Now that you are living on your own, it can be really easy to forget one very simple chore – changing your bedding! We can be tempted to think ‘I’ll change it at the weekend’ and the weekend comes and you push it to the following weekend – next thing you know it’s been an entire term and you haven’t changed them once!

It’s understandable, though. Changing bedding is a right pain! Trying to get the fitted sheet to stay on each corner of the mattress and getting right tangled up in the duvet cover makes it feel like a job not worth doing! Below, you can watch a helpful video showing the easiest way to put on a duvet cover, but first, let’s talk about why it’s important to change your bedding.

When we sleep, we sweat. That sweat gets on the sheets and dries. Could you imagine how gross it would be to wear the same shirt for three months straight? Well, that’s what it’s like if you don’t change your bedding. Sweat builds up, as well as all the dead skin cells, dirt and oils from your body. Not only can it stain those beautiful sheets (and who wants to see that?!), but even make you ill and increase your risk of developing allergies and asthma.

Dirty sheets can also affect your night’s sleep. When we sleep, we should be nice and snuggly and warm. If your sheets are clogged with sweat and dirt, air can’t circulate properly can make you overheat. This means it’s harder to fall into deep sleep and can result in you tossing and turning. Not having good quality sleep can really affect your daily life and your studies. For more information on this, see this article {link}.

So, how often should we change our bedding? Experts say once a week, once a fortnight at most^[1]!

That’s way, way more often than most people do it – probably more than we do it in Tenancy Support – but it’s certainly something to bear in mind. If you are going more than a month without changing them, then you’re being a bit gross! 

You should definitely clean them after you’ve been ill – so if you get the fresher’s flu, make sure you get those sheets in the wash to get rid of all those germs. If you’ve had a particularly heavy night of drinking and dancing, you are probably going to want to rid the remnants of that from your bedding the next day. And if you have a new partner in your bed, it’s only polite to ensure that they enjoy themselves on sheets that have been cleaned since your previous partner!

Changing your sheets are a faff. But it’s important, so make sure you’re doing it regularly! And if you need any help with getting yourself orgaised, get in touch with Tenancy Support on tenancysupport@unipol.org.uk. We won’t come and do it for you, but we can give you some advice about how and when to do it!

[1] ‘How often should you change your bed sheets?’ by Manish Pandey – https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-61259074