Cleaning Your Mattress: Do's and Dont's

A lot of us, even if we do invest in a high-end custom mattress, tend to throw it on the bed, cover it with linens and pillows, and forget it. Even if you invested in a unique, bespoke mattress for a luxury bedroom experience, chances are you take it for granted. But your mattress is where you spend a lot of your time – like, almost a third of your life.

If you work from home and spend a lot of time on your bed, your mattress deserves some attention; you should take good care of it to make it last longer. You wouldn’t pick out a car, constantly drive it and then never maintenance or wash it again. So why invest in a completely customized bed and then neglect its care? You should use a mattress cover to protect it from moisture damage, and you should clean it regularly. But cleaning a mattress? Isn’t that a little… anal retentive? Nope; not if you want to get the longest life out of that beautiful custom made bed from Custom Mattress Factory you were so excited to buy. I mean, you spent all this time working with us; whether it was a tiny custom latex mattress for your personal boat, or a huge Alberta king bed for your whole family. It doesn’t matter – it needs some regular care.

Here are a few tips to make sure your organic fabric mattress cover doesn’t degrade over time:

Vacuum your mattress regularly

Unless you use a certified bed bug proof mattress cover, you should be regularly vacuuming your mattress to eliminate dust, shed skin cells, and debris. If you sleep with your pets, you should step up the schedule and vacuum once a week to keep up with pet hair and dander. This will keep small particles from sinking down into the cotton bed cover and getting trapped in the deeper layers of the mattress, which is way harder to get rid of in the future.

Baking soda is your friend

This inexpensive form of natural salt does double duty—it absorbs moisture and neutralizes odor. You can sprinkle baking soda across the cover of your custom mattress and let it set for at least five hours, then vacuum it up. The results? A fresher, drier mattress. And if you tend to sweat a lot at night, you might want to repeat this step once a month. This trick works just as well for wall-to-wall carpeting, as well as upholstery. 

Spot clean with gentle detergent

A lot of life happens in bed—movie night with popcorn and soda, studying with snacks, and even lounging late on weekends with a book and a cup of coffee. It’s inevitable that some stains will occur, if you don’t use a mattress protector. Since you can’t rinse and dry your mattress to remove stains, spot cleaning is your best tool. Use a natural stain lifter without bleach or dyes and spritz it across the surface of the high-quality custom mattress. Don’t soak the surface, but concentrate on areas of spotting or stains. Then use an old toothbrush and absorbent cloth to gently buff them out. If you want to save money you can make your own cleaner, using a simple formula: two parts water to one part hydrogen peroxide, along with five drops of clear dish soap.

Avoid bleach and harsh or scented cleaners

This is where you sleep, after all. You didn’t search high and low for an eco-friendly, bespoke mattress just to cover it in chemicals. The important part of the cleaner you use is that it will loosen and lift set-in stains—and for that, plain old soap will do. You don’t need to sanitize your mattress, because our bodies aren’t sanitized (and they don’t need to be). What you want is a mattress that is dry, smells fresh, and looks great. What you don’t want is a mattress that smells like a bottle of cleaner or a type of essential oil that will keep you awake, like peppermint or cinnamon. If you have to opt for a scent, go for lavender—it's indicated to increase relaxation and may aid in sleep.

Invest in quality custom-fitted sheets and mattress protectors

One way to protect your mattress is to invest in quality, custom-fitted sheets for your custom bed. Aside from custom fitted sheets, it’s recommended that you purchase a custom mattress protector as well. A custom-sized mattress protector serves as a barrier that keeps your expensive mattress as new as the day you got it. A mattress protector doesn’t just keep your mattress safe from accidental spills, it also keeps dust mites and other allergens from accumulating on your bed. Using a fitted sheet and a mattress protector are great steps to maintain the quality of your bed.

Air out your mattress regularly

You’ve probably heard about rotating your mattress every 3-6 months or so, depending on the manufacturer’s guidelines. Flipping your mattress distributes the wear and tear your bed undergoes from long-term use. It helps increase the overall lifespan of your mattress.

Aside from rotating your mattress, have you considered airing out your bed every time you change out your sheets? Whenever you change your bedsheets, which should be done around once a week, you can let your mattress breathe for a few hours. This can help any moisture from your mattress dry out, minimizing the chance of mold.

Regular mattress maintenance isn't just about looks

Here’s the thing about regularly cleaning your custom-made bed, as well as making sure it’s protected with a high quality mattress cover: cleanliness isn’t just about hygiene. Proper mattress hygiene has other implications, too.

Debris like dead skin, old sweat and dander from you or your pets (gross), actually contributes to those sunken spots your mattress gets as is ages. And even with a custom memory foam mattress, eventually that memory foam will lose its memory abilities. If you regularly clean and rotate your mattress, you’ll get a much longer life out of your custom made bed. After all, what’s the point on investing in a beautiful bespoke mattress only to have it degrade too quickly because you didn’t maintenance it well.

With these simple tips, you can make sure your Custom Mattress Factory bed will maintain that first-day feeling for years to come!