This spring, in addition to helping you air out your cupboards and deep clean your wardrobe with natural products, we have teamed up with stylish and sustainable bed linen brand Undercover to bring you a totally sustainable "bedroom spring clean" experience.
Undercover produce distinctly modern, high-quality bed linen with strong environmental credentials. Their premium bed linen blends the finest quality cotton with a revolutionary botanical yarn, Tencel™, to create an exquisite lightweight textile. Together with Undercover, we have unfolded our best tips and tricks to help you take care of your bed linen.
Our beds are a place of sanctuary: not only do we spend a third of our lifetime sleeping there, but they’re also a place we escape to - to relax, restore and revive body and soul. Together with Undercover, we have compiled an expert ‘How to’ guide to set yourself up for the perfect bed linen care routine:
Why You Should Regularly Clean Your Bed Linen
What many people do not know is that skin irritation, as well as acne breakouts, are often a result of unwashed bed linen. When we sleep, we tend to sweat and shed dead skin cells, which turns your duvet into a breeding ground for bacteria. Unwashed bedsheets can also cause asthma and a stuffy nose and are more attractive to dust mites. If your washing machine isn’t big enough to wash your sheets at home, or if you simply want your bed linen professionally cleaned and pressed without chemicals (if you have sensitive skin or allergies this is especially important, as regular dry cleaning may cause skin irritation), you can always use our pickup and delivery service and make it a regular slot in your diary. With BLANC, your bed linen will return to you with a fresh scent (or no scent at all if you so prefer), and pressed to perfection! You can chat with our customer care team to arrange a regular pick up from your home and never again have to think about organising it.
How To Clean Your Bed Linen
A 40ºC gentle cycle is enough for regular cleans, washing your sheets with a too hot setting can damage the linen's fibres. The choice of detergents is essential, as every night your bed linen is in direct contact with your skin. Eco-friendly laundry detergents are a natural and safe alternative to conventional ones, they do not contain any chemicals or additives and are better for your skin, your health and the planet. Modern, sustainable detergents are also very efficient, from production to rinse-cycle and will keep your bed linen fresh and clean. If you are having difficulty falling asleep at night, or simply need to relax in the middle of a busy day, we recommend trying the Natural Non-Biological Laundry Liquid from Bio D Company. It is scented with lavender, which lowers blood pressure and heart rate and put you in a relaxed state. We have written about lavender’s naturally calming properties before and Ludovic our Founder is a bit partial to it as he comes from Provence!
How To Clean Your Duvet And Pillow
Depending what material your duvet and pillow are made of, different care instructions apply, so make sure to take a good look at the care label before you get started. Some down and feather duvets are labelled as ‘dry clean only’, but as falling asleep in a chemical-soaked bed every night is not very appealing, we recommend you to have them professionally wet cleaned instead. You can read more about our people and planet-friendly wet cleaning process in our recent blog post. If you can clean your duvets and pillows at home, make sure to wash it with a gentle, cold water cycle as warm or hot water might shrink the fabric. The most crucial part of this process is to dry it properly, to prevent mould from forming. Air dry the duvet in the shade for around 24 hours to make sure the duvet is completely dry before putting it back on your bed.
How To Dry Your Bed Linen
If you can, the best way to dry them is to hang them and let them air dry on hangers outside, preferably in the sun, as UV light is effective in killing micro-organisms. The result is a heavenly, natural crisp. Unfortunately, the London weather might not be suitable for this option at all times, so you can always opt for an inside air dry, and run a hot iron over the pillowcases to kill any leftover bacteria. Another option is the dryer, but be careful: bed linen takes quite a while to completely dry, even in the dryer, and keeping your sheets in there for too long might be causing them to shrink (not to mention that it consumes quite a bit of energy so it is not the eco-friendliest option). So, tumble dry your sheets on the lowest possible heat and during the shortest amount of time, this reduces shrinkage and helps avoid wrinkling. If you have quite a few bedsheets and not a lot of space to do this, you are better off outsourcing this to a professional whose large, temperature-controlled machines will do a much better job for your linen, and save a lot of energy!
How Often To Clean Your Bed Linen, Duvet And Pillow
Making it a habit to clean your sheets once a week may sound like a tedious task at first, but considering the earlier mentioned health benefits it is proven to have - not to mention the incomparable feeling of clean sheets - it is definitely worth it. We recommend having three different sets so you can always have one to sleep in, one in the washing machine and one to keep stored in your drawers. If you are a parent, you know that having some extra bed linen to spare for night time emergencies is a necessity.
The comforters and pillows do not need more than one proper clean per season if kept protected under the covers. Air drying them every few months in between the seasonal cleansing is enough to prevent bacteria and smells.
BLANC x Undercover
Miriam Tyrangiel founded Undercover after realising that good quality bed linen only seemed to come in plain white. With a background in branding and design, she was in search for products that are aesthetically pleasing and functional and therefore decided to create a bold, distinctly modern range that would stand out for its clean lines and contrasting colours.
In addition to making our bedrooms an interior design dream, Undercover bed linen is made out of the finest quality cotton and the natural fibre Tencel™ - also known as Lyocell - which is made from the pulp of Eucalyptus trees. Tencel™ is one of the most sustainable fabrics in the world as it is made with an extremely responsible process using 80% less water to grow and much less energy than cotton. It is known for its temperature regulating characteristics, and for being long-lasting, breathable and anti-bacterial, which makes it the perfect material for bed linen. And because it comes from plants, Tencel™ is biodegradable too.
At BLANC, our long search for the perfect bed linen came to an end when we found Undercover - feel the silky softness and you will instantly fall in love. And as we want to allow all our customers and readers to have the experience of a bed linen heaven, do not forget to use our offer! But we must warn you though, it might be just a little bit harder to get out of bed in the morning...
