Cleaning my Beans72 Pillow

It's been a while since I received my latest Beans72 pillow and I thought it'd gotten funky enough after daily use to air out the buckwheat hulls and wash the cotton case.

This is an extremely simple operation and requires minimal gear.

The case is zippered and the hulls are free to move around inside. That means it's as simple as opening the zipper and dumping the hulls into a container.

WARNING!: There ARE more buckwheat hulls than you're expecting.

My travel size pillow contained enough hulls to completely fill a 2-gallon bucket.

I turned the case inside out and gave it a shake or two to make sure I'd gotten everything out and then turned it right side out and zipped it shut before tossing the case into the wash with my wool socks and other synthetics (cold, delicate cycle) for a wash and rinse.

After 25 minutes of extra low heat from the dryer I was ready to refill my good-smelling pillow once again. ( I really need to get a pillowcase from Beans72 for this pillow.)

I tried to use a 1-cup measuring cup to pour the hulls back into the case but that didn't work very well. I needed a way to prevent spills. I don't have any extra buckwheat hulls laying around that I could use once I dumped mine onto the floor. I tried a funnel. The opening was too small to work with the hulls.

So, I made a cone out of newspaper and stapled the top and bottom edges together. This gave me a nice, large opening at the top with a 3" diameter hole at the bottom. Then I inserted my homemade funnel into the case, used the measuring cup as a scoop, and filled the case about five cups at a time.

After a few minutes I had every last hull back in the case and gave the funnel one last shake before zipping up the case once more.

Success.

The pillow is as firm as it once was, it smells good, and I don't have buckwheat hulls all over the laundry room.

I did manage to lose a few but probably less than 20 hulls. Beans72 does sell extra hulls at $4 a pound so losing even a large handful wouldn't be the end of the world.

Doing this is, in my mind, just like taking the time to clean and service your knife or other essential piece of gear. If you've got a Beans72 pillow you should know that the cleaning process is extremely simple and will make a huge difference in making your pillow a little more socially acceptable (no more drool stains and the smell of venison noticeably absent...)

Thanks for reading,


B