11 Common Linen Care Mistakes You're Probably Making

1. Storing your Threads in plastic

Unless you want your sheets to take on a light brown hue, avoid storing them in plastic. Because linen is a natural fibre, it needs to breathe – and trapping it in plastic will only create a delightful environment for mildew to grow. Ew. Unfortunately, this also means you’ll need to ditch your Marie Kondo-inspired airtight containers.

But don’t stress, because you can still feel organised and adult-like without containers. Simply line your linen cupboard or storage space with acid-free tissue paper that can further assist in preventing your bedding from getting that yellow tinge. Or you can just store your sheets in the 100% flax linen bag your Bed Threads sheets originally came in. Genius.

3. Washing them with roadblocks

Try to keep your machine loaded at a comfortable level with just linen. That means no other towels or clothes with rough fibres that might aggravate your linen.

The perfect way to wash them is in cold or lukewarm water with a gentle detergent. Avoid hot water, bleach or harsh cleaning products that might damage the delicate linen fibres and ruin the soft feeling of your sheets.

5. Letting that stain sit

From fake tan to tea spots and maybe even melted chocolate, you’ll want to address any stains on your sheets immediately.

However, this doesn’t mean you need to wash your entire bedding every time you drop some late-night cake onto your sheets. To remove a stain, firstly sprinkle a little baking soda onto the mark, add a few drops of vinegar and blot gently with a paper towel to soak up any excess moisture. Voila!

7. Dry cleaning your sheets

You’ve probably got the gist that when it comes to cleaning your linens that simple truly is the best if you want buttery-soft sheets that’ll last years – and that includes skipping the dry cleaners. You can never really be certain of the chemicals they use.

9. Using the iron

One of the best ways you can prolong the life of your linen bedding is by not ironing it. We repeat: do NOT iron it. Great news for those who despise ironing, right?

Linen will naturally become softer and cosier with every wash so patience is key. There’s also no need to tightly make the bed, either; just scatter your pillows, loosely throw your doona on and you have yourself a bed that looks like it’s straight out of an interiors magazine. 

11. Not Rotating Your Sheets

While linen is one of the most durable natural fibres there is, some items like fitted sheets can wear slightly faster than others. Having a second set of sheets to split the time that you use them is a great way to extend the life of your Threads. We recommend keeping one set on your bed and one in your linen cupboard to switch over once a week.