How to Wash Bamboo Bedding

Short answer: Bamboo bedding is washed at 30 to 40 degrees without fabric softener and with half the dose of detergent. That is the whole recipe. Everything else you can do to a set either makes it less soft or makes it last less long than it should.

The temperature

Wash at 40 degrees the first time and at 30 after that. 60 degrees is only needed if there is illness in the house, and it wears the fibres noticeably. At 30 degrees bedding comes clean, because it is not dirty the way kitchen textiles are.

The amount of detergent

Use half of what the packet suggests. Too much detergent stays in the large piece of fabric and makes it stiff and greyish over time. That is the most common reason a set feels rough after a year, rather than wear.

Never fabric softener

Fabric softener settles as a film in the fibres and removes the very ability to move moisture that you bought bamboo for. It feels soft for the first few nights and clammy after that, because the moisture can no longer get away.

Fill the machine halfway

A bedding set needs room to move around in the drum. A full machine does not rinse the detergent out, which is why bedding in particular goes stiff more often than the rest of the laundry in the house.

Close the cover

Close the buttons or the zip before washing. An open cover catches everything else in the machine and comes out as a bag with the sheet and pillowcases inside, which means none of it has been properly washed.

Wash the set together

Wash the cover, the sheet and the pillowcases together, so they fade at the same rate. If parts of the set are washed more often than the rest, the colours drift apart, and that shows most clearly on a dark set.

Drying

Hang the set to dry rather than tumble drying it. Heat is what wears bamboo viscose fastest. Hung up while still damp, the fabric smooths itself out, and then it rarely needs ironing afterwards.

Ironing

If you do need to iron, do it on low heat while the fabric is still slightly damp. High heat can leave shiny marks that cannot be washed out again, and they show most clearly on dark colours.

Stains

A stain has to be treated before the set goes in the machine, because a wash at 30 degrees will not remove it on its own. Lay a damp cloth on it and let it soak rather than rubbing, which pulls the colour out.

How often

Change the bedding weekly, or fortnightly if only one person sleeps in the bed and does not perspire much. See the other sets under bamboo bedding if a clean set should be ready every time. See also washing and caring for bamboo clothing and why the more expensive purchase is cheaper in the long run.