I have a confession: I’m oddly attached to my pillow. Not just any pillow, but the pillow that I’ve slept on since I was a kid. Yes, it’s quite old. Who knows how long my parents had it before I staked claim to it. And who knows what’s growing inside of it! They say you should switch mattresses every 8 years and that it doubles in weight over those eight years. But I’ve never heard any statistics about how often you should replace your pillow.

I loved this pillow. Over the years, I’ve looked to replace it and yet I couldn’t find one nearly as comfortable. It had flattened significantly and lost much of its shape – so much so that it had a hard time sitting up against my headboard.

Last October when we went on a road trip to Colorado, my nephew wasn’t feeling great and he threw up in our car. I wasn’t worried, cars can clean and smells will dissipate. As we started cleaning the car, my sister-in-law pulled out my pillow with the smallest amount of vomit on the corner of the pillowcase. It was my beloved pillow and I still wasn’t worried.

My SIL doesn’t mess around in situations like this and she wanted to throw my pillow away, claiming it wasn’t worth cleaning! (Even though there was only a little on the pillowcase, not even on the pillow.) I put up a good fight. I came to Colorado with this pillow and I would be leaving with this pillow. At minimum she wanted to throw the pillowcase away…but it matched my bedding and I convinced her washing it would be just fine.

That evening my SIL gave me the bad news – the pillow went through the wash and it didn’t fare well. The pillow lining disintegrated and the pillow was now lumpy.

WHAT!? You mean the pillowcase? No the pillow. I told you not to wash the pillow. Yes, but it was gross. I don’t care, it’s my pillow. Well you’ll definitely need a new one. I don’t want a new one.

I took the pillow home with me and used it for another 6 months. But after being washed it lost its love and comfort and I finally said goodbye to it this week. I haven’t slept well since. Part of me wants to pull it out of the trash barrel because it still hasn’t been picked up but I would for sure need to send it through the wash this time. I’m not sure it would be able handle another spin cycle.