is THE ONE. My tastes in pillows seem to be getting more and more $$, but I find it hard to shell out $50 for one. But what if the $55 is the one that will give me the perfect night sleep? How long can you sleep on a pillow and still return it?

BriteLady said...

Hah, Laura, I've had the same pillow issues. I'm a side sleeper. If the pillow is too hard, then my ears hurt (not the inner ear--the cartlidge part). If the pillow is too soft, then my neck hurts. I've also gone through several pillows over the past 2-3 years. My current one was close to that $50 mark, too (it's also a big "king size" which isn't cheap). Painful on teh wallet, but better on my neck than its predecessors.

Hubby seems to like his new pillow. It wasn't $50, but it was one of the more expensive ones that Target sold, and also one of the king size ones.