Can you wash pillowcases with clothes?
Yes, with care
Yes — pillowcases are the exception to the "bedding washes alone" rule. They're the size of a t-shirt, they're usually sturdy cotton, and they don't wrap around anything. Toss them in with a color-compatible clothes load whenever they need washing — which, for the case you sleep on, is more often than the rest of the bedding.
The freedom to wash pillowcases with clothes is genuinely useful: faces and hair oil them up faster than sheets get dirty, and being able to refresh them mid-week without running a bedding load keeps them clean without ceremony.
Apply ordinary color logic: white pillowcases with lights, colored ones with their color family. That's the entire rulebook for cotton cases.
What our checker says
This is the live result of running pillowcases and everyday clothes through the same rules as the laundry checker.
They can share a load, with care
- White pillowcases tends to wrap around smaller items like Cotton T-shirt, which washes and dries unevenly.
Suggested settings for the shared load
Mixed load: Cotton T-shirt, White pillowcases
Cold (60–80°F / 16–27°C), normal cycle. Tumble dry on low heat.
How they compare
| Pillowcases | Everyday clothes | |
|---|---|---|
| Size | T-shirt-sized — no tangling | Same class |
| Fabric | Usually cotton, sometimes silk/satin | Cotton and blends |
| Wash frequency need | High — skin oils nightly | Per wear |
| Water | Warm useful for skin oils | Cold or warm by color |
The main risks
- Color pickup: pale pillowcases in a load with new dark items — standard dye rules apply.
- Silk and satin cases in a rough load — those are delicates, not pillowcases, for sorting purposes.
- Zipper-closure pillow protectors snagging knits — zip them and turn them inside out.
When the answer changes
- Silk or satin pillowcases: cold, delicate cycle or hand wash, air dry — never in the general clothes load.
- Skin-condition households (acne care, eczema): a warm wash for pillowcases may matter more — run them with warm-tolerant items or the towel load.
- The rest of the bedding: still washes as its own load — see sheets with clothes.
New or strongly colored items
New colored pillowcases bleed like any new dyed cotton — first wash with darks or alone. Established cases follow plain color sorting.
Can they be dried together?
Yes.
Cotton pillowcases tumble with the clothes on low-to-medium without any special handling. Pull silk and satin cases out — they air dry.
How to run them as separate loads
- No separation needed for cotton cases — that's the point of this page.
- Keep silk cases with the delicates load, and pillow PROTECTORS (waterproof) out of the dryer per their labels.
Check the care labels
Plain cotton pillowcase labels are permissive. The label-readers here are silk and satin cases (cold, gentle, no tumble) and waterproof protectors (often no heat). The case tells you which one it is.
This is general guidance. If a garment's care label says something different, follow the care label.
Sources
- Established fiber and fabric care practice — Widely documented fabric-care knowledge. Well-established, uncontroversial properties of common fibers — e.g. cotton shrinks in heat, wool felts with agitation and heat, dark dyes can transfer when new, terry cloth sheds lint, microfiber attracts lint, elastics degrade in high heat. Used only for claims of this uncontroversial kind.
Last reviewed: . See our editorial policy for how this page was checked.