How to Clean Down Pillows
Down pillows bring comfort and elegance to your bedroom, but a dirty pillow taints that elegance. Fortunately, cleaning a down pillow is not as difficult as you might believe. You do not need special machines or a dry cleaner to wash these pillows for you. If you do it properly, you can use your washing machine to clean them with no problem. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
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Check your pillows closely for rips or loose seams. If you put a damaged down pillow in the washer, you will end up with a washer full of wet feathers when the tear gets worse.
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Let the washer fill about halfway with water and then put in your liquid detergent. Only use about half a cup.
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Stop the cycle and add two pillows, one on each side. This will keep the machine from becoming unbalanced. Push the pillows all the way under the water and leave them for three hours before you restart the washer.
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Wait for the cycle to complete, and put the pillows through another spin cycle to extract as much water as possible.
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Dry the pillows by putting them in your clothes dryer with a few clean tennis shoes. They will fluff the pillows during the drying process.
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Tips & Warnings
Make sure pillows have enough room in the dryer to toss around as they dry.
It takes a long time to dry down pillows completely--as long as three hours for two pillows in a commercial dryer on medium heat. If your patience runs out or your pillows come out of the dryer with a musty smell, set them in the sun for a couple of hours.
The pungent odor you may notice on your pillows when they are wet is natural and will go away when they dry.
If you don't dry your pillows thoroughly, they may mildew.
The harsh chemicals of regular dry cleaning can break dodwn your pillows' filling. If you want to have them professionally cleaned, take them to someone who advertises down cleaning as a specialty.
