Keeping your quilt clean will ensure optimal loft, performance, and longevity. Plus, it’ll feel and smell better too! But deep cleaning your quilt can be a time-consuming hassle. In most cases, a light surface cleaning and refreshening of the down is all your quilt needs to remove dirt, rejuvenate/re-loft the down, and reduce or eliminate any odors. So skip the deep cleans and simply “freshen” your quilt. Here's how to do it.
What you’ll need
- Your quilt
- Small bucket of water
- A mild non-detergent soap or dish soap
- Clean sponge or washcloth
- 1 clean towel (for towel drying)
- Dryer
- 1 bath towel (to dampen and run with quilt in dryer)
- 2-3 clean tennis balls or dryer balls
How to do it
- Lay your quilt out flat.
- Fill a small bucket with water and mix in your soap. You should only need a few drops.
- Wet your sponge or washcloth with the soapy water and rub the surface of the fabric to remove any dirt/stains. You can do spot treatments only or a full surface clean, it’s up to you and the condition of your quilt.
- Rinse out your sponge with fresh water and wipe any remaining soap off your quilt.
- Grab a clean towel and towel-dry your quilt to remove any leftover soap, dirt, grime, etc.
- Flip the quilt over and repeat steps 3-5 on the other side.
- Once you’re done, pop the quilt into your dryer with 2-3 tennis or dryer balls and a damp bath towel (wet the bath towel and then wring it out to remove most of the water). The tennis balls help to declump the down and the damp towel "steam cleans" the down to freshen it and reduce or eliminate any odor.
- Run the dryer on low heat for about an hour, or just until the bath towel is dry.
And that’s it! You’ve successfully cleaned your quilt and freshened the down.
This method is fast, easy, and all your quilt should ever really need. If you maintain your quilt with this freshening method throughout the year, you'll likely never even have to deal with the hassle of handwashing or deep-cleaning it.
In the case you just want to rejuvenate the down and/or reduce any odor, you can skip the sponge bath steps (1-5) and instead only do the "steam bath" steps (7-8).
If needed, our full washing instructions can be found here.
