I slice em open and put the feathers in the compost.

My dogs love the extra cushiony comfort old pillows provide in their crates.

I am having the same double posting issue. I won't get into the whole what pillows collect, we all know. I would be willing to let my dogs use them. We use a dust cover and replace our pillows every 2 years or so. I do stick them in the dryer on sanitize every so often. We don't use down because we have an allergic dog. Also I have this "menopause" pillow that you can only wash the dust cover so I wash the dust cover and spray the pillow with Lysol and then sun it outside for a few hours.

If you like the pillow and want to keep using it, just wash it well and zip a pillow protector on it so as not to see stains on pillow that really is very clean. Or sew up a bolster style cover in fleece or cotton and pile them on your bed.

Our county animal shelter won't accept anything that's used except for towels and the like that can be easily washed and disinfected using very hot water in their industrial-size washer. Human shelters likely won't accept pillows either.

There's a message - if they don't want them, why do you? The best thing to do with old, stained pillows would be to put them into your trash can.

Down and feathers can be sanitized. Our cleaner will take these, clean the 'innards' and put them into a new, clean ticking.

No down/feathers in these pillows, just poly. It would be nice to have extra pillows, so the zipped protectors are an option. Storage is a problem though. I have four of them.

I don't have dogs, but I do have cats with beds in the cellar. One already has an old bed pillow with a slip case, then covered with an old afghan.

Thanks for the suggestions.

Old pillows are a problem because no one wants them, especially thrift shops. It's why my cupboards are overfilled with pillows, even some like new My Pillows which no one likes. Sad to say, I put one in the trash this week.

Burn them. Chances are they are full of dust mites and dust mite feces.

Once the poly-fill pillow is nice and clean...consider a craft item. You could push the stuffing to one side and run two lines of stitching on the end. Cut in between the two and create a square pillow. Pinterest has lots of directions for making covers.

That is if you like decorative pillows! :-) And sewing. :-)

Elizabeth, yes to the first, no to the second. ; )

Funny you should ask this question. I have 2 extra pillows hanging around in my bedroom, one is poly filled, the other is foam. All my earlier discards have found homes in various pillow shams in various bedrooms and others became extra dog pillows with minke type covers. But I have no more need for pillows in shams or dog pillows...so these 2 sit.

Good for you guys recycling!

I took our extra bed pillows and put them in the guest rooms so guests can pick out whatever kind they like. Sometimes they take them home.

Sometimes trash is just trash. I recently tossed two old pillows that were lumpy and stained. It happens.

Well yeah.....if they are that far gone......toss 'em.

I have one "down" pillow... more feathers than down... could be pretty old. Weighs a ton. I know I've run it through the washing machine and dryer. It takes a while to dry. Next time it goes for a swim, I'll make sure it's inside a new pillow protector. C an't begin to imagine the mess that would happen if a seam gave way due to age?!?

Oh ya inspect the pillow for any openings...another thing remember down/feather pillows arnt cheap..you can wash them but use a non-enzyme detergent. Enzymes eat protein and down/feathers are protein, as is wool, and silk.

I toss used pillows after they can no longer be fluffed, poly filled ones. I also keep a quilted pillow protector on them along with a pillowcase. This saves how often they need washed, but I will say some poly fills wash ok others not so good.

If the pillows are synthetic filled, stained ect I'd toss them.

Mine came out looking brand new after doing this-

I put them in the bathtub with

1 cup bleach

!/2 cup Oxy White Revive

Fill tub with cold water (bleach is actually more effective in cold water) and weigh pillow down with laundry jugs or something heavy. I put two king size pillows in the tub at a time. Soak for several hours or overnight. Drain water and squeeze out pillows, then wash or at least rinse in the washing machine spinning well. I carry them to the laundry room in rubbermaid totes so water doesn't seep on the floor. I mostly dried them in the dryer, then put them out in the sun to make sure they were completely dry.

A question about those pillow protectors. I bought two new pillows a couple weeks ago. Are the protectors made of cloth?

Schoolhouse. It depends which protectors you buy some are plastic yuk but mine are 100% cotton.

I would never soak in chlorine bleach. ..contact time should never be more than 5 or 6 minutes, than rinse until you no longer smell chlorine, if you smell it its still there. All of the benefits of chlorine takes place in 5 to 6 minutes any longer and its damaging fabric.

Another thing chlorine bleach and oxygen bleach cancell each other out...matter of fact Cheer colorguard powder has a tiny bit of oxygen bleach in it to counteract the chlorine in tap water, that's P&G's colorguard...since chlorine in tap water is a big culprit in why some clothing fades.

I wash our pillows once a week and then dry/fluff them in the dryer. They last for a long time and never get stained. They are the down alternative filled kind. When they get too flat, the "innards" can be used for packing material.

I am very allergic to feathers as well as plenty other stuff. Thus, no feathers for me.

I shower in the evening and most times even wash my hair... thus, a relatively clean head hits the pillow. ;) I also put two pillow cases on my pillow, and I wash the outer one weekly. I truly don't have a stained pillow, even though I have it for quite a while, I think, 3 years.

But all my extra pillows got tossed, once I got to Florida, we had used them to cushion stuff in the trailer, during the move.

I just bought two new pillows, for my guest bed, and I made two extra pillow cases out of some "pretty fabric" to put on as outer cover.

Moni

Yeah, I think we may have discussed the shower before bed, etc. before when someone asked about a mattress topper and how to keep it from getting stained by body oils. I shower, don't wash my hair tho - I mean not right before bed that is.

I've never used a bed pillow without a pillow protector -- usually poly/cotton with a zipper -- under the pillowcase. The pillow ticking seldom gets dirty, although the protectors do -- mostly 'drool', I think! However, all pillows and mattresses without special casings develop dust mites. Over time, the mites' poop adds to the weight of the pillow. (Are you feeling itchy yet? LOL)

Bathing before bed is great however it won't stop the production of body oils that we all have. To prevent bedding from turning yellow from these body oils, change bedding at least once a week, and wash on a long hot cycle with a good detergent. For those that can't get the yellow out, first its not stains exactly its actually body oils trapped in the fibers..you could add some low suds ammonia along with the detergent and HOT water..NO CHLORINE BLEACH WHEN USING AMMONIA...The ammonia will help remove old body oils....another trick if you have white sheets use a oxygen bleach detergent like Tide with Bleach powder add ammonia..the ammonia will boost the oxygen bleach giving you brilliant whites.

Mine came out perfect so if they canceled each other out, wouldn't nothing happen? They were spotless!!! I'll try and get more info on this and report back.

I don't have a tub. :(

Schoolhouse...what kind of washer do you have?

I'd toss them (recycle if you can) and buy new ones.

Immediately cover the new pillows in zipped pillow covers covered by several more pillowcases. One pillowcase is not enough for some, like my husband, not that he's unusually sweaty, but his pillows will turn yellow if not protected. His old pillow was yellow and impossible to get white again. I replaced that old yellow pillow with a new one. I immediately covered the new pillow with a zipped pillow cover, then five (5!) pillowcases on top of that. The pillow itself stays always clean because it's covered in so many pillowcases. The pillowcases and zipped pillow cover are easier to wash than a pillow. To keep them from yellowing, I wash them in very hot water with 10 Mule Team Borax, some powdered dishwasher soap, and bleach, with an extra soak and extra rinse. No more yellow pillows.

That's way to alkaline and damaging to fabrics...borax will raise the PH....but automatic dishwasher detergent will really raise the alkalinity way to high..it has to in order to clean greasy dishes.

mama, I have a stacked unit. I can wash pillows in the washing machine tho, I've done it before. They didn't come out clean, but then I didn't add anything but Tide.

I'm not sure what I'll do now.

I take it you mean a front loader? Do you have a sanitize or allergen cycle? I'd use one of those cycles if you have them along with Tide and some oxygen bleach. ..extra rinses. If they don't come out as white as you'd like just cover them with a cotton protector and pillowcases. .no one will know lol...or just toss them. I don't like filling the landfills but sometimes we have no choice. Not much we can do with pillows that have come to the end of their life.

"NO CHLORINE BLEACH WHEN USING AMMONIA" A lethal combination. NEVER use together.

mamapinky0, I've been using Borax and DW soap for this for many years, and it has not caused damage to the fabrics. They're fine.