How to Clean a Mattress

Use these tips to learn how to clean a mattress and offer this much needed service to your house cleaning business clients.

Even the most hygienic people will at some point need to clean their mattress. Over time, dirt, dust mites and general body odors can cause a mattress to become unclean and smelly. Fortunately, cleaning a mattress is not that hard and can be easily done for a small amount of money.

There are a number of ways that a person can go about cleaning a mattress. If the mattress has become soiled in just one spot, clean up is quick and easy. For a full cleaning, more time will be necessary, however the job is still not that hard. Choosing the method that is used to clean the mattress is dependent upon what type of materials are available, and what type of materials a person is willing to purchase.

How to Clean a Mattress with Steam

Probably the easiest way to clean a mattress is to use a carpet or steam cleaner with a hose attachment. This will help to remove dirt, dust and debris as well as tough stains. Any type of upholstery cleaner that can be used in the machine will suffice at cleaning the mattress, however it is important to make sure that the cleanser is mild.

How to Clean a Mattress by Hand

If using a steam cleaner or carpet cleaner is not an option, it is possible to just scrub the mattress with a sponge or rag as well. Mix up a low sudsing, mild detergent in a bucket of water, and using the wet sponge, either scrub at the soiled spots or give the entire mattress a good once over.

Whichever method is used to clean the mattress, it is important that the mattress not become saturated with water. This can not only cause a lengthy drying period, but can cause mold and mildew to build up inside the mattress as well, which is not only an extremely disturbing thought since you'll be resting your head there each night, but can be harmful to your health as well.

In order to prevent this, make sure that only the outer padding of the mattress gets wet. The inner padding of the mattress should be kept as dry as possible, to prevent this mold and mildew from occurring, and to prevent you from having to sleep on the floor for three days while your mattress dries!

Once the mattress has been cleaned, take measures to keep it that way. Use protective mattress covers and vacuum the mattress regularly to help prevent dust and bed mite build up, and protect the mattress from any mishaps that may occur. You can even make suggestions to your clients for mattress covers to use, as an added service for them.

-->

You might also be interested in How to Clean Mattress Stains.