I love the bamboo/cotton and tencel/cotton bedding from Quilts Etc. More on reddit.com

I just get mine from Winners/Homesense. Marked down sometimes by hundreds, never pay more than $50, and I can touch them to see how soft they are. More on reddit.com

MIC site heirloomlinens.com verycanadian.ca More on reddit.com

Thanks for putting this together! Some thoughts: Thread Count. At best a proxy for smoothness. Cannot be relied on to indicate strength, quality, or durability. It is a very easily manipulated number. Fabric weight is a much better indicator, but never printed anywhere. Anything above ~400TC is going to be smooth and fine. Super high thread counts like 1500 are usually very wimpy in terms of durability. They tend to get holes quickly, from wringing themselves up in the wash, I believe, and I've never had a set last more than 4 years or so. Material. Cotton is not always king. While cotton council ads want you to think 100% cotton is the best thing ever, cotton has its own set of strengths and weaknesses like everything else. None of your performance athletic wear is made of cotton these days, for example. In terms of linens, like sheets and towels, cotton/poly blends can have some advantages. Sheets. 100% cotton sheets usually wrinkle like crazy and come out of the dryer looking like a crumpled newspaper. Even the "wrinkle resistant" cotton sheets being offered now are still very wrinkled. Cotton/poly blends come out almost looking ironed. If you want neat sheets, consider a blend if you can find one. Blend sheets also tend to last forever. Towels. Blends greatly increase strength and durability. Look for a towel with a 100% cotton face (the loops that actually touch your body) because cotton is great at absorbing water, but also look for polyester backing or framing. That's the foundation of the towel, so to speak, and it will be much less resistant to tearing, holes, and losing its shape. Blended towels are easier to find than sheets, but they can still be tricky. Run from anything advertised as microfiber on the linen front. Color. I personally like and recommend plain white for sheets and towels (excluding decorative towels if you need them). White sheets can be bought in a variety of fabric patterns, such as tone-on-tone stripes or damasks to break up the monotony of white. But, your bed should be covered with something, a duvet or comforter for example, and that should provide the color and style you want, not your sheets. White sheets can be washed in hot water and bleached without fear. Same thing for white towels. Especially useful if you entertain a lot. Pillows. As u/slktrx notes, down/feather pillows ARE washable. I do not know why so many people think otherwise. Where do they think geese and ducks normally spend their time? A properly maintained down pillow will last generations. Keep a good protector on them to minimize washing. When you do wash a pillow of any sort, NEVER use fabric softener. It's sticky. Kills loft and increases matting. Might as well wash in olive oil. Poly fiber fill pillows do not wash well -- they tend to mat and get very dense. If you like dense pillows, this is fine. I find that great for side sleeping, so I get the old poly pillows in the house. If you need fluffy, poly pillows will probably be disposable. Keeping them covered will extend their lifespan. Shopping. It's hard to recommend specific stores, so I will just make some general points. Avoid department stores and your big box linen stores like Bed, Bath, and Beyond unless they are having a 75% off white sale. Their prices are usually marked up staggeringly. For example, a no-name 100% cotton bath sheet at Macy's dropped my jaw at $65. A few weeks later I picked up no-name 100% cotton bath sheets (of a heavier weight) at Costco of all places for $11.99. So be mindful of markup when you shop. Shopping for linens online can be hard because you cannot see or touch the item and have to rely solely on a description to tell you how good the product is. Pay attention to details, check any reviews, and make sure you can return the product easily if needed. More on reddit.com