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Advice On How To Clean A Mattress

Written by James

Last Updated: 1st January, 2022
Contents

When you first buy a bed for your home, you need to pick out a few things – the frame, the mattress and the bedding that ties in with your overall décor theme. The mattress is arguably the most important decision you’ll make as this is what you will be relying on to keep yourself comfortable and cool at night. However, despite the fact that mattress can be quite expensive as an initial investment, many people do not clean their mattress as often or as thoroughly as they should.

In this guide, we will give you some of our best tips and tricks to ensure your mattress is cleaned to a high standard. This article on how to clean a mattress will cover everything from how often you should clean your mattress to how you can remove any stubborn stains. Read on to hear what you need to do.

Why Should You Clean Your Mattress?

If you have never cleaned your mattress before, you might be wondering why you need to take this step. If you are cleaning your bedding and the bed frame every week or so, why does the mattress underneath matter? Well, the truth is that you do need to clean your mattress regularly and there are some very good reasons for this.

The first reason is that the average used mattress may have anywhere from 100,000 to 10 million mites inside.

Not So Fun Fact!
10% of the total weight of a 2-year-old pillow can be made up of dead mites and their droppings.

Additionally, you will shed more than 8 pounds (3.6 kilograms) of dead skin over the course of a year! If you don’t have the right mattress or topper, you can also sweat around 200ml each night (8 hours).

clean sweat from bed mattress

This means that your mattress is probably much dirtier than you think, especially if you don’t have a mattress protector separating the sheet and the mattress itself.

How Often Should You Clean Your Mattress?

Well, there isn’t a specific rule on this, but it is recommended that you clean your mattress at least every 6 months, so twice a year. If you have any kind of medical conditions, you might want to set a cleaning schedule to suit your lifestyle. Just remember – the average person spends around 33% of their life in bed✓.

Using The Right Cleaning Products

Before you know how to clean a mattress, you need to know a bit more about the materials. Not all mattresses are made with the same materials and so you might find that one cleaning product can work for your mattress while another is suitable for someone else’s. If you choose the wrong cleaning materials, you could find that you actually damage the mattress, and this is something that you will want to avoid.

There are a few common cleaning materials that you might want to consider picking up before you get started on the cleaning process. For example, baking soda and enzymatic cleaner can work wonders on stains and ensure your mattress is as clean as possible.

Here we list some additional mattress cleaners, included are vacuum cleaners and mattress steam cleaners. A research paper✓ found that intensive vacuuming and dry steam cleaning both caused a significant reduction in allergen concentration.

cleaning products

Other materials that work well on cleaning mattresses include distilled white vinegar and hydrogen peroxide. If you head to your local supermarket, you’ll be sure to find certain products that are designed to clean mattress. Make sure to check the ingredients and the instructions in comparison to the type of mattress you have. This way, you can be sure that you are not making any mistakes.

Below are all the things you will need to clean your mattress and tackle any unwanted stains.

Equipment:

  • Vacuum cleaner (with attachments)
  • Cleaning rags
  • Spray bottle
  • Measuring cup

Materials:

  • Baking soda
  • Essential oil (lavender, tea tree, eucalyptus etc.)
  • Salt
  • 3% hydrogen peroxide
  • Liquid dish soap
  • Laundry powder
  • White vinegar
  • Water

Using Hydrogen Peroxide For Mattress Stains

Tackling stubborn stains on your mattress is to use hydrogen peroxide. This might sound a bit extreme but, in some cases, it is the only option that will get the stain off your mattress for good.

Hydrogen peroxide has bleaching properties, so you need to be careful when you are using it in your bedroom. We recommend that you mix it with water before using it. You should test it on a small patch of your mattress to avoid any big issues should something go wrong. If it works, you can go ahead and clean off the stain with this cleaning product. We will get into this further below.

How To Clean A Mattress | Simple

1. Remove bedding

One of the first steps that you will need to take when you are cleaning your mattress is to strip the bed and put any of your bed linen in the washing machine. This is something that you will typically do much more often than cleaning the mattress itself but if you are working on the mattress then it doesn’t hurt to have fresh linen for the night ahead.

2. Check for stains

The next step is to check for any stains. These might be tougher to remove but there are strategies that you can use which we will detail in our Deep Clean Mattress Instructions. If there are no particular stains, you can proceed with cleaning your mattress as planned.

3. Vacuum/ hoover

Using a vacuum in the initial stages will come in handy as it will allow you to remove any hairs, dirt or crumbs that have managed to make their way to the mattress. Some vacuums have certain attachments that you can use to make sure that they don’t damage the mattress so make sure to have a look into this. Don’t miss any spots and if your mattress has buttons, try to get in there.

4. Remove odour

Once you have vacuumed the mattress, check the other side and rotate it is required. Once you have finished vacuuming the mattress, you should consider using some baking soda to remove any odours. It is possible that some odours have built up over time, but you haven’t noticed because you have had a few layers on top of the mattress.

All you need to do is sprinkle the baking soda on there, focusing on the area that is emitting the smell. If you know how to clean a mattress with baking soda, then you will always have a natural way to clean the mattress you sleep on every night. Once you have sprinkled, you can spread the baking soda using a scrubbing brush. We recommend that you leave this for around 10 minutes to allow the baking soda to do its job.

5. Vacuum excess

Once this time is up, you can use your vacuum to remove any excess baking soda.

After this step, as long as there are no particular stains on your mattress, it should be clean and ready to go. You should leave your mattress to air slightly in the room if you can, to get it ready for the night ahead.

How To Clean Urine From A Mattress

One of the biggest problems that homeowners face when it comes to mattresses are stains. If you have young children or pets, it can be easy for things to be spilt on mattresses or even for urine to leak through the sheets at night. If you want to know how to clean urine from a mattress, then you need to know that you must be proactive. This is something that you will want to tackle right away in order to keep the mattress in the best possible condition for as long as possible.

The good news is that you can clean your mattress and eliminate any stains easily enough, as long as you have the right cleaning materials. You might need to do a lot of work, so you should learn how to deep clean a mattress. If you can’t find the right cleaner in a store or you don’t want to have to pay for it, there are ways that you can make your own at home.

The first recommendation that we have for removing a tough stain such as urine is to use a mixture of:

  • 3 tablespoons of baking soda
  • 240 ml of hydrogen peroxide
  • 1/2 teaspoon of liquid dish soap

All you need to do is apply the mixture to the mattress and the urine stain and lightly rub it until it is removed and dry.

When it comes to tackling urine, it should do the job but if this doesn’t work, you have other options. For example:

  • 3 tablespoons of laundry powder
  • 1 tablespoon of water

Spread this solution over the urine stain and allow it to settle and dry (30 min). You can then proceed to remove the paste with a blunt knife and vacuum any leftovers.

Finally, using an upholstery cleaner that can be diluted to protect your mattress. We would advise that you should avoid spraying this directly onto your mattress as this can damage it in the long run.

How To Clean Blood Stains

Blood stains are not as common as urine stains but can prove to be more difficult when trying to remove them.

In order to get rid of blood stains we will first have to make a concoction:

  • 59 ml of hydrogen peroxide
  • 1 tablespoon of liquid dish soap
  • 1 tablespoon of salt

Spread this mixture over the blood stain and let it sit for about 15 min, scrape away with a blunt knife or even a spoon. Use a rag that has been slightly dipped in hydrogen peroxide to remove any excess residue.

How To Deep Clean A Mattress | Thorough

It can be easy for months to pass before you realise that you haven’t spent time deep cleaning your mattress. For this reason, we recommend that you create a schedule that you can follow to remind you to deep clean your mattress. The deep cleaning process will involve removing any stains, adding some baking powder to remove odours and vacuuming any hairs.

Here is a summary of how to deep clean a mattress which takes into account the simple mattress cleaning method and stain removal options previously mentioned:

  1. Ventilate the room
  2. Remove sheets and bedding
  3. Vacuum the mattress (all around, the bottom too)
  4. Remove urine/ blood stains
  5. Remove odour with baking soda
  6. Vacuum again to remove the leftover baking soda
  7. Spray to kill the dust mites (Mix - 450ml of distilled water, 2 teaspoons of essential oils✓)
  8. Allow the solution to dry
  9. Preserve your bed with a mattress protector

Create a schedule for all of the mattress in your home. Don’t forget about the mattress in your guest room and your pet’s mattress! The better organised you are, the easier it will be to keep them clean.

How To Keep Your Mattress Clean

If you struggle to get rid of stubborn stains on your mattress, you might benefit from some tips that will help you to keep it clean for longer. By tackling problems straight away, you can reduce the need for longer cleaning practices further down the line. Keeping your mattress clean throughout the year is easy, but we’ve put some tips together below that might help.

Clean It Right Away

The most important thing that you can do to keep your mattress clean throughout the year is to clean it right away. This will help you to prolong the life of the mattress and make sure that cleaning away stains further down the line is much easier. Try to clean up any stains with the right materials as soon as you notice them, and this will make it much easier to handle.

clean mattress immediately

If you have young children, we recommend checking their kids mattress as often as possible to identify any stains as quickly as you can. This way, you won’t need to worry about their mattress as well.

Consider A Mattress Protector

Another great tip that we have for those who want to keep their mattress clean is to use a mattress protector. There are some great brands out there that offer high-quality protectors that can be easily placed on top of your mattress. You’ll need to find one that fits perfectly but this shouldn’t be difficult considering the number of products and customer reviews out there.

Something to consider when picking out a mattress protector is that there is a range of options including cooling protectors and environmentally friendly ones. If you find that you sweat a lot at night, a cooling protector might be what helps to save your mattress and keep it intact for many more years.

When To Replace Your Mattress

It is entirely possible to clean your mattress and have it live a very long life but you also need to consider the point when it is time to pick out a new mattress. For example, if your mattress has accumulated a lot of stains over the years and you just can’t seem to get rid of these, it might be time to start looking at alternatives.

clean or replace

Additionally, a smelly mattress is not something that is very pleasant to sleep on. While there are options when it comes to removing smells from mattresses including using baking powder, some smells just can’t be removed.

Under normal conditions, mattresses should be replaced every 6 to 8 years."

Before picking out a new mattress, consider looking into the various options and find something that works for you. Choose something that is easy to keep clean and that comes with a warranty. You can also pick out a mattress topper to protect it and ensure that it has a longer life than your previous mattress.

How To Clean A Mattress Conclusion

Now that you know a bit more about how to clean a mattress, you can make some progress on the mattresses in your own home. We recommend creating a schedule so that you don’t ever forget to regularly deep clean the mattresses in your home. You should also ensure you have the right cleaning products in your cupboard for any unexpected spillages that may occur throughout the year.

Hopefully, this has helped you to keep your mattress clean for longer!

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