How to make your cotton bed linen last for as long as possible
Our top tips on how best to maintain your cotton bed linen.
Caring for your bed linen
1. Wash your cotton bed sheets at 40 degrees - but double check your care label in case a lower temperature is recommended. Some people may prefer to wash at 60 but this will ultimately affect the longevity of your sheets.
2. Never use bleach on your sheets as this breaks down fibres. It's also advisable not to use fabric softener.
3. You can tumble dry your sheets but for longevity, it is best to air dry. Understandably space can be limited so the cool tumble dry setting, for the shortest time possible is preferable. Be careful to not "over dry" them in the drier.
If you can air dry, hanging outside is optimum as this will brighten your sheets and the UV kills microorganisms.
4. Use less, rather than more, detergent.
5. Don't wash your sheets with other fabrics such as polyester. Polyester is harder than cotton so both fabrics rubbing together in the wash, over time, will weaken your linen. Absolutely avoid washing with items that have metal additions such as jeans and possibly underwear.
6. Rotate your sheet 180 degrees so that the same area isn't getting worn all the time.
7. Don't store your bed linen in plastic. It needs to breathe!
Considerations when purchasing for long lasting bed linen
There are different weaves when it comes to cotton bed linen. The key ones are percale and sateen. Percale is slightly more hard wearing than sateen cotton. Percale is woven up and over consistently, whereas sateen is one under and two over. The sateen weave makes for a super smooth, soft cotton however the construction is less tight so it will reduce the longevity somewhat.
Finally... buy the best bed linen you can afford. The better the quality, the longer it will last and the more enjoyment you will get out of you sheets - it just makes sense.
As with anything, price and quality aren't always correlated, so look for long staple cotton, single ply and bed linen woven by heritage expert weavers - often found in Italy or Portugal. Thread count also makes a difference but 200-300 is good quality when using single ply yarns. Note that very high thread counts often allude to non single-ply bed linen. If you're not sure what single ply bed linen is, read our ultimate bed linen guide here.
Our bed linen manufacturer supplies some of the very best five-star hotels in the world, who only insist on the finest and most long lasting bed linens.
