The Baking Soda Hack That'll Transform Your Scratchy Sheets Into Silky Luxury

When finishing a full day of going to work, running errands, cooking dinner, and cleaning up, all you look forward to is sleeping in your cozy bed. You're ready for the best night's sleep to prepare you for the next day's chaos. Although you have the perfect mattress with the right level of sturdiness and softness, sleeping on scratchy sheets disrupts a sound slumber. The best way to turn your new sheets into silky luxury is with baking soda. On your next laundry day, wash your sheets with 1 cup of baking soda and ½ cup of vinegar to sleep on comfortable, supple bed sheets.

If you naturally use detergent when washing your bedsheets, you might notice how they get stiff as you try to put them back on your bed. Bedsheets with a higher thread count are known to be softer, but if you don't wash them as needed, they can wear out and lose their softness over time. It's essential to read their care tag and follow the recommendations, but if you wash your sheets like the rest of your laundry, baking soda can help bring the softness back.

Low-quality bedsheets have a lower thread count, making them scratchy and stiff, but baking soda can help soften, whiten, and deep clean them. Now, this does not apply to silk sheets, as they require special care. But if you have cotton, linen, jersey, flannel, or polyester blend bedsheets,go ahead and break out the baking soda and vinegar. It's crucial that you don't use detergent during this washing cycle because your bedsheets will trap chemicals, which isn't good for your body.

Turning your scratchy sheets into soft ones is simple. First, add your baking soda to the washing machine with warm or hot water. Place your bedsheets inside and allow the machine to run until it gets to its first rinse cycle. Before the rinse cycle starts, change the water temperature to cold and add the vinegar. You want to add the baking soda and vinegar separately to prevent them from mixing and forming an overload of bubbles. Then, let the machine finish washing your sheets. Finally, throw them in the dryer on the lowest setting.

Now, if you have a washing machine with two different detergent and fabric softener compartments, you can simultaneously add baking soda to the detergent side and vinegar to the fabric softener side, and they won't mix. You won't have to remember to go back to the laundry room to add the vinegar.

After you buy new sheets, it can take time to break them in. The manufacturers use starch to keep sheets tight in their package, so they can feel coarse and dry when first slept on. While most bedsheet packages recommend washing your sheets before using them, not many do. Washing the sheets multiple times softens them over time, but on the flip side, the detergent leaves residue on the bedsheets that make them tight again. Baking soda helps break down the residue, making them softer.

Washing your sheets once with baking soda and vinegar will make them soft, but washing them again with detergent and fabric softener will give you the best results. It's vital to let the sheets fully dry before rewashing them. When letting the bedsheets dry, shake them out so that they don't tangle too much in the dryer and get stiff again. We recommend using a low drying setting because the dryer causes shrinkage, which could make your sheets scratchy. Plus, throw in a few wool dryer balls to fluff up and soften your sheets. If you don't like using the dryer, hang your bedsheets on a line outside to air dry.