Pillow Cleaning

Is that the voice in your head keeping you away with a reminder that you need to pay the heating bill? Is it your next-door neighbor's wild dance party? No, it could be the mites and allergens in your bed pillow.

You regularly clean your down comforter and launder your pillowcases every time you wash the sheets, but your pillow needs to be cleaned at least every six months. Otherwise, you'll share your bed with some unsavory characters, such as:

• Dust mites
• Fleas
• Ticks
• Dead skin
• Mildew
• Mold

You can banish those unwelcome houseguests, even if you can't get your neighbor to turn down her music. Machine-wash or hand-wash that down pillow. This goes for the therapeutic body pillow your doctor recommended because you had all that tension fro mthe bills and the parties. Your down pillow should be cleaned the same way as your down comforter.

Other pillow form materials, such as wool or foam, need special care--wool pillows can only be dry-cleaned, foam pillows will disintegrate if you do anything other than hand washing. Ahhh...you feel better now. You've paid your heating bill and you're ready to rest your head on your bed pillow. Now if only your neighbor would kick her guests out the door at midnight.