Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Washing a Down Comforter



Ok, so here is my inaugural post for the infamous WFMW. I can't believe I have been blogging for 4 years and never participated in this. Maybe I just don't have a bunch of useful tips? I dunno, but I have sure enjoyed everyone elses. ANYWHO...As you can plainly see from my last post, we have been camping. Not only last weekend, but the weekend before as well. It got a bit chilly overnight, so in order to keep warm, I took along my...brace yourself...Grandmother's satin down comforter. Why I would do such a thing is impertinent to this post, but suffice it to say, it needed to be washed afterward. After MUCHO Googling I embarked upon my cleaning journey. The results have been wonderful, so I thought I would share:

It is recommended that you send your comforters to the cleaners, but alot of times the cost of that is ridiculous. So, I put the comforter into a prefilled tub of water with about a cupful of baby shampoo (I would have used Woolite or some other gentle detergent, but I didn't have any on hand), and I brought in my 4 year old to go to town with me. We just squeezed and pushed and agitated until our arms felt like they would fall off and the water was NAS-TAY. I drained the tub and refilled it with clean water 2 times for the rinse, then I squeezed out as much water as possible and headed to the washing machine where I put it in on the spin cycle.

I hung it out to dry for a few hours and then brought it in to my dryer. I put it on low heat for about 45 minutes with a clean tennis ball to break up any clumps of down and then pulled it out to hand fluff it myself.

It was a decent amount of work, but it is only supposed to be done every 3-5 years. The same method can be used with down pillows as well, only more frequently if needed (like once a year).

For more WFMW tips, go to http://rocksinmydryer.typepad.com/ Have a great day!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey there,
I just joined in on this for the first time too. WOW. Lot's of people do this!
Great tip on the comforter thing. I have the lumpy issue too. Like the tennis ball idea.

Have a great day!

Leanne said...

wow, I'll remember this tip the next time I want to wash my grandmother's satin down comforter!!! *snicker snicker*

Really, it's a good tip, and I do have a down comforter on my bed, but it's a CA king comforter, and um, it's as big as Texas, and I don't know about your washing machine, but mine ain't that big, darlin'! So we just wallow in grime!! lol!!!

Thanks for the tip, and I think I'll have to join the WFMW women!

Leanne in longview

Halfmoon Girl said...

Tennis ball! I will remember that. Too bad I didn't know that before I made my comforter all lumpy! Thanks for the tip!

CC said...

We use dryer balls in our dryer so I don't worry about that part. But using the tub... THAT is brilliant!