How To Wash Pillows With Baking Soda

Are you wondering how to wash pillows with baking soda? As you know, Pillows, as one of the most-used items in our home, are prone to accumulate dirt, dead skin cells, stains, and even microbes.

These pillows can sometimes be used as back support; every night, we use a pillow or three to cushion our heads.

That is why no wonder they usually stink and their surface becomes yellowish. This makes it all the very necessary that you know how to clean pillows.

Cleaning your pillows is a simple process. And to show you just how easy it is, we’ve put together some handy guides that walk you through the process to help you remove these stinky smells and yellowish linings on your pillows by machine washing and hand washing pillows. Read on…

Definitive Guide On How To Wash Pillows With Baking Soda

Baking soda is a natural deodorizer and can remove the unwanted smell from fabrics. It can also whiten pillows when mixed with vinegar, dishwasher detergent, and laundry detergent.

Things you will need:

Baking soda
Water
Vinegar
Laundry detergent
Dishwasher detergent

First, to wash pillows with baking soda, prepare the baking soda paste by mixing baking soda with water.

Then, get clean cotton or a towel to dip into your baking soda paste. Finally, you dab the surface of your pillows, covering all the yellow stains, and let it stay for half an hour before placing them in the washing machine.

How To Wash Pillows With Baking Soda In The Washing Machine

Before washing your pillows, remember the basic rule of thumb to read the care labels first.

While most pillows are machine-washed safe such as fiberfill, synthetic, and down pillows, some might require spot cleaning only, like foam pillows.

Therefore, it is better to know this first to save you and your pillows from damaging and wasting your time. Otherwise, you can start washing your pillows.

Step 1: Remove The Pillow From Pillowcase And Pillow Protector

As you know, to access the core pillow, you must remove it from its case. Therefore, after you undress your pillow, massage the surface and corners first to fluff out and air out your pillow.

Step 2: Spot Treat Any Stains In Your Pillow

Pillows are prone to staining and have some musty odor due to sweat, markup, dirt, and sometimes food stains that find their way to your pillow.

So before you put your pillows in the washing machine, spot treats any stains in the pillow using a stain removal spray. But if the stain removal sprays are not available in your household? Do not worry; we got you.

You can still achieve the same effect if no stain removal spray is available by making an alternative using a baking soda paste.

Listed below are the steps on how to do it:

Mix baking soda with water until you make the same consistency as a paste.
Get clean cotton or a towel to dip in the baking soda paste.
Spot clean any deep stain by dabbing the surface of your pillow.
Let it stay for 30 minutes before tossing your pillows in the washer.

Step 3: Wash Your Pillows In A Mixture Of Vinegar, Baking Soda, And Detergents

Rather for you to wash your pillows in standard laundry detergent, try to run a load with your standard detergent together with vinegar, baking soda, and dishwasher detergent. The added ingredients will help to whiten your pillows.

Below are the steps on how to do it.

Mix the following ingredients:

½ cup of vinegar
1 cup of dishwasher detergent
¾ cup of baking soda
3 tablespoons of laundry detergent

After mixing all the ingredients, it is ready to run for the first cycle.

Remember not to use bleach to remove stains; sometimes, it can worsen stains rather than remove them.

Step 4: Run The Second Cycle

After you have washed your pillows in the mixture, you can run for the second cycle.

Remember to use hot water only or in a mixture with ½ cup of vinegar, as this can remove any remaining detergent that remains after the first cycle and give your pillows a quick sanitizing effect.

Step 5: Check The Color Of Your Pillow

After the second cycle of washing, remove your pillows from the washer, and check to see if the color of your pillows has improved.

Otherwise, you can put your pillows back into the washer. This time treat your pillows with ¼ cup of peroxide, as this is a safer bleach solution.

After you run for the third cycle, check for the following signs whether your pillows are still capable of keeping or you need to replace them with a new one:

If the color of your pillow is still yellow after you strictly follow all the procedures, the color of your pillow cannot be salvageable.
If the color of your pillow is your only concern, and the pillow does not smell stinky, musty, or sweaty, you can conceal the color of your pillow by placing your pillow in a pillowcase.
If your pillow still has that disgusting odor, it is time to replace it and buy a new pillow.

Step 6: Place Your Pillows In The Dryer

After you give your verdict, if your pillows are still worthy of washing, it is time to dry your pillows.

Firstly, toss the pillow in a clean dryer, then set your dryer in an “air dry or low heat setting.”
Throw a couple of tennis balls to fluff your pillows, as tennis balls will punch your pillows as they dry and creating a more even dry cycle. However, these tennis balls may produce a rubbery smell on your pillows.
To mask the smell, wrap the tennis balls in clean socks or an old shirt to mask the smell.
To dry your pillows completely, you can hang pillows outdoors on a clothesline. Aside from drying your pillows under the sun, the sun’s heat acts as a natural disinfectant leaving your pillows a fresh and natural smell while providing a natural bleaching agent against dirt, oil, and stains.
Once your pillows are completely dried, you can put your newly washed pillowcases on your pillows.
Finally, add 2-3 drops of your favorite essential oil to your pillow for extra fragrance and aroma.

How To Wash Pillows With Baking Soda By Hand

There may be some instances where a washing machine is unavailable in your household you can get creative with washing your pillows by placing them under the sun. Here are practical steps on how to do it successfully.

Step 1: Follow The Special Care Tags Of Your Pillows

It is important for you not to ignore these warnings printed on your pillows.

Memory foam pillows, these pillows are not water safe. Therefore, you may use spot treatments such as baking soda paste or vinegar mist to eliminate odor.

Step 2: Treating Your Pillows

Place your pillows under the sun to lighten them. After a few hours, spray the surface of your pillows with the white vinegar solution.

Here are the things you will need:

Spray bottle
White vinegar
Essential oil

How To Make The Mist Solution:

First, fill the spray bottle with white vinegar
To mask the pungent smell of the white vinegar, add 10 drops of your favorite essential oil.

Here are some good essential oils you could choose:

Lavender
Vanilla
Citrus
Rosemary

Mix the solution vigorously and then spray the surface of the pillow.

Alternatively, if there is no white vinegar in your household, you can apply baking soda paste to your pillow’s stains.

Step 3: Place Your Pillow In A Basin With Warm Water And Gentle Detergent

This step only applies to pillows that are best for hand washing, such as down pillows, feather pillows, wool pillows, and polyester fiberfill pillows.

If you have fiberfill pillows, soak and squeeze them 3-7 times, allowing the detergent to do its job. Hence, you can paste dishwasher detergent, vinegar, and baking soda to make it more effective.

Here are the steps to make it:

Mix 1 cup of dishwasher detergent, ½ cup of vinegar, and ¾ cup of baking soda in a bowl. Mix until you get a paste-like consistency.
Using a toothbrush, scoop an ample paste, and brush to the surface of your pillow.
Leave it for 30 minutes, then rinse your pillows.

Step 4: Rinse Your Pillows

Fill the basin with cool and running water to wash off the paste you applied a while ago. Rinse your pillows until the pillows do not feel soapy. Otherwise, your pillows are ready for drying.

Read Also: How to wash a baby pillow

Which Baking Soda Can I Use To Wash Pillows?

There are different brands of baking soda available in the market. I have shortlisted of well-rated brands of baking soda on Amazon for your reference:

Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day: It is made from baking soda, natural minerals, plant-derived ingredients, and essential oils.
Arm & Hammer Pure Baking Soda: This is the most well-known brand of baking soda, recognizing it as America’s #1 trusted brand.
Milliard Baking Soda: It is made from anhydrous pure powdered sodium bicarbonate with no additives or preservatives. It is an odorless, opaque white powder, available in 2lb., 5lb., 10lb., and 50 lb.
Dr. Clark Pure Baking Soda Powder is made from sodium bicarbonate powder USP.
Clabber Girl, Multi-purpose Baking Soda: This baking soda can be used as a great leavening agent, deodorizing agent, and cleaning agent. It is made from 100% sodium bicarbonate.

Based on customer reviews, Arm & Hammer Pure Baking Soda is the best for cleaning and laundry. It is the most trusted brand of baking soda all around the world.

Read Also: How To Wash Memory Foam Pillow

Cleanliness Tips For Your Pillows

After all your hard work, we want to ensure you develop good cleanliness habits to keep your pillows in tip-top shape.

Whether you follow a simple routine or not, we believe these six tips will point you in the right direction.

Wash your face at night to remove makeup or oil and prevent them from staining your pillows.
Always change your pillowcases once a week to limit the amount of sweat and natural body oils seep into pillows.
Always keep mold and mildew away by using natural linen sprays, which can double as soothing sleep aids.
Always use pillow protectors to help lessen the amount of dirt, hair, dead skin, makeup, and sweat that come into contact with your pillow.
Vacuum pillows that cannot be machine washed to remove dust mites and skin flakes.
Machine wash pillows at least twice a year for machine wash-safe pillows. You can wash them more often (experts recommend every three months), but this ultimately depends on your body and sleep habits.
Check out our personalized bedding if you need a new duvet cover or some shams to accompany your fresh pillows.

Read Also: How to wash snoogle pillow

Conclusion

I hope you have learned something from this article, “How to wash pillows with baking soda”. If you have mysterious allergies or need to freshen up the bedroom, it might be time to wash the pillows.

Remember, by adhering to the care instructions from the manufacturer. You can clean your pillows many times without damaging them.

If you have any questions or want to share tips and experiences with washing your pillow with baking soda, drop your comment or suggestion below. We would love to hear what you have to think about.