Posted by Larry Hoover on December 2, 2005, at 9:46:21
In reply to Frozen pillows, posted by Shortelise on December 2, 2005, at 2:48:23
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> I washed a couple of our bed pillows, and one of them turned into a big lump. Not good.Not sure what you mean by a big lump. I immediately thought of Tamar's tennis balls in the dryer process.
If the lump is truly a lump, your pillow isn't a pillow any more, is it?
> These are not old pillows, but I've been hearing about the dreadful things like mold, and heaven only knows what else that grows in pillows, so I wanted to do something to kill all of that stuff.
I hear you.
> Washing obviously wasn't going to work. So I had this great idea: I put them in the freezer. I figure a day in the deep freeze should kill all those nasties.Nope. I can say nope for nearly every critter, but maybe not every single one. Ever hear of hibernation? Here's how that works (and coincidentally saves the life of a creature that has stopped eating).....it slows things down. It slows metabolisms so much, that even if something is full of critters, they're too slow to do much metabolizing of whatever it is they might be ready to chow down on. The fact that water freezes really messes with anything that dissolves, too. So, no metabolizing in the freezer.
Washing did far far more to cleanse the pillow than one day in the freezer could do.
> The point of this post is this: am I out of my mind? Does it make any sense at all, or should I give my psychiatrist a quick call for a check up? Actually, I see him on Monday, so I'll ask him then. But what do you guys think? Am I nuts?Why might you be out of your mind? Did I miss something? Is he an expert on pillow-freezing and sanitization?
> It really seems like a rational thing to do, to put the pillows in the deep freeze. That's what's a little scary.
It's rational. Yup. Just ineffective for the intended purpose. Lots of good ideas don't work. I could tell you an inspirational story about Thomas Edison here, but I think I'm already pushing things.
> Yes, this is somewhat tongue in cheek, but on the other hand, if it's a REALLY REALLY eccentric thing to do, I think I might like to know it.
It keeps your food safe from nasties. Why not pillows?
> Thanks very much.
> ShortEE, honey. Here's what I would do. I would slightly dampen the offending lump errr pillow (so it's more uniform to begin with), and I would put it in the dryer with moderate heat and with some tennis balls or some clean sneakers or something that's going to make the noises that mean there are impacts going on down in there and making you leave the house for a little while so the dryer goes nuts and not you.
And if that didn't work, I'd get a new pillow, and forget I ever had a lump.
Lar
poster:Larry Hoover
thread:584431
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20051120/msgs/584478.html