Your body secretes an oily substance, known as sebum, which lubricates your skin and prevents it from cracking. When your body produces more sebum than it needs you tend to have oily skin, and the excess oil can stain your bedding. Body oil is odourless, but it leaves unsightly yellowish stains on pillow cases and sheets and these stains can be difficult to remove.
Additionally, if you're prone to sweating in bed you'll know sweat can leave your bedding with a musky odour that can linger after putting your sheets through a hot wash. Body oil stains and odours can make your bedding look older and more worn than it is, and they don't exactly make your bed a comfortable place to spend eight hours every night. Here's how to rid your bedding of body oil stains and foul odours:
Body Oil Stain And Odour Removal
Follow this cleaning routine for fresher bedding:
- Put your bedding through a hot wash with your normal detergent. Once the washing machine has finished, leave the bedding in the machine.
- Add 50ml of dish soap and 125g of soda crystals to your washing machine's detergent drawer. Dish soap does a good job at breaking down oils and soda crystals are a powerful natural stain remover and odour neutraliser. They are also gentler on the skin than products containing bleach.
- Add 100ml of distilled white vinegar to your machine's fabric softener drawer. Vinegar is a natural odour neutraliser and disinfectant. It'll also leave your bedding inviting and soft without any hint of a vinegar smell.
- Once you've added the dish soap, soda crystals and distilled white vinegar, set your washing machine to the hot wash cycle once more. Allow the machine to fill with water and pause the wash cycle for half an hour. This lets your bedding soak and gives the dish soap and soda crystals time to start breaking down the oils and stains.
- Restart your washing machine and leave it to finish the wash cycle.
You can dry your sheets on a drying rack or in a tumble dryer, but they're best dried in the sun if at all possible. Bacteria can cause odours on bedding and the ultraviolet radiation produced by the sun will kill any lingering bacteria. Additionally, drying your sheets and pillowcases outdoors leaves them with a fresh smell that can't be replicated with fabric softener.
If you have bedding that's been subjected to years of sweat and body oil stains, you may want to start afresh with new bedding and implement this cleaning routine on a weekly basis. Talk to experts like Sweetdreams Bedding Co to find new bedding that will hold up better against oil or sweat stains.
