How to Take Care of Linen Bed Sheets (5 Methods)

 

Learn How to Make Your Linen Sheets Last Years Through An Experts Guidance

Learning how to take care of linen bed sheets isn’t hard as some people might say. Linen is durable and that’s one of the reasons it’s been used for hundreds of years for clothes, towels, table cloths, and bed sheets

This guide will show you how to care for your linens to last a long time while still maintaining it’s high quality.

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How to Take Care of Linen Bed Sheets

Knowing how to take care of linen bed sheets comes down to knowing the 5 areas of maintenance.

1. Laundry

Avoid Hot Water and How to Get Softer Linen Bed Sheets

So that your linen bed sheets are always in the best condition, you need to wash them at least once a week. The best part about linen sheets, is the more you wash them, the softer they get. 

But let’s make sure you’re washing these sheets properly.

DO NOT wash with hot water as this makes the fabric wear out faster and cause fading and shrinking. Stick to lukewarm or cold water and use a mild detergent. 

The Best Laundry Checklist for Your Luxury Linen Bed Sheets

We want your linen bed sheets to look their best. To do this, we need to avoid certain things. 

The Do Not Checklist:

1. Do not use bleach or fabric softeners (No optical brightening agents)
2. Do not wash every colour together
3. Do not go above medium load when washing
4. Do not put detergent directly on the linen sheets

Extra Tip: It is ok to use double the normal amount of softener for an extra soft feel.

Because linen has a smooth surface and natural sheen, stains are usually easy to remove. However, for very stubborn stains, it's best to treat them before washing.

You can use the following washing cycles:

1. White linen articles without special finishes can be washed at 95°C.
2. Colored linen without special finishes, where colors are colorfast at 60°C, can be washed at 60°C. (Note: For both white and colorfast linen, a 50°C wash is usually effective.)
3. Colored linen that is colorfast at 40°C but not at 60°C should be washed at 40°C.

4. Fine hand-embroidered linen should be treated gently and either hand washed or machine washed at 40°C.

2. Drying

Avoid Showing Linen to the Sun But Use the Outdoors to Your Advantage

The best part about linen sheets is they dry quickly. This means it’s better just leave your linen bed sheets to air dry as many of our clients already do. You could use tumble drying (on the lowest heat setting) but this should only be done when you can’t air dry your linen sheets. 

Heat will almost always harm your linen bed sheets so it’s best to avoid it. So when it comes to air drying, you can do it indoors or outdoors.

But if you’re drying your sheets outdoors, try to make sure of two things: 

1. The weather is nice (no raining)

2. You’re in a shaded area 

You can use a clothesline to dry your linen sheets, but don’t use clothespins, they create marks in the fabric. 

3. Ironing

Iron it When the Sheet is Damp for the Best Looking Results. 

We did mention that heat can damage the fabric. But if it’s controlled and direct heat on a small area for a moment like how an iron does it, it’s fine. But the iron needs to be on medium heat and nothing higher. 

Linen has a natural wrinkled texture to it, but we find many of our homeowners love the clean sleek look the sheets get when it’s ironed. 

Make sure that the sheet is damp before ironing, this means: 

1. Don’t let it dry completely after washing before beginning to iron it

2. If it’s already dry, spray the linen sheets with water before ironing 

If the linen sheet is damp, it’s much easier to remove the wrinkles. 

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4. Storing

Keep it Cool, Keep it Shaded, But Also Keep it Ventilated

If it’s not in the laundry stage, we find storing to be the biggest culprit for damaged linen. 

But that’s only because people don’t know how to store them. Here’s what you should know:

1. Keep it in a dark place: This means no light Keep it away from the sun to avoid it going bleached
2. Keep it in cool dry areas: Heat causes moisture to build which damages the linen. Avoid this by keeping it away from bathrooms, basements, or exterior walls.

3. Keep it ventilated: If for some reason moisture does build up, the ventilation will prevent the linen from getting damaged 

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5. Stains 

Water and Vinegar Can Solve Almost All Your Problems

There are many methods online on how to remove stains from linen. You might even have a few tricks up your sleeve.

However, what we find, cold water mixed with vinegar works wonders for the majority of stains. After mixing cold water and vinegar together, dab the solution onto the stain, to remove it. 

Putting it in the washer can also help too if the stain is stubborn.