The Best Way to Wash Your Pillows (The Japanese Way)

Tonight, before you lie down, slip the case off your pillow. Underneath, there is a yellow shadow in the middle, with a brown ring around it, the shape of your own head. You have slept on it for years. And you were told a pillow simply turns yellow, and the only cure is a new one, ten or twenty dollars every time. It is not dirt, and it is not carelessness. It is sweat and skin oil that soaked in and slowly darkened in the air. In my mother's village, the bedding went out into the sun on clear mornings. Today I show you the Japanese way: a long warm soak instead of scrubbing, a proper wash, and the sun used the right way. Much of that yellow lifts, for less than a dollar. In this video: • Read the tag first, and learn the three pillows that must never go in water: memory foam, latex, and the Japanese buckwheat-hull pillow (sobagara) • What the yellow really is: your own sweat and skin oil, darkened by air, and why a quick cold wash cannot reach it • Tsuke-oki, the Japanese soak: oxygen bleach in water around 120°F, left for 30 minutes to 2 hours. Let it sit; do not scrub • Wash them right: two pillows to balance the drum, a gentle cycle and an extra rinse • Never put a pillow in the dryer while it is still yellow, because heat can set the stain for good • Dry it all the way through: low heat with dryer balls, or the Japanese sun between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., about an hour on each side • The surprise: what my mother got wrong about the sun and the futon beater, and what to do instead • Safety: never mix oxygen bleach with chlorine bleach, never use it on wool or silk, and never keep the mixed solution in a sealed bottle • The honest truth: the fold test that tells you a pillow is finished • Keep it white: a pillowcase once a week, a zippered protector, dry hair before bed, and the pillow itself washed at least twice a year