Said It Here

How to wash pillows with no care tags

When secondhand pillows are missing their care tags, you have no way of knowing whether they are safe for the washing machine or what fabric and filling they contain. This leaves you unable to clean or deodorize them without the risk of ruining the pillow.

Overview
People affected2 accounts across 1 forum
Workarounds found5 items attempted
Community agreement3 total upvotes
Editorial ConsensusSynthesized across r/CleaningTips
Verification standards →

Core Friction Pattern

Analysis of 2 peer accounts across online developer and community forums reveals that “How to wash pillows with no care tags” repeatedly surfaces due to edge-case mismatches between standard defaults and real-world environments. Standard troubleshooting frequently falls short, compelling practitioners to develop custom workarounds.

Top Peer-Reported Fix
Soak overnight in a sink or tub with hot water and oxiclean, machine wash, and air dry in direct sunlight.

+4 alternative community-tested workarounds cataloged below.

Editorial Commitment: Every workaround and quote here is curated from verified public discussions without affiliate commissions or paid placements. Always review system configurations before applying community-tested solutions.

What people tried

Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.

5 items+ Contribute

Found another way around this?

Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.

  1. 1
    Soak overnight in a sink or tub with hot water and oxiclean, machine wash, and air dry in direct sunlight.
    Did this help you?
  2. 2
    Zip them in separate lingerie bags and toss them in the washing machine.
    Did this help you?
  3. 3
    Toss them in the dryer with mini tennis balls to fluff the pillows as they dry.
    Did this help you?
  4. 4
    Washing pillows in the washing machine using hot or cold water with detergent, bleach, or OxyClean, followed by machine drying.
    Did this help you?
  5. 5
    Using pillow protectors and covers rather than washing the pillow itself.
    Did this help you?
Tried another approach not listed above?+ Share your workaround ↑

In their words

Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.

r/CleaningTips2 people · October 2026 – November 2026

“Both of the pillows had their tags cut off by a previous owner, so I have no idea how I should go about cleaning them or if they can even go in the washing machine.”source ↗

coracaws · r/CleaningTips · 2 upvotes

“There is no tag 😒 annoying”source ↗

Vixen_3 · r/CleaningTips · 1 upvotes

Where this came up

r/CleaningTipscleaninghome carelaundrythrifting

People with this problem also raised