Good bedding is an everyday essential that deserves much more credit than it usually receives. Just slipping into pleasant-looking, and good-smelling sheets after a long, tiring day at work or home is enough to take all your stress away and also elevate your sleep experience.
In this clothing care guide, we will tell you everything you need to know to get the perfect bed linen for your home. Let’s get started!
How do I choose high quality bedding?
To be happy with how your sheets look and feel, you need to do some research and gather basic information before going to a bedding store. Traditionally, linen stores expected their visitors to be knowledgeable, and pore over the store with sharp eyes.
But now, the dynamic for shopping has changed tremendously, making us pawns at the hands of clever advertisers, resulting in purchasing luxuries that we don’t actually need and certainly cannot maintain for longer.
If I remember correctly, my granny used to roam around the store and inspect and feel each item of bedding with her own hands before adding it to her cart. Even then, she used to ask so many questions before finally purchasing it like how to wash the sheets? Will they fade over time? Is the fabric colourfast? And so on…
Today, most of our shopping decisions are based on how the linens match our aesthetic and the desire to make our bedrooms look like a Pinterest board. But when you think about how sheets are used and laundered in our daily routine, you may revise the idea of what a beautiful sheet looks like.
1. Check the thread count
Most people think that the higher the thread count, the better the sheet. While this is true to some extent, it can also be a mistaken idea tricking us to pay the linen stores more and more.
Until recent decades, most sheets sold were muslin- a cotton plain weave cloth with a thread count of approx. 140. They are not only inexpensive, but also extremely comfortable and can be laundered effectively without any extra hassle. Typically, they are used in hospitals, as they can withstand hot water washing for sanitization purposes.
Then comes sheets made of percale, with a thread count of 180 which are finer and more durable. For middle-class homeowners, these sheets are the best investment, providing a perfect balance between comfort and affordability.
My favourite sheets are the ones made of resin-free, all-combed cotton percale with a thread count between 200 and 250 and a care label that says, “Machine wash”. These sheets are comfortable, high-end, and can be maintained easily.
For example, if you notice any fabric pilling or lint on these sheets, you can seamlessly get rid of them with a dedicated lint remover powder like BIORESTORE cotton. However, if the care label on your sheets says, “Hand wash only”, you’ll have to spend hours and hours to manually remove bobbles and fuzz from your garments with an electric pilling tool or lint brush and no one really wants to do that.
Note: BIORESORE is designed to work as part of a 40°C Laundry machine wash and will not work during handwashing.
2. Pick the right fabric and fibre
The best cotton fabrics used for sheets are combed Pima or Egyptian cotton. Sea Island is also a great option if you can manage to find it as it is rarely seen on bed linens and sheets.
In my experience, cotton sheets with wrinkle treatments don’t last as long as the ones made of untreated cotton or even cotton/polyester blends. While the latter is generally durable, they may pill much more than all-cotton ones, but don’t worry, as long as the sheet is made of 70% cotton, you can always remove bobbles with BIORESTORE cotton in only one home laundry wash.
High quality cotton sheets can be a little costly upfront, but trust me, they is extremely durable and pay for themselves in the longer run. Even if you are using aggressive laundering methods like washing and drying on higher temperatures, and using heavy-duty detergents, they will keep looking and feeling pretty good for longer.
How many bed sheets should you own?
Typically, you should have 3 sets of sheets, 3 sets of pillowcases, 2 pillow protectors (sometimes known as pillow “covers”), 2 mattress pads, and 1 or 2 water-resistant mattress covers. If you often greet guests at your home, it’s a good idea to have one set of sheets, and one set of pillowcases dedicated to them for ensuring the best fabric care.
This means, for every bed, you will have one set of sheets on the bed, one set in the wash, and one still in reserve for emergencies or accidents or extra changes for guest beds. When shopping for guest bedding, you can also go the extra mile and pick especially fine or attractive ones as you are going to wash them less often than your regular sheets and pillowcases.
For homes with babies, crib sheets and blankets must be changed daily (if they become wet or soiled) or at least three times in a week. So, keeping a stock of a minimum of half dozen of linens is a good idea.
Even if you are not using your overstock bed linens regularly, it’s important to take them out every once in a while, spread them over the bed, and launder properly before storing them back in the closet. Otherwise, they will simply age by themselves on the shelf and become prey to fabric pilling, lint, fuzz, and unpleasant odours. For your bedding made of cotton or cotton blends, consider using a dedicated lint remover powder like BIORESTORE cotton for reviving their texture and handfeel. This way, you can get rid of any lint, pills, or fuzz on the surface of your bedding and make it look and feel like “brand-new” for longer.
