If your duvet is too big for the size of your washing machine drum, what choices do you have to clean your duvet and keep it in good shape?
It may seem like a step back in time but include the kids and have some fun.
Learn how to:
- Wash your duvet in the bath
- Learn how to dry your duvet while it’s very wet, so it’s not destroyed
- Should you bleach your duvet?
- How to remove yellow stains from your duvet
Can I wash the duvet by hand?
Yes. It can be hard going, or fun, whichever you choose to do. You just never appreciate your washing machine until you can’t use it!
Most duvets (other than singles) don’t really wash well in a domestic washing machine. The tub is too small for the cleaning action to take place.
And then, you come to spin the duvet, and the washing machine wants to self-destruct due to the imbalance of weight distribution.
So, what’s your choice? It’s easy if you are up for rolling up your sleeves and jeans.
Here are the steps you will need to follow for how to wash a duvet in the bath
- Get up early. It’s going to take a few hours
- Fill your bath half full with tepid water
- Swirl some low foam detergent in the bath, so it fully dispersed
- Soak your duvet, make sure every square inch is submerged for a good cleaning and leave for a few hours and let the detergent start working
- After a few hours, give it a good agitation, then drain the water and detergent
- Fill the bath half full and add detergent again, and now it’s time to get serious
- Make sure your feet are clean (let the kids join in) and trample the duvet within an inch of its life
- You may need to repeat this process a few times until the water looks clean
- Drain the bath and rinse in the same fashion. Once rinsed and free from detergent residue, you will need help squeeze or ring the water out of the duvet, be careful at this stage. You don’t want to crush the filling
How do I get a soaking wet duvet dry?
It takes planning. Unlike using your washing machine, you will need to plan washing your duvet due to the amount of time needed to get it clean and dry on the same day.
The best way to dry a wet duvet is to spread the duvets across a rotary line, so the corners are drooping down.
If you don’t have a rotary line, a standard line with the use of some garden chairs for support will suffice.
Your main objective is not to allow the filling to clump together in one area of the duvet. This will prevent the duvet from drying.
Can you pretreat stains?
Yes, it’s important to take this step for the best cleaning of your duvet. Pretreating soiled areas of the duvet makes sense, so get to it.
Everyone gets stains on their duvets, from kids jumping into bed with you or spilling a drop of coffee. It happens, so spot clean before you soak any stains that may be stubborn.
Can you use bleach on your duvet?
Why not? If your duvet has lost its colour and needs brightening up, then add some bleach to the mix, but be careful bleach can destroy some fabrics, so read the care label first.
You can also use lemon juice, borax, and any other whitening product you want to try, as long as it’s not overwhelming.
If the bleach smell is strong, you must keep rinsing the duvet until the strong smell disperses.
Can you bleach a down duvet?
You need to be careful. You may find bleach is too aggressive for down and will cause damage. Down is a delicate product and needs to be treated gently in terms of chemicals.
If you want a deep clean, you could use white vinegar or lemon juice just to give the detergent that extreme oomph to get the job done.
Keep in mind you are washing your duvet for a couple of reasons: first, because you feel it’s getting grubby and needs sprucing up a little, and second, to keep the allergens out of the filling.
So a little aggression is required.
How do I get the yellow out of my duvet?
Try using white vinegar. The truth is duvets do tend to turn yellowish over time, and it’s not your fault or because you have not showered.
Duvets breathe and pull moisture from your body. Over time the discolouration of the duvet outer (even with a good duvet cover) happens, and there is little you can do to stop it.
To freshen up the whiteness of your duvet cover, use white vinegar. Vinegar has long been used as a cleaning product and can work wonders while replacing more aggressive bleach-based detergents.
White vinegar is great for neutralising odd smells that sometimes emanate from duck-down duvets.
How do hotels keep their duvets so white?
They have a different washing protocol. You would like to expect and think that when you check into a hotel room, the bedding is spotlessly clean. So, let’s assume it is.
A hotel duvet has the potential to be washed every day of the week if the guest turnover is sufficiently high, so the washing process is more frequent, and they are washed in commercial or industrial washing machines.
A hotel duvet gets the first wash, then a wash with fabric conditioner and then is bleached in an endless cycle until it loses all of its suitable properties to be a hotel duvet.
Is it better to wash or dry clean a duvet?
It depends on your duvet. If your care instructions ask for dry cleaning, you must only dry clean. Washing may shrink the filler rendering it useless.
If your care label says machine wash, that’s the best way to clean your duvet.