Oh, well! I got married, the first time, in 1969. I am still using the feather pillows that we got as a wedding gift. I'm not about to get rid of them - they were expensive and well made, so I'm going to continue to sleep with the various critters they may contain!

we change pillows alot..the kind we like at costco, arn't that expensive...can't you wash the down pillows? i've washed my down comforters...

Either put your down pillows in the washing machine and let them air dry or take them to the dry cleaners for cleaning. Either option is pretty easy.

I wash our pillows in the washer. But the same goes for your mattress. Our doctor said it is probably why my allergies are so bad. Our mattress is full of dead skin, dust, pet dander, etc. He said to buy a non-permeable mattress cover. Since ours is at least 16 years old, I think we need to go ahead and buy a new mattress, too!

I read that a few years ago and decided to do an experiment, since I was in need of a new pillow. I weighed my brand new pillow on a baby scale that is very precise. After one year I reweighed my pillow and it weighed the exact same. I just weighed it again (8 months later) and it sill weighs the exact same. So unless the actual pillow material is somehow evaporating and being replaced by dust mites, dead skin cells etc., I'm thinking my pillow should at least weigh a tiny bit more by now. It came with a zippered casing and I use a pillowcase on top, so maybe that explains why nothing extra has penetrated through.

DH wrapped his pillow in plastic. I hate the noise it makes but it worked for him.

Pickyshopper, that's interesting! I doubt anything inside the pillow has evaporated. ;-)

I suppose I should wash my down pillows (I don't know about the latex ones, though), but I'm wondering exactly what that would accomplish (other than getting them clean, of course). Will washing remove all the debris that has allegedly accumulated inside the pillow? Frankly, I don't see how.

I doubt that very much, as it just doesn't make sense.

If "about a third of its weight consists of dead skin cells, mummifying dust mites, bug droppings, and skittering live mites.".....the pillow would have to get heavier over time, or, to keep the weight the same, part of the pillow would have to magically disappear and be replaced by dead skin cells.

Pshaw, I say.

Besides, pillows are covered with frequently washed pillowcases anyway.

I have the protective mattress covering and some for my main pillow.
I learned from my allergy doc it helps to put your pillow in a plastic bag, insert the vacuum hose, tighten the bag around the hose and then turn on the vacuum. It sucks the pillows down to almost nothing and apparently sucks out the dust and dust mite remains.
My sister has had the same pillow for over 55 years and wonders why her allergies are so bothersome. I bought her a new pillow but she prefers the old one.

We all have 1,000's of tiny mites living on our eye lashes, but, I'm not gonna start plucking them out. They need a home, too.
Perhaps out entire planet is a tiny fragment of some cosmic strand of DNA. Wait.....I might have seen that on TV, perhaps it was The Simpsons. ;-)

Ron

I wash my pillows, put them out in the sun to dry and finish by fluffing in the dryer.

From time to time, when changing my bed, I put the pillows out to sun.

I'm just like my mother.

When she washed her combs and brushes she would put them out in the sun to dry.

I buy a new pillow, when I am no longer comfortably sleeping on the "old" one.

Meanwhile, I put on a pillow case, and then another one from the other end. The outer one gets washed weekly, the inner one monthly.

No worries from me about all that stuff.

Moni

I think all these "statistics" are a marketing ploy that people have bought into and repeated. If you hear something often enough, it becomes a "fact."

Wash your pillows, and fluff them in the dryer with clean tennis balls.

how ironic this subject came up...just yesterday I made new covers from new ticking to put the feathers in that came from my Grandmother...she died in 1963 and my mother used them in a feather bed for years and then made them into feather pillows which she used for years and I got them when I got married in 1980...I was the only one who really loved them...A couple of years ago I washed them...I felt like I didn't have anything to lose...I probably read something like you read Susan and freaked out...I dried them in the sun during the day and would bring them in at night and put them in the dryer with a couple of tennis balls...well it killed my dryer...it pulled the smaller feathers thru the ticking...but all is well...hubster fixed my dryer and I had fresh clean pillows after about a week...I don't use them but both of my sons do and wouldn't use anything else and their rarely sick...BUT...after they were in their new ticking yesterday...I spritzed them with lysol...then sewed them up and put them in a pillow protector...which I wash monthly...so go figure...I'm with Ron on this one...LOL...we're all gonna die of something...

Sheila...I'm tend to agree with you...we are all victims of marketing ploys...if you let them...

We had a pillow cleaning service come here a few years in a row. They did an awesome job! Pillows were cleaned by slitting open the ticking. Dumping feathers onto a conveyor like thing, they went through a machine, can't remember how it all worked, but it was dry, and ultraviolet light was involved. The feather's were blown into new ticking and sewed up. Oh they looked and felt wonderful!!!! Each pillow was done individually BTW. You got your own pillow back. They had different grades of ticking, the better one was thick enough that your feather's didn't work through it. They had more feather's you could purchase by the 1/4 lb weight I think it was. Also had down feathers the same way. The cost was very reasonable compared with buying GOOD feather pillows. I'm thinking $8 to $12 depending on the size (regular to queen) and the weight of the ticking you choose. This was all done same day service.
We would watch the man do the pillows, it was surprising what was inside them sometimes! LOL He found items like safety pins and rocks.
Call a dry cleaner Susan. You'd be surprised how great they come back!
I've tried washing them and they never turn out well for me.

I put my pillows in the dryer,a few minutes then I hit refresh let it run awhile.

Back when we washed down jackets, we put them in the dryer long and low with a couple of clean sneakers to really fluff them up.

Don't even remember how long we've had some of our foam pillows but they've never been washed. If I remember next summer, though, I think a day in the sun would be good.

I buy new polyyester pillows about every 2 years. I wait for a good sale, like $10 a piece, then get one for each member of my family. I like to sleep with 2 pillows, so my old one is on the bottom, the newer on the top, and so on... I tried washing my pillows but the polyfil got all lumpy and wadded.

I can't sleep on a feather pillow because I'm allergic to birds.I once touched a parakeet, then my face, and my eyelids blew up. Slept in a feather sleeping bag and had an asthma attack. Only polyester/ pollyfill pillows allowed!

I just read an article that said that can be a real problem with children, contributes to asthma or bronchitis. They said to wash or replace your pillows often and keep them in a dust mite resistant cover. I have used my body pillows for a couple of years have been looking for replacements. JC Penny's has the best pillows I have found.