Washing Sheets After Being Sick: A Careful Guide for Flu and Stomach Bugs
Washing sheets after being sick is one of those chores that always lands at the worst moment, when you or someone you live with is just starting to feel human again. Flu season and stomach bug season overlap in Boston every winter, and a single illness can leave a household with stripped beds, piles of towels and a hamper nobody wants to touch.
We run laundromats, not a medical practice, so the handling advice below comes from public health sources, which we cite and link so you can read them yourself. For anything about symptoms or treatment, talk to your doctor. What we can help with is keeping the rest of the household’s laundry moving while everyone recovers.
What Public Health Guidance Says About Sick-Room Laundry
The CDC published home-care guidance during the 2009 H1N1 flu season on cleaning a sick room, and that page is still available as archived CDC guidance. It is archived, so treat it as background rather than the latest word, but its laundry advice is practical and simple. It says to wash bed sheets and towels with normal laundry soap and tumble dry them on a hot dryer setting. It also says to hold dirty laundry away from your face and body, to wash your hands right after touching it, and that for the flu it is OK to wash the sick person’s bedding or clothes with other people’s laundry.
Stomach bugs call for more care. Norovirus, the usual cause of a household stomach bug, spreads very easily. The San Diego County norovirus cleaning handout is a clear, one-page public health summary of how to clean up after it at home, including how to handle soiled clothing and linens. It is written for households and is worth a few minutes of your time before the next outbreak in your building or your kid’s classroom.
Neither source says anything unusual. The core ideas are to avoid spreading what is on the fabric, to wash thoroughly, to dry completely and to wash your hands. The steps below put those ideas in order for a typical apartment.
Step-by-Step: Washing Sheets After the Flu
For a typical flu or cold, where the bedding is used but not heavily soiled, this is the routine:
- Strip the bed gently. Pull sheets and pillowcases toward the center of the bed and roll them inward, rather than yanking them off.
- Do not shake the laundry. Shaking sends whatever is on the fabric into the air of the room.
- Hold it away from your face and body. Carry it in a basket or a bag you can wash, not bundled against your chest.
- Take it straight to the washer. Avoid setting it down on the couch or a clean bed on the way.
- Wash on the hottest setting the fabric allows, with detergent. Check the care label, since some sheets and pillowcases have a lower limit.
- Dry completely on high heat, if the label allows. Do not leave anything damp in the machine or folded away.
- Wash your hands with soap and water after handling the laundry and again after moving it to the dryer.
- Clean the basket or hamper that held the dirty laundry, and wash the bag if you used one.
Pillows deserve their own wash after a long illness, especially if someone was sleeping propped up for days. Our guide on how to wash pillows walks through the process.
Stomach Bug Laundry: Handle the Worst Items Separately
Laundry from a stomach bug is a different category. Sheets, towels or clothes that are heavily soiled with vomit or diarrhea should be handled separately at home, following county norovirus guidance such as the San Diego County handout linked above. The handout lists the steps: wear gloves, carefully remove vomit or fecal matter with disposable towels, store and wash contaminated laundry separately, pre-wash and then re-wash on a regular cycle with hot water and either oxygenated detergent or regular detergent plus bleach.
Then dry the items in a hot dryer until completely dry, and clean the surfaces of your washer and dryer afterward. Wash your hands thoroughly with soap and water afterward, even if you wore gloves, and wipe down the surfaces the laundry touched on the way to the washer. If an item is too far gone to clean, many people simply bag it and throw it out, and that is a reasonable choice.
The key point is the order of operations: heavily soiled items first, at home, by themselves. Once those are dealt with, the rest of the household’s laundry is ordinary laundry again.
Keeping the Rest of the Household’s Laundry Moving
While a household is recovering, nobody should be hauling bags down three flights of stairs to a building laundry room or carrying them to a laundromat. Yet the laundry does not stop. Healthy family members still need clean towels, kids still need clothes for school, and the spare sheets you just put on the bed will need washing too.
That is where Neptune’s pickup and delivery service fits. Once the heavily soiled items have been handled at home, you can schedule a pickup for the rest of the household’s laundry: towels, everyday clothes and linens. Book a day and time online, leave the laundry at the door in any bag, and it comes back washed and folded, usually within 24 to 48 hours. Our post on contactless laundry pickup in Boston explains how the doorstep handoff works.
Pricing is $2.00 per lb one-time or $1.70 per lb with recurring pickup every two weeks, with a 19 lb minimum ($38). A 25 lb order of towels and clothes is $50, and scheduled pickups have no delivery fee. Fragrance-free, hypoallergenic detergent is available at no extra cost. Pickup runs from our 489 Saratoga Street store in East Boston.
Small Habits That Make Sick Weeks Easier
A little preparation in October saves a lot of stress in January. Keep a spare set of sheets for every bed, so you can remake a bed immediately and wash the used set when you have the energy. A washable waterproof mattress protector makes a stomach bug far less of a disaster for the mattress itself.
During a stomach bug, give each person their own towels and keep a separate closed bag or hamper near the sick room, since the norovirus handout says to store contaminated laundry separately in closed containers. And keep a box of disposable gloves with your cleaning supplies, since the night you need them is not the night you want to go out and buy them. When the bedding gets a full refresh after flu season, our guide to bedding laundry pickup covers comforters and blankets too.
Pricing Notice: Rates and prices mentioned in this article are for informational purposes and are subject to change.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Should I wash my sheets after being sick?
Yes. Once you are feeling better, washing sheets, pillowcases and towels used during the illness is a sensible step. Archived CDC guidance suggests holding the laundry away from your face and body, washing it with normal laundry soap and tumble drying it on a hot setting.
What water temperature should I use to wash sheets after being sick?
Use the hottest setting the care label allows, along with your regular detergent. Archived CDC flu home-care guidance says to wash sheets and towels with normal laundry soap and tumble dry them on a hot setting. For a stomach bug, the San Diego County handout calls for hot water and a hot dryer until completely dry.
Can you wash a sick person’s laundry with everyone else’s?
For a typical flu, archived CDC guidance says sick-room laundry can go in a standard wash. For a stomach bug, items heavily soiled with vomit or diarrhea should be handled and washed separately at home, following county norovirus guidance.
How do you wash sheets after a stomach bug?
The San Diego County norovirus handout recommends wearing gloves, carefully removing solid matter, washing contaminated items separately with a pre-wash and a hot regular wash using oxygenated detergent or detergent plus bleach, and drying them in a hot dryer until completely dry. Wash your hands afterward.
Should I wash my pillows after the flu?
It is a good idea after a long illness, especially if the pillowcases were heavily used. Most pillows can be washed and must be dried completely to avoid mildew. Check the label first, since some foam pillows should not go in a washer.
How long should I dry sheets after being sick?
Dry them until they are completely dry all the way through, including seams and pillowcase corners. High heat is fine if the care label allows it. Never fold or store bedding that is still slightly damp.
Can I use a laundry pickup service while my family is sick?
Yes, for the rest of the household’s laundry. Handle heavily soiled items at home first, as public health guidance describes, then schedule a pickup for towels, clothes and linens. Neptune Laundry returns orders washed and folded, usually within 24 to 48 hours.
Let someone else carry the laundry while your household gets back on its feet. Call (617) 567-1839 or schedule your pickup at neptunelaundry.com.