Changing the bedding

Maybe changing the bedding often might not mean the washer on every day . I don't put on a wash unless the machine is full , I put on clean PJs oftener that changing the linen , but I do like a clean pillowcase . I do remember Mum making the top sheet do another week as a bottom sheet

Wheniwasyourage - we were in Cape Town for past 3 weeks and there is a severe dought at the moment, and it is only Spring- when all reservoirs should be full. It's going to get worse and worse as Summer begins to bite.

So we did exactly that, and kept our towels for the next day neatly on the rack - and they were changed in 3 of the places we stayed. Each time I complained to Senior Management that I was NOT happy about the waste. They put the signs to pay lip service to environmental measures - but change still change them ... GRRRRRR.

f77ms - am aware of the proper meaning of OCD - and think the question is still valid. How would those who change towels daily and change beds every other day, etc- feel if a draught of energy crisis stopped them from doing so? For some it would be OK, for others, a very uncomfortable disaster (OCD)

I'm with Luckygirl, not saying as I hate changing the beds so tend to put it off and off and off!!

I'm with luckygirl and the other environmental campaigners. Sheets every 3 weeks, towels every week apart from bath towels which are not shared and are every 2 weeks. The dirt goes down the plughole in the bath or the shower, and the water dries off the towel. People don't seem to be avoiding us as if we are unsavoury, or if they are, we haven't noticed.

The spare bed is made up only when visitors are due and the sheets are washed when they leave (unless the same visitors are coming back next) and the spare bed is regularly hoovered to keep it dust-free.

I get very irate when hotels claim to be environmentally friendly and ask you to hang your towels back on the rail if you want to keep them and put them on the floor if you want them changed, and then when you hang them up neatly CHANGE THEM ANYWAY

I'm saying nothing, on the grounds that I may incriminate myself as being a lazy slut!

OCD is nothing to do with cleanliness , it is a mental illness which manifests itself sometimes in being `over clean` but usually by adopting a set of rituals / behaviours which the sufferer uses to fend off overwhelming anxiety and fear . I am also guilty of misusing the phrase but do know what it really means . Changing the bed too often is not a mental illness just personal choice , lots of people like the feel and smell of clean sheets and dislike the feel and smell of stale ones .

?

Question, where does cleanliness end and OCD begin...

Synon I do the same for the cloakroom by the back door, always a dark brown towel for his nibs there.Just have to clean the tiles off ( mucky scum from hands waved about.)

We don't have any set routines for changing household linen and I only wash stuff when I feel it is necessary and that depends on who has used what.
Our guest room is permanently made up for a friend, who stays a night or two now and then, so it gets changed only very occasionally or when I am expecting someone different.
Having put in PV panels the way I now do everything has changed. I keep an eye on the weather and if it is really sunny then I go for as many 'free' washes as I can get done before the sun disappears again. I also use the dryer for fluffing up the towels but again only when the sun is shining which means they can sit in the dryer waiting for a while. At this time of the year when the weather is not so good I sometimes have to just bite the bullet and splash out on the power if I need to.

I had to smile at those who say their OH seems to use the hand towel to wipe the dirt off. DH was very miffed when I mentioned this in the past so I bought some black and dark brown hand towels to put in the cloakroom at the back door for when he comes in from the garden. He can now do what he likes and I don't care because the pink girly towel is mine!
I just wish he wouldn't use the nail brush and scoot all the mucky scum up the wall! I haven't yet worked out how to circumvent that one.

Well I have just changed my bedding, earlier than intended but because of this thread thought I should. Planned to leave it til After Christmas!!? I have to say it was a proper faff, (awkward new duvet cover) and had to use pegs to keep the top of it straight while sorting out the bottom. we have a large bed and got completely tangled up in it all. We had words. ? He has now gone off to play bowls. ?
Yes clean sheets are nice, but certainly would t want to have to do that every week!! Or even every 2. Now i have to hang it all round the house as I don't think it would dry in the garden today.
My mum never had a washing, machine, she washed everything by hand and therefore sheets were not changed more than necessary. In those days we bathed washed hair and changed underwear once a week. I survived.
However guests always have clean bedding ..of course.
We bath, we shower, we air the bed. ''Tis enough, surely.

Our bedding once a fortnight.
I don't change spare room sheets unless necessary - it's often the same person/one of dds, and Dh and I use that bed now and then - esp. me if I can't sleep and want the radio on - and dds never mind sleeping in our sheets.
Fresh go on for anyone else, of course. I might even iron them?

In theory I'd like to change our own more often but we have a very big bed and it's such a faff drying huge duvet covers and getting them on again.
Still, it saves water and electricity - that's my excuse, anyway!

from me too . I change my bedding weekly , towels daily. I have two adult sons at home and change theirs fortnightly , usually when they are out because they think this is very OCD of me . Not sure how often they would do it if left to their own devices .

I read once that if two people sleep in the bed every week but if one person every two weeks. I am on my own and I shower every day...so sheets every three weeks.

Wow what an mixture of replies, Im not sure how to put this so apologies in advance if it offends, for those who dont wash their bedding weekly surely you wouldnt wear the same clothes for two weeks or more so why leave the bedding for so long before its washed?
I do have a top and bottom sheet so I dont have to change the duvet cover so often, I also have mulberry silk duvets which dont need washing, they just need airing twice a year. Expensive yes but worth it.

Oldgoat, no thats not normal having a shower and a bath every day! what a waste of water and expensive if your on a water meter!

DanieRae I also air my bed daily with the window open of course.

I don't think we do more washing than in previous times. My mother always changed the beds every week so I probably launder ours less often than she did. There were seven of us so that was a lot of bedding! Also blankets were washed in the summer and she also washed the curtains regularly.

JudthePud - well yes, same here now- family and friends usually come for a week ot two due to distance- was thinking about when we lived in the UK and when we are at teh flat in the UK.

oldgoat yes I shower every morning and have a bath every night! I can't sleep well without a bath to ease muscle aches. Dannirae I air our bed off each morning with the window open. I change bed linen every 2 weeks except for our pillowcases which is every 3/4 days. Towels are done weekly. I change flannels daily but do hate having them in the wash basket waiting to be washed!

BTW my family visits don't last just overnight. They usually stay a week at Christmas and Easter so yes I do change the beds after every visit!

Must say I find it incredible that people expect guests to use the sheets of previous guests !!! If one daughter comes on her own and use a bed for a night or two, then here sister comes on her own the next week- then they say, don't change the bed mum, I don't mind. But I wouldn't like to sleep in the sheets someone else has used, I have to say.

Am a stickler for clean tea towels- and towels and white sheets are washed at 60C - everything else at 30C. And I only used the tumble dryer to fluff up towel when nearly dried- and never for anything else unless the weather is just too dire.

As said, we could save tons of water and electricity if you think of the combined effect of washing towels after just a couple os use and sheets weekly or less. Quite shocked ...

I have said for a long, long time that if I ever won the lottery, I would have someone come in on a daily basis to change the sheets and pillowcases.
The sheets and pillow cases would be the best cotton that money could buy, and pure white. They would be ironed to perfection and smell of the summer breeze.
My idea of complete and utter bliss ?.

I wash bedding fortnightly. Any longer and I find it's very rumpled so harder to sleep. I use a top sheet and so only change duvet cover every 6 weeks or so. When DH was alive I changed weekly - he was a hot person and I felt the bedding needed washing. Towels weekly. My sons who live at home change theirs approx. monthly. I have bedrooms for my youngest and DGC and change theirs when I remember (not often) or when someone else stays.

Makes me smile to see how many people change sheets as often as their mums did. When I talked about something to do with washing bedding that I did as my mum did I was told I was 'slavishly' following what she did.
I change bedding fortnightly, towels weekly or occasionally longer.

I change our bed every Saturday, bathroom towels twice/three times a week, kitchen towels at least 3 clean towels and 3 tea towels a day, bit OCD in the kitchen.