Now I lay myself down to sleep, on the mattress I (and maybe my partner and pets) use every night. I change the sheets every week and I’m a clean person. So my mattress is clean – right?
Wrong. Your mattress is probably the dirtiest thing in your bedroom, besides the phone, you’re reading this on.
The rumours you’ve heard about mattresses doubling their original weight due to dead skin cells and dust mites? It’s all true.
A mattress is a place of rest and relaxation. It’s also the most important investment in your bedroom, so it makes sense that you want to keep it clean.
If you have the time and money, you can hire a house cleaning professional for this job, but if you don’t, you have nothing to worry about because, luckily, there are ways to do the job yourself.
This post will outline some simple DIY methods for cleaning your mattress from top to bottom, without using harsh chemicals or spending too much money on supplies or a new mattress.
Here are our tips for DIY mattress cleaning.
Gross Mattress Facts
There are seven and a half billion people on planet earth – total. But do you know the dust mite population in your own home?
The average home has about six billion dust mites in it at any given time. That wasn’t a typo – six billion mites.
They die off, and that’s one of the reasons your mattress gets heavier over time.
Wash Your Sheets, Please!
If you’re cleaning up after a single male (or you have a son in college), call them right now and remind them to change their bedsheets.
Experts say you should change them once a week, but this source found that single men are more likely to wait a month – or three(!) to change theirs.
If you suspect that’s the case for your male loved one, it may be time to call us and have us do a deep clean. It can be their birthday present!
DIY Mattress Cleaning Tricks
Feeling gross already? Let’s get cleaning!
Take the Mattress Outside
Sweep off your driveway and lay down a clean tarp or another sort of plastic covering, so the mattress doesn’t get any outside-material on it. Have your partner hold the mattress vertically – so it’s standing up – and beat that thing like a pinata.
Just like beating out a rug, this will release things trapped in the top layer of the mattress (but not much deeper). It’s a good start for the next steps, though, as it gets things agitated which will make them easier to clean.
You can beat it with a bat, the handle of a broom, or any type of rod. Just make sure you do so safely and get ready to get some strange looks from the neighbours.
Now, take the mattress back inside and put it back on the bed – where it belongs.
Get Some Baking Soda
Make sure it’s baking soda – not baking powder and bring it down to the bedroom.
With some sort of flour sieve or sifter, cover the mattress in a fine dusting of baking soda. Don’t rub it in until the point where you can’t see it anymore, but you can give it a few circular motion rubs with your hand.
Leave this for about an hour. The idea is that the baking soda will bond to whatever debris is in the top levels of your mattress, making them easier to remove.
Get Out the Vacuum
After an hour, take out your vacuum. If you have one with a detachable hose, that’s great.
The cordless long-armed Dyson’s work well too. If you only have a hose and your push vacuum you can still get this done, it’ll just take longer.
Vacuum over the mattress, working in one by one-foot squares. Go back and forth over the square fully at least three or four times before moving on.
You should see a lot of grey-white powdery material gathering in your vacuum. You may need to empty the tank halfway through.
Work through the entire mattress this way and then do the mattress seams (top and bottom), since extra powder will roll off and gather there.
Now your mattress is about as clean as it’s going to get. Some people believe you should add lavender oil to the equation – so if you like the scent, go ahead and spray the bed with a diluted spray a few times.
There’s no evidence that it does anything more than makes it smell nice.
Now – while you’re waiting for your lavender mist to dry, vacuum around the bed, even if you have to move the bed frame. Spiders and other household creepy crawlies like dark spaces, so be prepared to see some webs (and hopefully already dead spiders).
If you have a bed-skirt or any other linens, wash that before putting the bed back together as well.
Dress the Bed and Relax
Now you’ve done all you can do to clean your mattress – so go shower off those airborne dust mites and put clean sheets on the bed.
Put on your best pair of pyjamas and prepare for a higher level of the “clean sheets, clean me” moment of luxury we’re awarded every so often.
And maybe…
Shop for a New Mattress
You should get a new mattress every ten or fifteen years – max. They gather too much junk and lose too much support to wait any longer than that.
Keep Your Bedroom Clean
There’s really no way to control your skin shedding while you sleep – even if you’re an avid exfoliator. Even with these DIY mattress cleaning tips, it’s something we all do.
But keeping your bedroom free of other dust and contaminants can cut down on the number of nasties that get into bed with you.
Don’t have time or need a helping hand? Give us a call and let us tidy up for you.
