Washing a set without ruining it

What our labels say

56 of the 66 sets here are machine washable, 44 ask for cold water and 25 ask for a low dryer setting. 20 say plainly not to bleach them. Where a set says something different, its own page carries its own line, and that line wins over anything on this one.

The machine has to be big enough

A King comforter in a domestic drum is the most common way a set gets damaged. Water cannot move through fabric that has nowhere to go, so the filling shifts, bunches into one corner and stays there. If the drum is full before the water is in, the set belongs at a laundromat instead.

Heat is what does the damage

• Wash cold. Warm water sets stains that cold water would have lifted, and it is harder on printed color.
• Dry low and dry longer. Filled bedding takes time, and no amount of heat makes it take less.
• Take it out slightly early and finish it over a rail. The last of the damp leaves on its own and the fibres are not cooked to get there.
• Two clean tennis balls in the dryer break up the filling as it turns, which is the difference between an even quilt and a lumpy one.

The first wash and the ones after

Wash a new set on its own the first time. Loose dye from a printed top comes out in that cycle and it will find anything pale sharing the drum. After that the top layer wants washing far less often than the sheets under it, which is a quiet argument for buying the sheets with the set.

Store it folded and loose rather than squashed into a vacuum bag for months. Filling that has been flat for a season does come back, but it takes a day over a line to do it.