Last Updated on October 5, 2026 by Umar Farooq
The most useful thing anyone can tell you about how to wash bedding is that the pile on your floor is not one wash — it is three, and the cut that decides which is which is bulk, not colour. Everything that goes wrong with bedding laundry starts with someone trying to put a whole bed through one cycle because it all came off the same mattress and it is all white.
This page is the routing, not a tutorial for any one item — each awkward one has its own page. It also leaves frequency alone, because that argument is settled with a real citation on how often to wash sheets.
A stripped bed is three loads, not one
Sort by how much water an item absorbs and how much room it needs to move, and the bed falls into obvious groups. The flats — sheets, pillowcases, duvet cover — are one load. Bulky items are each a load on their own. Anything with wiring, foam or a waterproof film is not in the machine at all, or only under conditions. On an apartment-size washer the flats off a king bed already fill the drum, so that first group splits in two and the bed becomes four loads.
Samsung’s own cycle description is the clearest statement of the rule from a manufacturer: “Bedding, Bedding Plus: For bulky items such as comforters, blankets, and sheets. Use liquid detergent, and wash only one type of bedding at a time. Do not roll the items in the drum since they might get stuck” (Samsung cycle guide). One type at a time, from the company that put a Bedding button on the machine.
The position this page takes contradicts how most people were taught to do laundry: colour is the wrong first sort for a bed. Bedding is usually one colour family already, and sorting a white bed by whiteness hides the distinction that matters — a soaked duvet needs the whole drum and a pillowcase needs almost none of it.
The pairs that must never meet in a drum
Some combinations are merely inefficient. A few are genuinely destructive, and they are worth knowing by heart because they all look reasonable at the point of loading.
- Towels with any smooth bedding. Towels shed, and sheeting collects what they shed. A sheet set washed with towels comes out looking faintly furry and keeps doing it for several washes.
- A waterproof mattress protector with anything bulky. The protector needs a loose drum and cold water. Bulky bedding wants a long heavy cycle. One of them is going to lose, and it is the protector, permanently.
- Anything with a zip, hook or underwire alongside a duvet cover. Wet cotton abrades easily, and a large flat piece gives it plenty to catch on.
- Non-bedding items with bedding at all. Sleep Number states this one outright: “Do not use fabric softener, overload washing machine, or wash with non-bedding items. These increase friction, which can break down fabrics or cause pilling” (cleaning your bedding).
- A heated blanket with anything. Heated bedding follows the blanket maker’s own procedure and nothing else, and a second item in the drum changes how it balances — how to wash an electric blanket has the full sequence and the warnings that come with it.
One washer setting per item, with the brand name on it
Manufacturers do not agree about bedding temperature, and anyone presenting one table as settled fact is quietly picking a side. Whirlpool splits it by weight: “Heavy bedding benefits from a heavy-duty cycle with warm water to remove dirt and stains. For lighter items, such as pillows, use a gentle cycle with cold water to avoid damage” (washing large loads or bulky items). Samsung says the opposite for every comforter fill except down.
| Item | Where it goes | Cycle and water |
|---|---|---|
| Sheets, pillowcases | Load 1 | Normal, warm or cold, medium-fast spin |
| Duvet cover | Load 1, fastened and inside out | Normal, cold |
| Duvet or comforter | Alone | Bedding or Bulky, temperature by fill type |
| Pillows | Alone, two at a time | Gentle, cold — Whirlpool’s wording |
| Mattress protector | Alone | Gentle, cold, low or no heat after |
| Weighted blanket | Alone, if the drum can take the wet weight | Gentle, cold |
| Mattress topper | Usually nowhere near the machine | Cover only, if it unzips |
Follow the care tag over any table, including this one. Where it was cut off years ago by somebody who found it scratchy, cold is the mistake you can come back from.
How to wash bedding in sequence, from strip to remake
Order matters for a reason unrelated to cleanliness: bulky items occupy the machine for hours, and the flats are needed back on the bed tonight.
- Strip, and fasten the duvet cover before it leaves the bedroom. Every other handling problem on wash day starts here.
- Flats first. They wash fast, dry fast, and they are the load you actually need. They also need somewhere to land: a king flat sheet will not fold on a worktop, and a surface at standing height beside the machines is what decides whether linen comes out folded or creased.
- Remake the bed with the second set while the first is still in the machine. This is the only part of a bedding routine that reliably survives contact with real life.
- Bulky items after, one per cycle, on a day with hours left in it. A duvet put on at nine in the evening is a damp duvet at midnight.
- Protector last, cold, and straight out of the dryer. Heat is what kills it, and heat it sits in after the cycle ends counts too.
One more thing worth doing once: wash new bedding before its first night. Sleep Number gives the reason, and it is not the one people assume — “Sheets and duvets must be washed before use because they are cut larger at the factory to allow for shrinkage, and they may not fit your bed properly until they are washed.” A new fitted sheet that will not stay on the corners may simply not have shrunk yet.
Which page to open for the awkward items
Everything above handles the flats. The rest need their own treatment, because the material sets the rules rather than the dirt: the duvet and its capacity problem, pillows that cannot balance alone, the mattress protector and its waterproof film, and the mattress topper, which mostly is not washable at all.
FAQ
Can you wash all your bedding together?
No, and the reason is physical rather than hygienic. A drum cleans by moving fabric through water, and a duvet plus a sheet set leaves nothing room to move. Samsung’s instruction is to “wash only one type of bedding at a time.”
What temperature should bedding be washed at?
The manufacturers disagree, which is the honest answer. Whirlpool recommends warm for heavy bedding and cold for lighter items like pillows; Samsung warns that warm or hot water may shrink and damage cotton and polyester fills. Follow the care tag, and default to cold without one.
Should new bedding be washed before use?
Yes. Beyond removing production residues, Sleep Number notes that sheets and duvets “are cut larger at the factory to allow for shrinkage,” so a new set may not fit the bed until it has been washed.
Can you put a duvet cover and sheets in the same load?
Yes, as long as the cover is fastened shut and the drum is not packed. An open cover will collect the sheets inside itself and the load becomes one lopsided parcel.
Does bedding need fabric softener?
No, and Sleep Number advises against it. Softener coats fibres, which costs absorbency on anything meant to handle moisture and flattens the texture on linen. Skip it on the whole bed.
Sort the bed by bulk, not by colour
Three loads, one exception and one item that stays out of the machine. That is a bed, and once it is split that way nothing about bedding laundry is difficult — the hard parts were all consequences of trying to do it in one go.
The habit worth building is five seconds of sorting at the bedroom door rather than at the machine, where the basket has already mixed everything and the cover is open. Two sets of flats is what makes it hold: the bed goes back together immediately, and the machine runs on its own schedule instead of yours.
