How to clean down pillows at home. Feather pillow cleaning. Hand wash pillows
Feather and down pillows have a fairly long service life. The only drawback is that such products require complex cleaning, which must be performed at least once a year. To do this, they can be taken to a dry cleaner or an institution that specializes in this. But cleaning pillows from any material is possible at home, without the use of chemicals.
Pillows stuffed with feathers last a very long time, but only if they are cleaned regularly. You can do it yourself, at home, or take the product to dry cleaning.
Usually dry cleaning takes place in two stages:
- All filler is removed from the pillow. After that, the feathers are treated with an organic solvent. It removes accumulated dirt, dust, germs, insects and odors. But in some cases, the solvent can damage the feathers.
- The pen is dried and aired. Sometimes there is a shrinkage of the volume of the filler, which leads to a decrease in the softness and size of the product.
In addition, there are other ways:
- Dry cleaning. The feathers are cleaned with a strong air current.
- The use of ultraviolet. Via ultraviolet radiation microorganisms and dust mites living in feathers are destroyed.
Then the feathers are packaged in new pillowcases, resulting in a soft and clean pillow. But dry cleaning is expensive. Therefore, with limited funds, you can clean the feather or down pillow yourself.
Down filling cleaning
Down is the warmest of fillers. Down duvets and pillows retain heat well and do not absorb moisture. They do not lose their volume for a long time and serve for about 20 years.
Steps for cleaning these items:
- You need to pick up a new pillowcase - you can sew it yourself or buy it.
- Remove the filler from the pillow and soak it in water with a temperature of 20-25 degrees for a couple of hours.
- Next, you need to drain the dirty water and soak the fluff in water again, but this time with powder.
- Carefully wash the filler, rinse it well in clean water and squeeze.
- Place clean, damp fluff in gauze bags and hang it up, thereby allowing the absorbed water to drain.
- Spread the filler in an even small layer on the prepared surface and cover it with a chintz cloth to prevent scattering when drying.
- It is necessary to regularly turn the fluff to prevent it from sticking together.
- After the filler has completely dried, fill it with a breastplate and sew it up.
The result is a light and voluminous pillow - just like new.
Feather Cleaning
Feather pillow lasts no longer than 6 years. After this period, the product must be disposed of and replaced. But it also needs periodic cleaning for a number of reasons. The first is that it absorbs moisture and fat secretions very well. Because of this, the feather gathers in lumps, and as a result, the product becomes rigid. The second is that it absorbs dust, which increases the likelihood of allergies.
The easiest way to clean a pillow is to vacuum it with a powerful vacuum cleaner. But this is not effective enough, since such cleaning will not completely remove the dust.
The most effective option for washing the filler. The pillow cannot be completely washed: it is too heavy for hand washing. You can also wash it in the machine, but the desired effect will not be achieved, only dirt and dust will be removed. In addition, in the process, feathers can stick together and stray into lumps. It will be impossible to fix it.
Before washing the filler, you need to determine which feather is used in the pillow. This information is contained on a sewn-in label. Only waterfowl feathers and down can be washed. A pillow with chicken feathers must be recycled - such a filler is poorly dried, moreover, it often turns into dust.
Cleaning steps:
- Pick up a new apron.
- Fill a container with warm water with a temperature of no more than 30 degrees, add liquid soap or washing powder there.
- Remove the feathers from the pillow and soak them in the prepared solution for a couple of hours.
- Drain the water.
- Rinse the feathers thoroughly in running water.
- Place the filler in small portions into prepared gauze or chintz bags and squeeze out excess water.
- Hang the bags in a well-ventilated place until completely dry, shaking them occasionally to prevent clumping of the filler.
- Stuff the breastplate with dry, peeled feathers and sew it up.
Washing the pen in the washing machine
With such a wash, it is necessary to take into account factors that will protect the washing machine from damage, and the pillow from clumping:
- It is necessary to prepare a special cover that will prevent damage to the parts of the washing machine as a result of clogging with feathers.
- Gauze bags, where feathers will be placed in small portions, must be made as strong as possible. This is possible if you roll the gauze in 4-6 layers and sew them with small dense stitches.
- After washing the bags with feathers in the machine, you need to lay them out on a flat, ventilated plane, illuminated by the sun's rays. During drying, the bags must be turned over and smoothed frequently to prevent clumping of the filler.
- After the feathers are completely dry, you need to fill them with a pillowcase and sew it tightly.
Pillows stuffed with down or feathers are comfortable and less likely to cause allergies, as they are made of natural materials. But at the same time, their qualities directly depend on the regularity of cleaning, which is quite possible to perform at home.
The most common types of pillows are down and feather. They are in almost every home. Such products are very comfortable and soft, the filler in them, unlike synthetic ones, does not “fall off” and does not gather into clods.
But products made from such material quickly accumulate dust in themselves, and bacteria easily multiply in them, which is harmful to human health. That is why you need to know how to wash at home feather pillow.
What to do with old feather pillows
Unlike chicken feather pillows, a duck or goose feather pillow will last up to 50 years.
Nowadays, the choice of pillows is very wide. You can purchase a down, feather or bamboo product. Each type of filler has its own advantages and disadvantages.
The most significant disadvantage of feather and down pillows is that in the absence of proper care they become a breeding ground for mites, bacteria and dust. That is why feather fillers need to be cleaned regularly.
However, you should be aware that through certain time the pillow will have to be disposed of, because it will be unusable. The shelf life of such products depends on whose pen they are filled with.
If this is a goose or duck feather, then you can use such a pillow for a very long time - up to 50 years. When chicken feathers are present in the “stuffing” of the product, then after 5–7 years it is better to get rid of it, since the filler will become unusable.
Where can you clean down pillows?
Due to the characteristics of the filler, cleaned down or feather pillows can be used for no more than six months. After this period expires, they will have to be washed again.
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You can clean a pillow with such a filler both at home and in a dry cleaner, laundry or a special salon where pillows are restored.
Tidying up a pillow at home is not as difficult as it seems, but it will take a lot of time to process it yourself. In addition, after washing, the filler dries for a long time, and the cleaning process will take a long time.
What pillow filler is better to buy with
If you have free time you can do everything essentials at home. For those who do not want to "stretch" this process the best option going to dry cleaning.
How much does it cost to dry clean a feather pillow
In specialized dry cleaners and laundries, you can offer two types of washing - dry and wet.
- Wet washing is carried out using organic detergents. The feather is removed from the pillow, placed in a tank and treated with a special solution. Thanks to this, all bacteria, microorganisms and foreign odors are destroyed in the filler. The pen is then washed and dried.
- Dry cleaning (also called air cleaning) is the treatment of the filler with air or hot steam, as well as UV radiation. The pen is blown through, due to which the volume of the product is restored, and dust and debris are removed. At the same time, ultraviolet treatment is underway - this allows you to destroy all bacteria. After the cleaning, the new bedclothes are filled with a cleaned feather.
Chicken feather pillows are best dry-cleaned.
The cost of dry cleaning services depends on the size of the pillow. The larger it is, the higher the price will be. On average, the price varies between 400-500 rubles. Plus, the old pillowcase will have to be thrown away, and you will pay extra for a new cover.
How to clean down pillows at home
If you do not trust dry cleaners, you can always do the work yourself, without any extra money.
How to clean feather pillows? First you need to determine the feather and fluff of which birds are stuffed with products. If this is a chicken feather, then it would be better to contact the dry cleaners, focusing the attention of employees on the need for dry cleaning, without the use of steam. Otherwise, the feathers may simply crumble into fibers.
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But if the pen is goose or duck, feel free to get to work on your own. You can clean the filling of feather pillows by hand or machine washing.
Handwash
Goose or duck feather pillows can be cleaned with laundry soap and ammonia.
To clean your pillow effectively, you first need to decide which detergent you will enjoy.
It can be laundry soap with ammonia (half a bar of soap is rubbed on a grater, dissolved in one bucket of water and two teaspoons of ammonia are added there).
If you don’t want to mess around with the preparation of such a solution, use a detergent for washing woolen fabrics. The work must be done in the following sequence:
- Spread the pillow, and in parts immerse the filler, laid out in bags, into the prepared solution. This must be done carefully, tightly tying the bags, otherwise the light fluff will scatter throughout the room.
- After all the fluff is immersed in the liquid, “stir” it a little with your hands and leave it to soak for 4-6 hours.
- Then remove the filler from the cleaning solution and rinse clean water. Do it better with the help of the shower. If you want to give your feathers a scent, you can treat them with fabric softener before the final rinse.
- To dry the feather filler, lay it on a flat surface in a well-ventilated area and cover with cheesecloth on top. The feather will take a long time to dry, usually it takes several days.
- Sew the dried clean fluff into a new pillowcase.
Remember that you need to wait until the pen is completely dry, and only then lay it out on the pillowcases. Otherwise, excess moisture will spoil the filler, and it will be impossible to correct the situation.
Machine wash
With the help of a typewriter, it is possible to wash the pillow without disassembling it. The main condition is that it must be in a special case. If this is not done, there is a high risk that the pillowcase will break and the fluff will clog the working parts of the machine.
At the moment, you can buy pillows with absolutely any filler. But like our mothers, fathers and grandmothers, the choice often falls on feather ones. And in this article we will tell you about all the intricacies of caring for pillows with feather filler. Namely: Let's get started. How to clean a down pillow? Basically, we all love feather pillows because of their long lifespan. But there is one important detail - a feather pillow will serve you as long as possible if you clean it once every six months. You can take your item to the dry cleaners where the professionals will take care of it, and here's how they do it: Important! You will also find a lot of useful information in the article, .
How to wash a pillow, there are other ways: Further, the feathers are simply packaged according to new pillowcases, as a result, at the output we get a very soft and pleasant to the touch product. Cool, right? But for this event we will have to give a good amount of money - we won’t say exactly how much, it depends on the place where you do it, it’s different everywhere. But, if you're on a budget or just don't want to pay to have your pillow cleaned, here's how to clean feather pillows at home. Yes, if you still decide to clean the pillow with your own hands, then you have chosen, perhaps, the best way to care for such an important household item. Yes, of course, you will have to work hard enough, but the result is worth it, believe me. The washing itself is not difficult, the most difficult thing is to dry everything, especially since this must be done as well as possible. Important! It is worth considering that in the composition of such pillows you can find not only feathers but also bird fluff, therefore, cleaning should take place in several stages, between which we will make time intervals. Initially, you have to find out what kind of feather your old pillow consists of, which needs to be washed or completely redone. This can be seen on the product label. Important! You can wash feathers and down only waterfowl! If it consists of chicken feathers, then you can safely dispose of it. Many people wonder - is it possible to wash the pillow completely without removing the contents? It is possible, but there is one “but”: during the washing process, it will become so heavy that it cannot be washed by hand, there is simply not enough strength, and it is forbidden to wash it in a typewriter. No, of course, you can wash it in a typewriter, but in this way you will not achieve the desired effect, but only get rid of dirt and dust. And plus, when washing in a typewriter, all the feathers will stick together, get into lumps, from which it will simply be impossible to get rid of. Because of this, the pillow will simply go to waste. But our task is to clean the product, not get rid of it, right? As a result, the answer to this question is that it is better to wash them separately. How? Now we will provide you with step-by-step instructions for the restoration of feather pillows with your own hands manually. Important! Washing the pillow should be carried out in the warm season. Important! The basin for the solution should be sufficiently voluminous. Important! You should not shove everything at once, otherwise your bath will turn into a chicken coop. That's all, congratulations, your pillow is perfectly clean, while not losing its softness and size, and this is very important. Important! All only useful information about manufacturing technology, cleaning, storage, and you will also find in our article about .
If such a laborious process scared you, or you just don’t have much free time, then you can wash the feathers in a typewriter. But for this you need to take into account a couple of very important factors, which will protect the washing machine from failure and the pillow from the appearance of lumps: Important! If you are also thinking about changing your traditional bed linen, learn all about a good alternative - « How to clean a feather pillow?”- this is the question asked by the housewives who did not have time to abandon such a sleeping item in favor of modern synthetic pillows. The reason for this may be the banal financial inability to acquire new item home comfort. Why is it worth regularly cleaning pillows stuffed with feathers or down? Among the main reasons, we highlight the fact that: Now that we are convinced of the need for routine cleaning of feather pillows, we can begin to analyze how this can be done at home quickly, simply and effectively. It is best to clean a pillow filled with feathers and down at home manually. There are several reasons for this: Before proceeding directly to washing feather pillows, you need to clarify a few more important points. Many housewives are interested in how best to clean a feather pillow: whole or removing the contents? In favor of the latter option, at least the fact that washing even a small pillow of feathers as a whole is sometimes beyond the power of even an adult strong man. This is because wetted feathers increase in weight several times. Therefore, the parts of the pillow will definitely be cleaned separately. Also, a completely logical question may arise as to which feather pillows can generally be washed and wet cleaned? Everything is simple here: you can only clean those pillows that were made from the feathers of waterfowl. Any other feathers, especially chicken feathers, will become hard under the influence of water, and after drying they will turn into dust. It is recommended to simply throw away the pillow with chicken feathers. When we have dealt with the basic issues, you can start cleaning the feather pillow at home manually. Choose a warm season and a sunny windy day for scheduled cleaning and cleaning of pillows and other sleeping items made of feathers and down. If you are interested in exactly where it is better to clean a feather pillow, then the easiest way is to go to the country. Despite the fact that this method seems long and laborious, it is the most effective and correct. A feather pillow cleaned in this way at home will not lose volume, it will remain as soft and pleasant to the touch. It is recommended to carry out scheduled cleaning of the sleeping object at least once a year. The machine wash of the feather pillow is also possible and, in fact, it is practically no different from the previous method. Of course, this method will require less time and effort, but is fraught with other problems. In order to properly and quickly clean the feather pillow in the washing machine at home, it is also necessary to separate the sleeping item into feathers and a pillowcase. In addition to the fact that we need gauze bags for feathers and fluff, we also need to protect the washing machine filter from getting small parts of feathers into it. To do this, you need to purchase a special cover for the drum. The washing process is as follows: After such a wash, be sure to make sure that there are no feathers and fluff left in the machine, if possible, disassemble the filter. Such cleaning, although it will require less effort from you, can lead to damage to a household item. An alternative to home cleaning feather pillows is dry cleaning. There, the feathers will be cleaned and dried correctly and efficiently. Most often, dry cleaners use not wet, but dry cleaning of feather pillows. Also cleaning involves complete replacement a pillowcase, after which you become the owner of an almost new and completely clean feather pillow. Despite all the love for feather pillows, many doctors recommend abandoning such a sleeping item and using only synthetic sleeping items in everyday life. This is because, according to statistics, people who use feather-filled pillows get much worse sleep than those who sleep on pillows made from other materials. In any case, both feather and synthetic pillows should be kept clean and tidy! Products with natural feathers can be found in every home, with the exception of allergy sufferers who got rid of them a long time ago. And there are several good reasons for this. Firstly, feather products are quickly salted, there is bad smell. In specialized dry cleaners, they work with reagents that destroy bacteria and dust mites. Secondly, in the fluff of birds that have not been cleaned for at least 2-3 months, mites, the main causative agents of allergies, start up. And thirdly, cleaning feather things is troublesome and unpleasant. But if you are so attached to natural types of products, then now we will figure out how to clean feathers quickly and without red tape. Some housewives mistakenly believe that feathers can be cleaned with a conventional vacuum cleaner. However, mites are able to secrete gluten, which is attached to feathers. It is impossible to tear them off by blowing air. The method is suitable if the cleaning object did not have time to get very dirty, in advanced cases There is only one way out - washing. How to clean feathers in pillows? It is not recommended to clean the feather in pillows or other products by placing it entirely in the washing machine. Fluff will bunch up, and cleaning will be of poor quality. To dry, place the feathers in a pillowcase made of thick fabric, tie tightly. The first stage is carried out in washing machine in the "Spin" mode. Then give the pillowcase a good shake to check for lumps. Hang it in a well-ventilated place. Shake periodically until the feathers are completely dry, otherwise they will rot, an unpleasant smell will appear, and all efforts will be in vain. A new wash or dryer will not save the thing, you will have to throw it away. After proper drying, fold the down into a new pillowcase and stitch thoroughly. Dry cleaning There is no time to mess with feather products at home, and there is not enough money to give it to dry cleaning - choose the golden mean: quick cleaning. Take the pillow to a special workshop, wait 20 minutes. During this time, the feathers will be cleaned, exposed to ultraviolet radiation - there will be no trace of bacteria and mites. The cost of the service is available at any budget level.
Pillow Cleaning Methods
We clean the pillow at home
What kind of feathers are washable?
Are we erasing the whole thing or are we extracting the contents?
Washing steps:
We wash the pillow in the washing machine
We clean the feather pillow at home manually
Machine wash
How to clean a pen at home?
How to clean feathers: drying