Cleaning, sanitation and hygiene are the main pillars to build a safe, germ – free and good living environment in the house. Those are the activities which you must follow in your day to day life and have to be conscious about regularly following steps for cleaning purposes. What do you mean by the cleaning of your home? Cleaning of the home includes each and every part and objects of the home, whether it is a small pin or a large drawing room, each and every corner, each and every edge, each and every roof and floor, and each and every object must be cleaned.
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While doing the process of cleaning of your home you must make sure that the thing with which you are very touchy throughout the day likewise pillows, couch, mattress, mattress cover, table and many more such things, you must clean them at first priority because those are the things which collects dust and germs and bring it to you with a direct contact, thus, to avoid such germs and dust enter your body start cleaning up the things at first which remains in constant touch with you, if you didn’t do such then there must be a high risk for you; as the germs and dirt makes contact with your body which gives a rise to bacterial and microbial organism which further becomes the cause of a serious disease. Sand includes silica particle and those particles cause a disease name “pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis”, a fact the disease name “pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis” is the longest name disease in the world known yet.
Things which are continuously in touch with us, collecting germs and dust are mainly pillows, mattress cover, couch, sofa, etc. At night we rest our head on a pillow, if the pillow contains germs or it is not clean then it may be the one of the reasons to make you fall ill. The germs present in the pillow will enter through your eyes, ears, and mouth; make sure that things like pillow must be cleaned regularly and must be germ free. For maintaining a clean pillow it must be washed about 4 – 6 times a year, doing so will not only create a safe living environment it will also help you in increasing the durability of the pillows. And yes, we are not taking into consideration that just pillows must be cleaned regularly, though mattress, mattress toppers, couch and many more things must be also cleaned regularly for a healthier environment. Furthermore cleaning the things regularly will make your home look neat and tidy.
source: cleanipedia.com
Pillows are made of different – different materials, moreover one can find out many types of verities whether it is in shape, size, material and color. Pillows are mostly made up of materials like foam, feather, and down and fibers. Thus, cleaning of every type of pillow is done in a different way. Many of the pillows are washable in the washing machine; some are okay with just dry cleaning or spot – treating. Here, in The Architecture Designs, we have step – by – step instructions for you; following those instructions will help you in washing the pillow in the right way.
How to wash a pillow?
There are various types of washing done accordingly keeping the shape, size and material of the pillow in mind. Mainly there are two types of pillows used most often across all over the world.
- Microfiber, down and feather pillows
These types of pillows are nowadays in trend as they are affordable and easy to clean. They are made of raw materials like polyester and nylon, thus they have a long lasting durability too.
- Foam pillows
Foam pillows are mainly made up of polyurethane chemicals, they are very light in weight and can be compressed in any shape and size easily, cleaning of such pillows must be done precisely as there is a high risk of some kind of chemical reactions.
How to wash microfiber, down and feather pillow?
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As mentioned earlier these types of pillows are easy to clean and maintain, if you have such pillows then you are in good luck, as they are friendly with machine washing and can bear the load of machine washing, all you need to do is just toss your pillow in the washing machine as you do it with other clothes, but do not mix them with your clothes while washing, manage some time to wash them out separately it would make your cleaning much better.
Do not toss just a single pillow while washing in a machine would wash it in an unbalanced manner which can cause a large damage to your pillow. Be sure, while washing pillows toss two or more than two pillows at a time just with the aspect to prevent damage and to balance the washer evenly. If your machine does not have an agitator (agitator is a large spindle in the middle of machine) then you can toss your pillow in your washing machine in any position but if it has agitator then be aware to keep your pillows vertically otherwise it will damage your pillow.
You must have had noticed a label is been attached to your pillow, in that label they have mentioned out some tips to wash your pillow. In case you have detached it or lost it then do follow step – by – step instruction for washing your pillow in a right way.
source: popsuger.com.au
– Wash them two at a time, toss your pillows directly in the washing machine, and be choosy about their position if your washing machine has an agitator, just to prevent the damage.
– Select the cycle and time; use warm water to wash your pillow using warm water will help in removing deep stain along with extracting out the germs from the pillow.
– After filling your washer with warm water and selecting the cycle time switch to the largest load size, before adding detergent in it.
– Now, add a half cup of washing powder which would help in removing stain and to whiten up the color of your pillow, add some lavender oil also to lend a smoothing platform to your pillow throughout the washing process, it will also make your pillow smell good instead of pungent smell.
– When one cycle gets completed, add extra cold water, rinse and spin cycle for the minimum possible time. For enhancing the overall cleaning.
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– After finishing all the processes we move ahead for our last step that is drying. If you have dryer then well and good after the washing put your pillow in the dryer, as it has filled up microfibers in it so it would take some extra time to get dried up, for making the process faster and easier add some dry towels so that they will soak up some water from pillow and will make the pillow dry, for maintain the fluffiness toss a couple of tennis ball in it. As you have kept a pillow for a long time in the dryer it would arise with a musty smell for that keep it in the sun for a couple of hours to remove the stench from it.
These are the steps for pillow washing, following this step – by – step instruction you can make your pillow clean and appear like it is the new one.
How to clean foam pillows?
Foam pillows are made up of polyurethane chemicals which can soak up water and any other liquid; those soaking up will increase its weight and density. The more you go on adding the more it starts soaking up. Thus its composition is made so weak if you put it in the washing machine you will get just foam particles left out the pillow will totally immerse in the machine itself. Thus, you cannot put it in the washing machine. Most often foam pillows come up with pillow covers or pillow cases to handle the foam in proper shape, those pillowcases or pillow covers are made up of fibers or plastic or any other holding material, and you can remove those covers and cases and can toss them directly in the washing machine. Do follow the steps mentioned in the label while washing covers and cases, if you have detached it or list it then you can refer to the washing steps used in microfibers, down and feather pillow washing.
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Now let us come on to foam cleaning, as we discussed it is a viscous material which keeps on soaking as much liquid as you go on adding into it. Moreover keep it away from the fire, polyurethane chemicals catch fire rapidly within some seconds only so be aware about this property of foams. Though, it has been kept in covers and cases besides that, foam is resistant to dust particles but not resistant against germ particles. For cleaning of foam pillows you have to follow some easy steps:
– Vacuum both the sides of foam turn by turn with the help of a dryer or blower make sure you do not apply the heat air at all. You can even toss it in the dryer for 20 minutes on air – only cycle but make sure that no – heat is applied into it. If you did not take care of it then practically your foam will burn out into gas residues just because of the heat, and one would not like it.
– If any spot area still contains dust or any other particles in it, then to get rid of it use a mild soapy solution, take a cloth and rinse it as gently as you can, as foam can disintegrate easily with the solution of water and soap. Do not use the solution on every part of the foam pillow rinse the spotted area only.
– When done with spot treating of the pillow, dry it once again before you put it on your bed or couch, the number of times you vacuum it out with a dryer or blower the better the cleaning effect you will get.
As foam pillows are way hard to maintain and clean try not to use it everywhere, use it at places like sofa or couch just to add a little more comfort.
When to replace your pillows?
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Everything has a time period of their durability and living, in the similar way pillows have a certain time period after that period they need to be switched, no matter you clean them regularly but at some moment it will lose its property and will become a useless material. At that instance, you have to switch for a new pillow.
There are several ways to check out when to switch your old pillows into new ones. For checking them out use the steps mentioned below:
- Try folding your pillow from between if it does not spring back to its original shape at that moment you need to switch your pillow, this happens because after a certain time it starts losing its properties, you would not like to sleep on an uneven pillow which won’t provide you the utmost comfort.
- After washing your pillow if it appears in an uneven manner or in a funny aroma, then it is also a good sign which alerts you to replace them.
Regularly washing your pillows i.e. washing pillows and pillow cases for 4 – 6 times a year increases the durability. Following the steps and instructions in a proper manner will help you in washing your pillow in the right way. It will make your pillow clean and germ free and safe for you, do not forget to switch or change or replace your pillows after you find out any of the symptoms mentioned above. Moreover not only the cleaning of pillows must be done regularly you must clean everything regularly to avoid yourself and your family from the disease occurring because of the bad environment. The cleaner your home will be the safer the environment.
