Care & Cleaning
How To Clean Your Mattress – 6 ways to keep your bed fresh
An important part of getting a good night’s sleep is making sure you’re sleeping on a clean mattress. There’s no better feeling than crawling into a fresh bed at the end of a long day and waking up to soft sheets and the smell of clean linen.
You’ll spend a third of your lifetime sleeping, that’s a lot of time spent in your bed – about 33 years, or 12,045 days to be exact. The average person will spend about 7 of those years trying to get to sleep, and your mattress might be the reason why. Nobody wants to toss and turn all night on a musty, old mattress!
Why Clean Your Mattress?
Your mattress plays an important role in influencing both your health and the quality of your sleep. Mattresses can be a breeding ground for dust mites, dead skin cells, sweat, stains, dirt and even tiny critters like bed bugs to collect. Daily dirt and grime will accumulate over the years in your mattress and impact the air quality of your room. Every night you are exposed to the trapped particles in your mattress which can contribute to respiratory issues such as asthma, allergies, insomnia and sometimes even lower your libido. It’s not an exaggeration to say then that knowing how to clean a mattress is an essential life skill!
Here at Bedshed we know cleaning your mattress is important for protecting your health, it also helps to increase the longevity of your mattress. Whether you've got spring mattresses at home or memory foam, mattresses are always a significant investment, regular cleaning can boost their life expectancy significantly! Read our top tips for keeping your mattress cleaner.
1. Clean Every Six Months
A general rule to abide by with most mattresses is that they should be cleaned every six months or so. Freshening up your bed is easily incorporated into spring cleaning and will help ensure that your mattress is fresh and comfortable for the seasons ahead.
It’s also a good time to flip and rotate your mattress to help prevent sagging – however not all mattresses are intended to be flipped, so check your mattresses label for care instructions.
2. Launder Linens Regularly
Regularly washing your sheets and making your bed is one of the best things you can do to keep your mattress clean (74% of women know this, but only 58% of men make their bed regularly, according to our Bedroom Report).
As a general rule, your bed linens should be washed around once a week although you might want to launder them more or less regularly depending on your specific lifestyle factors. Jumping into bed straight after a workout, sharing a mattress with pets (57% of Australian’s do!), or being one of the 1 in 7 Australian’s who snack in bed might mean you need to wash your sheets more regularly.
A good tip is to wash your sheets on your washing machine’s sanitiser setting if it has one, or to set the water temperature to above 60 degrees – this will help to eliminate any dust mites and kill unwanted bacteria. When stripping your bed make sure you remove all linens, mattress covers, quilts, pillowcases and duvet covers for cleaning and ensure you follow the care instructions on your bedding. Use a detergent that you enjoy, pleasant scents can help you sleep!
If you’re planning on washing your sheets, another great tip from us at Bedshed is that you should strip your bed in the morning and allow your bed to air out for the entire day before putting fresh sheets on, this will help to discourage bacterial growth.
3. Get A Mattress Protector
If you don’t own a mattress protector then it’s a great idea to purchase one, a mattress cover can help to minimise the stains, dirt and daily grime that reach your mattress. A mattress protector will also protect your mattress from moisture and fluids. Moisture could cause mould and mildew to build-up in your mattress - so a waterproof cover is a must-have, especially on kids' beds. Mattress protectors are easily washed alongside your sheets and can prolong the life of your mattress.
4. Vacuum Your Mattress
It’s a good idea to vacuum your mattress on occasion and is one of the first things you should consider when you’re thinking about how to clean a mattress. We’d recommend vacuuming once a month or more often if you suffer from allergies. Using your upholstery attachment and on a low setting, run your vacuum cleaner very slowly over the length of your mattress a couple of times to suck up any dust or dust mites. Make sure to use your upholstery attachment on the sides of your mattress as well, switch to the crevice attachment for hard to reach areas. Vacuuming makes cleaning a mattress quick and simple.
5. Know When To Quit
If you’ve had your mattress for a long time and regular cleaning doesn’t seem to be doing the trick anymore then it might be time to consider a new mattress.
It’s important to remember that all mattresses are different and the use by date of your mattresses will vary. Generally, most mattresses should be replaced within ten years, usually every eight years or so for hygiene reasons but a number of other factors can impact on when it’s time to get rid of your old mattress. If your mattress has been poorly cared for or is of poor quality then you might find yourself replacing your mattress earlier.
To protect your health and the quality of your sleep you should plan to replace your mattress when it has reached its use by date. If you’re not sure when to replace your mattress, talk to the friendly and knowledgeable staff at your local Bedshed store.
6. Always Follow The Manufacturer's Instructions
Every mattress will come with it’s own individual cleaning and care instructions and it's essential to refer to the manufacturer’s instructions to avoid damaging your mattress or voiding your warranty. The construction of your mattress may impact its care needs; maintaining a memory foam mattress may be very different to maintaining a spring mattress!
Read the label on your mattress closely or speak to the manufacturer if you are unsure of how to properly maintain your mattress.
So there you have it! Our top tips for how to clean a mattress – we hope you find them useful because here at Bedshed our top priority is ensuring you get the best night’s sleep!
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Bedshed is one of Australia's largest mattress, bedding and bedroom furniture retailers. We carry ranges of beds, bedroom suites, children's bedroom furniture, headboards & bases and mattresses from brands like Sealy, Sleepmaker, Tempur, Kingsdown, Dreamsense and Insignia, as well as a wide range of manchester and pillows.
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