A woman who decided to wash a much-cherished weighted blanket for the first time in six years was left stunned at what was revealed.
“I was extremely shocked at the color of the water after the first wash,” Cloey Wendling, a college student from Michigan, told Newsweek.
Wendling took to social media to show what happened when she decided to wash her beloved weighted blanket, and shared her experience in a bid to help others.
“We were stripping pillowcases and other things so that is when I wanted to see what it would be like if we were to do my 25 lbs weighted blanket,” Wendling told Newsweek. “As soon as we came up with that idea, I thought it would be funny to make a TikTok out of it.”
Part of the reason it took Wendling so long to clean the blanket was its importance to her. “I sleep with the blanket every night and it helps with my anxiety!” she said. “Every other weighted blanket that I’ve tried isn’t the same.”
Washing the blanket proved easier in theory than in practice though. “The hardest part of the process of cleaning the blanket would have had to be moving it around in the tub, and trying to squeeze all of the water out of it,” Wendling said.
Wendling chose to handwash the blanket over fears her washer and dryer would damage it. That decision was what ultimately led to the grimmest of discoveries.
In the video Wendling posted to TikTok, under the handle @cloeywendling1, she captured the first of what would be several attempts to wash the blanket clean. In this first instance, the clip shows how the dirt hidden within the blanket turns the water a decidedly dark color.
That change in color caught Wendling by surprise, partly because she never felt the blanket seemed especially dirty in all the time it was on her bed.
“It didn’t smell or anything, it was just the water that looked gross,” she said.
Wendling isn’t alone in putting off tackling big-ticket items, with the American Cleaning Institute’s (ACI) 2024 National Cleaning Survey revealing 18 per cent admitted they “dread or try to avoid” cleaning large laundry items, such as linens and curtains.
The survey of 1,000 American adults, conducted by Wakefield Research between February 12th and February 19th 2024, also found 6 per cent admitted they “never” spring clean, 1 per cent spring clean less “less often than every four years,” while 4 per cent only do it every three to four years.
While the 2019 ACI National Cleaning Survey of 1000 American adults, conducted between March 7 and March 14 2019, went into further detail around bed linen.
Two per cent of respondents said they had “never” cleaned their bed linen, and 23 per cent couldn’t remember the last time they had washed them.
At the time of writing, the video chronicling Wendling’s efforts has been watched over six million times since being posted last month. The responses haven’t all been pleasant though.
“I knew I would get hate comments, but I didn’t know it would be this much. It’s pretty much about 90 percent of the comments,” she said.
She has no regrets about creating the clip though, noting that it “actually helped some people” who, like her, might not have realized or may have been to busy to get things like this cleaned on a regular basis.
“I’m sure if everyone were to do that to one of their items in their house, they would be disgusted too,” Wendling said.
Wendling has pledged to try and keep on top of cleaning it and other items around the house – but it’s not easy.
Wendling began handwashing the blanket at around 11am. She eventually had it clean, dry and back on her bed by 10pm that night. “It took pretty much all day,” she said.
“I am a college student with 21 credits and work 16 hours a week so it will be difficult but I will do it,” she said. Addressing her critics, she added: “I hope people understand that not everyone’s situation is the same and it’s not beneficial to them to be mean to someone who they don’t know anything about.”
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