How to Clean a Mattress: 5 Simple Steps and 17 Userful Tips

In this guide, you’ll find useful tips and steps about how to clean a mattress. We’ll give many suggestions on when to clean your mattress, how to do regular cleaning, and how to treat mattress problems, such as stains and spots, bed bugs, dust mites, odors, and so on. In addition, we’ll help you analyze whether it is worth cleaning your mattress or just changing a new one. In a word, you’ll find everything you need to know about mattress cleaning. Now let’s start.

• When to Clean Your Mattress
• How to clean a mattress
• Removing Bed Bugs
• Treating Dust Mites
• Cleaning Spots and Stains
• Removing Odors
• When to Buy a New Mattress Instead of Cleaning
• How to Keep Your Mattress Clean for Longer
• Mattress Cleaning and Warranty

You spend 30% of your life sleeping. Cleaning mattress is an important task for sleep health, but you may always overlook it. Deep cleaning your mattress twice a year not only promotes better sleep, but it also takes care of the sweat, dust, mites, and allergies that build up over time. It also helps prevent pest infestations. Gross, right? Please have no fear, here we will introduce you all the mattress cleaning knowledge and steps. According to our tips, cleaning will be an easy and simple job.

Usually, all you need to do is cleaning the mattress regularly, vacuuming it weekly, and covering a mattress protector.

When to Clean Your Mattress

• You haven’t cleaned the mattress for months: You should clean your mattress every month to get a  clean, fresh and comfortable sleep place.
• You are allergic when sleeping: If you feel allergic symptoms more frequently in bed or when you wake up, it is time to clean up the mattress. Dust mites can aggravate allergies and make you sick if untreated.
• You have noticed bugs: Bed bug infestation may not always be obvious in the early stage, but you can find some signs. If you see bugs, notice tiny blood or insect excretions on your mattress surface, please pay more attention to the mattress hygiene.
• Your mattress has an odor: The mattress has the smell of body fluids, even mold. Odor is gross and can seriously damage your sleep and even cause bigger health problems.
• Your mattress has obvious spots and stains: If you can see stains easily, it’s best to clean the stain problem immediately.

Even if your mattress has no above cleaning problems, you still need to clean the mattress regularly to keep it fresh and avoid accumulation of dust, dirt and bacteria. In a word, it is always important and healthy to fully protect your mattress from stains, bugs, dust mites and other messes.

How to Clean a Mattress

If you have never cleaned your mattress, it may take some time to give a deep cleaning, because you have several things to do. But if you keep a regular cleaning, it becomes an easy job, and you just need to do one or two things based on your previous cleaning. Here we collect all tips and steps for mattress cleaning, hope you can apply them soon. If you have never cleaned your mattress, below five steps can help you finish the job excellently.

Step 1. strip the bed and toss everything in the washer. Always use the hottest water setting you can when you wash your bedding and dry on high heat.

Step 2. grab your vacuum cleaner and give the entire surface area a once over with the upholstery tool. Pay special attention to seams and crevices. That’s where stuff tends to accumulate.

Step 3. check for stains and then spot clean. Whether you’re an in-bed snacker or have pets or small children, there are bound to be some stains to treat. An upholstery cleaner or enzyme-based pet odor remover should take care of the job.

Step 4. freshen and deodorize with baking soda. Sprinkle baking soda liberally all over the mattress surface. Don’t skimp. You can use up to an entire one-pound box. For best results, let this sit for 24 hours, or at least do it in the morning, and let it work until that evening. If your mattress can get a little sunshine, even better.

Step 5. after the baking soda had a chance to work its magic, vacuum the mattress again using the upholstery tool. And lastly, always use a mattress pad or cover on your bed.

If you follow these simple steps twice a year, you’ll find that your dreams have never been sweeter.

After a fully cleaning, you just need to do some simple cleaning to keep it.

• Wash your sheets: Bed sheets should be washed in hot water every 1-2 weeks. If you are sick, or you notice stains, or you sweat particularly at night, wash them more frequently.
• Treat spills, stains, and odors immediately: DO NOT let stains or odors sink into your mattress. Clean stains and remove odors quickly once you notice them.
• Air dry your mattress: Fresh air and sunlight can remove odors and bleach stains. Select a sunny day and find a clean place to get your mattress air out for hours. Even if you can’t put your mattress outside, just put it near a sunny open window to help it expel some air.
• Don’t make your bed right away: When you get out of bed, just simply expose your mattress to air for at least thirty minutes or more. Let moisture and odors volatilize before making your bed.

How to Clean Stains, Odors, and Infestations

It’s important to keep your mattress clean every day, but if there are spots, stains, smells or even bugs on your mattress, you may need to do a further thing. You should always clean up those messes quickly to avoid more serious problems.

Removing Bed Bugs

Bed bugs is one of the biggest enemy for your mattress, even if you practice good mattress hygiene, bed bugs still appear inadvertently. You may like traveling, but what you don’t know is that with just one trip, a few bedbugs can get your luggage and back home with you. But please don’t be depressed. The good news is that most bed bugs and infections can be treated well by yourself.

1. Wash everything with hot water: Not only do bedbugs damage your mattress, but they also get into bedding, blankets, plush animals, pillows, curtains, and even your clothes. Put everything that can be washed in the washing machine, then heat and wash them with hot water and kill all the insects.
2. Bag everything else: Bug bugs can hide in your phone, laptop, clock radio, books, and other personal items. So bag these items and place Nuvan strips or other insecticides inside to kill the bugs.
3. Find and kill bugs on your mattress: Search inch by inch on your mattress and find as many bed bugs as you can, then vacuum them all. You should check every nook and cranny, and go over every spot at least twice. A flashlight is very useful to help you find them. Never use brushes or bristles because bed bugs may cling to them. B
4. Find bugs in furniture: Bed bugs can spread to your bed frame and dressing table. So you need clean those furniture surfaces, corners and drawers, if you find any bugs or eggs, vacuum them at once. Please search carefully inside and under the furniture with a flashlight.
5. Clean every surface: Scrub and wipe down the infested surface. Even if it is not affected, it is still necessary to clean every surface. Look at the panels, cracks and tiny holes in the walls, if there is something, clean it. Use a vacuum cleaner to scrape the surface of carpet, to thoroughly remove insects from the bed.
6. Mattress encasement protector cover is useful: A mattress encasement can effectively protect your mattress from bugs and stains. Bed bugs cannot get in or out of your mattress through the encasement. If your mattress has been attacked by bugs, the protector cover can isolate them from the outside. Then they have nothing new to eat. One year later those bugs will die and you can remove the cover and vacuum them up.
7. Call for help: If you have tried all above steps but can still notice beg bugs after a few weeks or months. Please call a debug expert for help. They have more professional skill to treat bed bugs.

Treating Dust Mites

Dust mites live in mattresses and feed on human skin. They can attack your skin and aggravate allergies. You will itch on the back and feel uncomfortable when sleeping on mattress longer. Therefore, you should remove dust mites ASAP. Once dust mites appear in your mattress, you will never have a comfortable sleep at night. 

Dust mites are a common problem for most families, but you can take some preventive maintenance to remove them. Dust mites live on human dead skin. To treat them you can start with dead skin removal.

First, we recommend you wash your sheets and pillowcase weekly. The sheets get in touch with your skin directly during sleep. And it can build up dead skin over a long time, which creates a suitable environment for dust mites growing. Wash your sheets and pillowcase every week, so you give nothing to dust mites to eat.

Second, dry your sheets and pillowcase in the sunlight. Sunlight has ultraviolet rays which can effectively kill dust mites. So expose your sheets and pillowcase directly in the sunlight is a simple and useful way to treat dust mites.

Third, check your pillow. If it is dirty or has been used for more than half a year, consider to get a new one. Pillow is also a place where dust mites usually homed in. So never forget to clean it.

Dust mists cannot survive at high temperatures. So steam cleaner is a good choice to kill them. You can run a steam cleaner on your mattress, cover every surface at least twice, most dust mists can be killed. Remember to expose your mattress in sunlight after the steam cleaning.

Vacuum is always useful, no matter for treating bed bugs or dust mites. Be sure to vacuum every place, especially the quilting and other tight spots.

It would be better to use a mattress cover after the vacuum cleaning. The cover prevents dust mites get into your mattress. As you know, if dust mites home in your mattress, it is difficult to get rid of them completely. And another benefit for using mattress cover is that it lightens your cleaning work, you just need to wash sheets and pillowcase regularly.

Cleaning Spots and Stains

Spots and stains is another problem for your mattress. Sweat, dribble, blood, and even food can leave a stain on your mattress. You should deal with these as soon as possible to avoid stains sinking, or let them smells or even molds. Cleaning spots and stains needs a few more steps, but they are easy and you can do them by yourself.

1. Blot all liquids ASAP. If your mattress is sprinkled by some water, blot up it ASAP. You can use a dry towel or tissue to suck dry as much liquid as you can. DO NOT let liquid soak into the mattress, which will leave an obvious stain and even encourage mold growth.
2. Spray affected areas with dish detergent and scrub them. Your mattress is soft and fragile, DO NOT use the original thick dish detergent directly. You can mix water and detergent with a 50/50 ratio. Then spray the mix on the spot areas, and wait 30 seconds to let it sit, then scrub thoroughly. Repeat spraying, sitting and scrubbing several times till the spots and stains can’t be seen easily. Be sure blot up any excess moisture quickly.
3. Remove bodily fluids with laundry detergent. You can try laundry detergent to clean urine, blood and other bodily fluids, just like you clean your clothes. Be sure to mix laundry detergent with water before cleaning.
4. Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) works well. Hydrogen peroxide can also be used to remove bodily fluids. But DO NOT mix it with hot water, because it will set stains.

Removing Odors

The odors is another enemy for your mattress. You may sweat during sleep, if the sweat and body fluid is not handled in time, it will be absorbed by your mattress, which can finally generate odor. You’ll never feel comfortable when sleeping on a smell mattress. If you left it unchecked for a long time, the odors can negatively affect your sleep health and lead to bigger problems, such as bacterial and fungal growth. So removing odor and keeping your mattress fresh and healthy is really important. The good news is that removing odors is still simple. All necessary steps are vacuuming, baking soda, spraying/scrubbing and sunlight drying.

1. Vacuum your mattress: Vacuuming is always a good start for cleaning. It helps you clean the easiest places first before you do further steps. 
2. Sprinkle baking soda: Baking soda eliminates odor effectively. Just sprinkle it evenly onto your mattress, wait 6 hours at least. The longer the time, the better the effect. Then vacuum it up. You can see baking soda picks up odors. 
3. Spray/scrub your mattress: Spray odor eliminating mix to the affected area, then blot and scrub the area, then repeat. To protect the mattress, you may thin the odor eliminating liquid first. The vinegar is also useful for removing odors, but do not spray heavily, because the vinegar smell may be unpleasant to sleep with.
4. Dry your mattress in sunlight: Air dries your mattress. Direct sunlight is great for your mattress.

When to Buy a New Mattress Instead of Cleaning

Here we have provided you simple tips for cleaning spots and stains, removing odors, treating bed bugs and dust mites. Those tips and steps are enough to maintain your mattress well in daily life. But shall we just sleep the same mattress in whole life? No, absolutely not. In some cases, it is not worth saving a mattress. Meanwhile, if the mattress has been used for more than 10 years, you need also consider buying a new one. What we take into account is whether it will negatively affect your sleep quality and health.

1. Normally a mattress can be used 7-10 years without damage. 10 years later, mattresses will accelerate aging, even though the mattress surface still looks good. The sponge filler or memory foam in mattress aging into floc and doesn’t feel soft and flexible. The springs lose their original function and become inflexible too. So you can see some sunk places in the mattress surface. Then your body cannot get enough support from the mattress during sleep. And your spine curves if you sleep on such mattress for a long time. We strongly recommend you change a new mattress every 7-10 years. DO NOT wait till it becomes too worn and uncomfortable.
2. If your mattress has extensive bed bugs or dust mites, please consider changing a new one. Extensive bed bugs is a sign that they have been out of control. If you can treat bed bugs in the early stage, it’s fine to keep your treated mattress. However, if bed bugs are out of control, consider throwing away your mattress and buying a new one at once. How to check if bed bugs are out of control? Two signs. One is you can see extensive bed bugs often. The other is after treated bed bugs appear again and they seem never been decreased. Though you have dropped the old mattress, bed bugs can still remain in your home. So you need to clean your bedroom, especially the furniture inside, clothes and other items, to eliminate all bed bugs before you bring in a new mattress.
3. If your mattress has molded, consider buying a new one. Mold on the mattress strongly implies that you have left a spot dirty and wet in the mattress for too long. And worst of all, mold is really tough to get rid of. Even if you clean your mattress thoroughly, you may never know if you have actually eliminated the mold. Sleeping on a molded mattress can cause serious health problems, so the better choice is changing a new one.

How to Keep Your Mattress Clean for Longer

We collect and organize all kinds of cleaning information from the net and professionals. Below suggestions may be helpful for you.

Use a mattress cover: A mattress cover can protect your mattress from contaminants, such as dirt, stains, bugs, and dust mites.

Shower before bed: Dead skin and sweat are two factors that contribute to a dirty mattress. So regularly showering before bed is a good habit for getting a hygienic mattress.

Wash your sheets every week: Routinely wash your sheets to prevent dust from building up. If you are busy, please ensure to wash your sheets every month at least.

Keep your bedroom cool: You’ll be less likely to sweat in a cool room, which is helpful to keep your sheets and mattress dry.

Don’t eat on your bed: Please never put food on your mattress, crumbs or soup may stain the mattress surface, and even sink into it. Also, food crumbs and residue attract insects like ants and roaches.

Mattress Cleaning and Warranty

Please DO NOT forget that your mattress has a warranty. So if you have any problem with a mattress, please do not hesitate to contact your mattress manufacturer. But one thing that can often be overlooked is that manufacturers may reject your mattress warranty for stains. They think that keeping the mattress clean and fresh is the owner’s duty, and stains are the owner’s mistakes. Some stains can damage the mattress surface, which may be permanent and cannot be fixed. So if you can clean stains, do it before calling manufacturers for help.

When you buy a mattress, it would be better to check and understand all warranty clauses, especially rejecting cases. Also, the manufacturer may give you some good suggestions for mattress maintenance and cleaning, you can try them.

Conclusion

Above we have introduced many methods and knowledge for keeping the mattress clean. It may take you a whole day to finish the series of cleaning steps for the first time. But you can do a little every night or every week, you will be happy for the changing of your mattress. Anyway, a clean and fresh mattress is the base for comfortable sleep. And it is worth spending more time on sleep health and good habits. Whatever changes you make, you’ll get the best of out your mattress for a longer period of time.