Knowing how to refresh bedding without washing is a gamechanger for preventing your sheets becoming musty between washes. These expert hacks definitely shouldn’t replace cleaning your bedding in the washing machine, but they'll help maintain a more hygienic sleep set-up in the meantime.
Of course, knowing how often you should wash bedding is key, but the importance of giving your sheets a little TLC before their next wash day shouldn't be overlooked. Some easy ways to refresh the best duvet covers and other parts of your bed set-up include stripping and airing your bed, and making use of baking soda and tumble dryer sheets to get rid of any unwanted smells.
To find out the best way to implement these tips (and others), we've spoken to bedding experts and asked them how to refresh bedding without washing. We're pretty confident that these hacks will have your bedding smelling and looking fresh in no time.
How to refresh bedding without washing
What you'll need
- Baking soda - stock up with this 2kg bag from Amazon
- Pillow or linen spray (optional) - The Lab Co. Fabric & Linen Spray is fab for eliminating odours, OR:
- Spray bottle, like this pack of 2 amber spray bottles for £9.99
- Witch hazel - you can get 300ml for £7.29 from Amazon
- Essential oil of choice, such as this lavender essential oil for £2.98
- Tumble dryer sheets, like the Dip eco-friendly laundry sheets
1. Un-make your bed
Emily and Jonathan Attwood are the Co-Founders of family-run, independent, luxury bedding and bath brand, scooms. Offering a simplified range of what they believe are the best pillows, duvets, bedding and towels on the market, scooms help make buying luxury and high-quality, natural bedding and towels easier.
If you’re a master at making your bed, it may sound counterintuitive to un-make your bed when you wake up in the morning - but that’s exactly what you should do if you want to refresh your bedding without washing it.
Emily and Jonathan Attwood, founders of scooms suggest, ‘Pull back the duvet cover every morning to expose the underneath of the duvet cover and the sheet and prop your pillows up against your headboard to give your pillowcases an airing. Open the window wide to let the air circulate around your bedroom.’
This advice is echoed by Rachael Shah, head of sustainability at Linen Connect. She says, ‘Dust mites can still live in bedding even in the cleanest households, so actually airing your bedding by pulling the covers back can get fresh air into sheets and kill off any mites too. This also airs out any aromas that come from sleeping for 30+ hours a week in a bed.’
2. Flip and turn your bedding
While flipping a mattress is more commonplace, the experts also recommend to flip and turn your bedding regularly too. That way, you get to sleep on both sides of the bedding, and effectively half the frequency with which it needs washing.
'The very bottom of your duvet cover is unlikely to harbour as much bacteria and oil that come from your face or the sweatiest parts of your body, so rotate and flip it over to enjoy the other, cleaner side,' Martin Seeley, Senior Sleep Expert at MattressNextDay says. 'Flip your pillows over too, and you can even turn your bottom sheet over - remember to shake it out to remove any loose dirt as you do.'
Do this every few days or so, and you'll be surprised at how much fresher your bed feels next time you get into it.
3. Pop it outside
Did you know that a mixture of sunlight and fresh air can naturally disinfect your bedding? This is a handy tool if you’re looking for how to wash pillows without getting them wet but the same concept can also apply to the rest of your bedding.
‘If you want to avoid a wash for a few days, then you could hang your bedding out in the fresh air and sunlight for a few hours,’ Emily and Jonathan say.
There are so many benefits to doing this, and not just the fact that the fresh air will leave your bedding with a crisp and natural scent. The UV rays from the sun will also help to kill any lingering bacteria and potentially bleach any unwanted stains.
4. Sprinkle on some baking soda
Baking soda is one of the best natural cleaners you can have in your arsenal (just keep in mind the things you should never clean with baking soda). In fact, this store cupboard essential is considered to be one of the best methods for cleaning a mattress. But you can also use it when learning how to refresh your bedding without washing.
All you have to do is sprinkle some baking soda onto your bed sheets and let it sit for a while. The baking soda will absorb any excess oils and eliminate any odours, but you need to give it a bit of time to work its magic.
After an hour, you can vacuum up the baking soda using one of the best vacuum cleaners and relish that fresh bed feeling.
5. Use pillow and room sprays
Most pillow sprays are designed to help you sleep better, but they also have the added bonus of refreshing your sheets and adding a welcoming fragrance to your bedroom. Plus, they’re extremely easy to use, as you just need to spray your pillows and sheets in between washes.
While we love the Apothecary Sleep Room & Linen Spray from M&S, it’s important to note that you don’t need to spend any money on sprays if you don’t want to. You can make your own room spray by adding some water, witch hazel, and the essential oils of your choice to a spray bottle.
'Spritz some homemade essential oil spray over your bedding for an instant freshen up,' Martin Seeley from MattressNextDay says. 'Some scents - like citrus - immediately make you think of cleanliness, even if your bedding isn't all that clean. Lavender essential oil is my top recommendation, as this scent is known for its sleep-enhancing properties.'
Or if you're a Lenor unstoppable fan when it comes to scenting your bedding in the washing machine, you can also pick up a Lenor Unstoppables Spray on Amazon, to refresh bedding in between washes.
6. Make use of dryer sheets
If you have a tumble dryer, there’s a chance that you have a whole stack of dryer sheets in your utility room. But one thing you might not know is that these sheets have so many other uses; aside from cleaning blinds with dryer sheets, you can also refresh your bed sheets with dryer sheets!
Ideally, you’d pop your bed sheets into the tumble dryer with some dryer sheets and let them spin for a little while. This has the added bonus of ironing out any wrinkles in your bedding.
But if you’re worried about how much it costs to run a tumble dryer, you don’t have to pop your sheets into the dryer to get good results. You could just run the dryer sheets up and down your bed sheets while they’re in situ to rub the fresh fragrance onto them. Fabulousa is famous for its scented products, so you can be sure this trick will work a treat with the Fabulosa Cotton Fresh, Tumble Dryer sheets which cost £1.79 for a pack of 40.
FAQs
Why does my bedding smell musty?
'The 'musty' smell you might be noticing on your unwashed bedding is caused by moisture build-up between your sheets,' Martin from MattressNextDay explains. 'Even if you're not a hot sleeper, you're likely sweating around 200 millilitres of sweat per night, which all ends up in your bedding.'
While this sounds pretty alarming (and yucky), Martin says that it isn't anything to worry about if you wash your sheets regularly. The musty smell will be even weaker if you know how to refresh bedding without washing as well.
'This moisture can develop into mould and mildew, so even if you don't wash your bedding as soon as you smell this musty smell, make sure to air it as best as possible,' Martin says. 'Strip your duvet back to let your mattress and top sheet breathe, and hang your duvet up if you can - this will help that excess moisture evaporate.'
How does baking soda refresh bedding?
Baking soda is a great aid to use when refreshing your bedding. As Martin explains, 'baking soda has excellent absorption properties, sucking up excess moisture and leaving areas fresher and drier. Because excess moisture causes bacteria build-up and a musty smell in your bedding, baking soda can help to remove this moisture and halt that nasty build-up of bacteria - which can eventually cause mould and mildew.'
Baking soda is naturally deodorising, and absorbs bad smells nicely. The experts advise sprinkling a healthy amount over your bedding and leaving it to sit for a while, before vacuuming it up.
How do you refresh a duvet without washing it?
One of the cheapest and easiest ways to refresh a duvet without washing it is to hang it outside in the fresh air. This will naturally disinfect the duvet, while the UV rays can also kill any lingering germs and bleach any stains.
For a more intense refresh, you could sprinkle your duvet with baking soda before hanging it outside. Just remember to vacuum up the loose baking soda when you bring it back in.
While it’s recommended to wash your sheets every week to maintain a hygienic sleep schedule, that doesn’t mean that you can’t refresh your bedding in between washes.
Our current favourite bedding pieces
Rated as the best budget duvet in our buying guide, our Sleep Editor is a big fan of the M&S Supremely Washable 13.5 Tog Duvet. When the time does come to wash your duvet, the task couldn't be easier. Pop it in the machine at 60 degrees and any dust mites will be killed, but the quality of the duvet will stay the same.
You can always rely on Simba for high-quality sleep products, and the hybrid pillow comes highly recommended from the Ideal Home team. Made with a unique fusion of down-like cushioning, you can add or remove the foam 'nanocubes' inside the pillow to make it the exact right height for you.
If you're in the market for new bedding, we're big fans of the John Lewis Egyptian Cotton range. Aside from looking like it belongs in a swanky hotel, it's practical as well. It can be machine washed up to 40 degrees and tumble dried - plus it's available in 17 different colourways.
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