Cleaning Pillows

I'm sure this has probably come up[ for discussion before, but thought I'd ask if anyone has some good ideas for cleaning bed pillows effectively without having them turn into wadded up balls? I know I could just throw them out and get new ones, but I hate the waste. These have nothing horrible on them, but I've often heard how bad pillows can get with normal sweat, drooling runny noses etc, even with covers, and would feel much better about us sleeping on them if I knew I could really get them clean now and then. How do you all do it?

Kathy