The average UK consumer spends nearly £650 when they buy a new mattress, according to research by the National Bed Federation. One in seven of us spend up to £ 1,200. If you’re investing such chunk of your cash on a mattress, you want to make sure it stays clean and in perfect condition for as long as possible so you enjoy the benefits of a great rest.
A clean bed ensures a good night’s sleep. Cleaning your mattress is important, but often overlooked task for having your sleeping area healthy. By regularly cleaning your mattress, you can remove allergens, dust, bacteria, and stop serious mattress problems like mould and bad odours. To keep your mattress clean, you will need to manage routine cleaning as well as address larger problems like spots, stains, odours, and even bed bugs and dust mites. It is a good start to wash your sheets and pillows, but that’s not all you need to do. Routine cleaning will make your bed a better place to sleep, and taking care of stains, odours, and infestations will protect your mattress and prevent more serious problems.
One of the most important things for your mental and physical health is to get a good sleep, and clean bedding and mattresses make sure that this is the case. Regular and deep sleep enhances learning, memory, and general health, while poor sleep increases the risk for chronic disease and impaired judgment, reaction time.
A cleaning mattress impacts significantly your quality of life. Below you can find helpful tips for mattress and bedding cleanliness.
How to Clean Your Mattress
A clean and comfortable mattress is necessary for a good sleep. are inevitable consequences of daily mattress use, Regular cleaning can help to minimise stains, odours, and dust mites.
To keep your mattress clean, have in mind these 3 essential tips:
- Both sides of the mattress need to be vacuumed once a month. It will remove dust and dust mites.
- If possible, place your mattress every few months in a sunny spot. This will prevent the accumulation of moisture, mould, and any lingering odours.
- You can also let your mattress breathe after removing the sheets. Ideally, open your windows regularly to let in fresh air and sunlight.
How to Clean Mattress Stains
Cleaning stains off your mattress seems like an unpleasant task, but here are some tips that will help you. Check any instructions on your mattress tags – and the wash symbols as well – before you begin, and do not use too much water or mattress stain remover to your mattress.
- For simple or unidentified stains, clean your mattress with a citrus cleanser or diluted dish detergent, let it sit for five or ten minutes and then blot the mattress repeatedly to remove the liquid. There is no need to apply too much water.
- For blood or urine stains, first you can apply little hydrogen peroxide to the area and blot the stained area with a clean cloth just after use. If there is no effect, apply a small amount of laundry detergent directly onto the stain. This will break up the proteins found in bodily fluids. Bloodstains should be cleaned with cold water only, because hot liquids will make these stains permanent.
- For particularly stubborn stains, use baking soda after detergent. Let it stay overnight, and vacuum the area the next day.
Tips for Cleaning Bedding, Sheets & Bedspreads
Cleaning bedding is oftentimes as simple as washing your clothes. But you need to pay careful attention to the wash symbols to make sure that you don’t shrink, stain, or damage the bedding. Sheets and pillowcases need to be washed about once a week, and your duvet or blanket – once a month.
- It is a good idea to pre-treat stains on your bedding with cleaners before throwing them in the wash. Simply spray the area with the stain remover and allow to sit for about 5 to 10 minutes before you begin your wash.
- Follow the wash symbols on your bedding.
- It is a good idea for your bedding to be washed with a detergent specifically designed for sensitive skin if you have allergies or sensitive skin.
- Sheets should not be washed in hot water, as this will make the stains permanent.
A good sleeping environment will produce a better night’s sleep – give these tips a try, and sleep soundly with fresh, fragrant bedding and a clean mattress.
Everything on your bed can be washed, except the mattress and even if you washed it, it cannot dry in time before you need to sleep again. So how can you? Below are some tricks on how you can clean your mattress, and keep it smelling great and clean. The best thing is, you don’t even need any elaborate equipment!
- You can protect your mattress by laying it with linings and mattress pads before you make your bed with fresh sheets so that the amount of dirt is reduced to a minimum by the time it reaches the mattress. These protective layers can be actually washed and reused. If you keep the dirt and germs off the mattress itself this will automatically ease the process of keeping your bed clean and fresh.Â
- If you change your sheets regularly the accumulation of dusts, germs and dirt will be avoided. Use bleaching agents, and the hottest setting on your washer to kill any germs. Scrub and use stain removers to get rid of stains on the sheets. After washing, put your sheets into the dryer for a final session to make sure all germs are exterminated.Â
- Your mattress will retain its shape if you flip it periodically. It also makes sure that it does not accumulate dusts or dirt.Â
- Bicarbonate of Soda is a nifty agent to use if you want a pristine mattress. First sprinkle big amounts of baking soda on your bare mattress and let it sit for at least half a day, but note that leaving it in for the whole day would be better. Baking soda draws out the dirt, stains, bad smells and even moisture. Vacuum the mattress thoroughly after that, and get all the baking soda out of the mattress.
- Sun your mattress every 6 months. You will get rid of bugs that manifest in damp and dark conditions. Let it sit under the sun for about 6 hours, or more. It needs to be kept dry at all times as damp mattress encourages the growth of mould!Â
Below are five additional rules of mattress care you should follow so your mattress lives a long and healthy life.
RULE 1: Air your bed every day
Making your bed as soon as you get up each morning can be bad for your mattress. Every night, we each lose around half a litre of water while we are asleep.
We breath out some of this as water vapour, but we sweat the rest straight into our bedding. If you make your bed every day, you risk trapping this moisture in their bedding, which makes an environment for dust mites.
Instead, you can turn back the duvet when you rise and this will allow the moisture to evaporate.
RULE 2: Wash bedding weekly at least
This will discourage dust mites from taking up residence in your mattress. You can do this simply by changing your sheets and duvet covers every week at least After that you can wash them at a minimum temperature of 60°C.
It would be helpful if you use a machine washable mattress protector. That will help you to stop the sweat or other body fluids form coming into contact with your mattress. After that you can wash it once every two months at the highest temperature recommended on the care label.
RULE 3: Vacuum your mattress
We each lose almost half a kg of dead skin cells every year, and some of them invariably go to our mattress.
This is a magnet for dust mites. Keep them at a distance by vacuuming your mattress once a month. You need to use your vacuum’s upholstery attachment.
RULE 4: Check if you should turn your mattress
Not all mattresses need to be turned, however, they do need to be rotated end-to-end every week just after you’ve bought them, then once every few months.
Sprung mattresses have to be both rotated through 180° and flipped weekly for three months after you buy them, then once every three or four months. If in doubt, check the manufacturer’s care instructions. If you fail to follow this guidance, it may anull the warranty on your mattress. You can write a reminder on your calendar or set up a notification in your phone.
RULE 5: If there are spills and stains you have to act fast
As with most stains, the longer you leave them, the harder they will be to remove.
Set the mattress upright before you take them on, then sponge the area with cold water.
Blot with a dry cloth, then spot-treat with a stain remover designed for carpet or upholstery. Rinse with fresh, cold water and then blot dry.
If there is an unpleasant smell around the stained area, add a few drops of disinfectant to the water for rinsing.
When booking a mattress cleaning and you are not quite sure about the size, please refer to the below UK standard measurements for mattresses:
Small single: 75cm x 190cm
Single: 90cm x 190cm
Small double: 120cm x 190cm
Double: 135cm x 190cm
King size: 150cm x 200cm
Super-king size: 180cm x 200cm
Emperor: 200cm x 202cm
Large emperor: 215cm x 217cm
