You have bought a plushy and comfortable mattress which is supposed to have a lifetime warranty against dust mite. Since the mattress is protected by mattress cover and always wrapped up with your favourite brand bed linen and mattress cover, you don’t reckon you would ever need to clean your mattress. Until, one unfortunate day, a child accidentally urinated on your mattress and the urine penetrated through the bed cover, bed linen, and the protector. Oops…
Most people only think of mattress cleaning after an accident like the above happen to their mattress. Contrary to common misunderstanding of mattress maintenance, the mattress actually contains a lot more harmful dirt particles than the stains caused by occasional “spillages”. Researchers have found that the mattress contains some of the highest amount of airborne dust particle, dead skin flakes and dust mites in a home. These airborne particles and house dust mites are common allergens proven to trigger chronic illnesses like asthma, eczema, rhinitis, etc.
So, how to clean and maintain the mattress?
1. Vacuum the mattress.
Mattress should be vacuumed using a high powered vacuum cleaner with good HEPA filter system. Ensure your vacuum brush is clean before using it on your mattress to prevent transferring of remaining dirt particles in the brush when you vacuumed the floor earlier on into your mattress.
2. Wash your mattress cover regularly.
Together with your bed sheets, pillow cases, blankets and duvets, the mattress cover needs to be washed regularly as the fabric traps dust and airborne dirt particles shed from our body when we lie down on the mattress every night. To kill trapped dust mites in the beddings, these linens need to be washed with hot water at 60 degree Celsius or higher, as warm water is not able to thoroughly eliminate the dust mites effectively.
3. Never wet clean the mattress
Contrary to suggestions in various media to steam clean the mattress, or even applying liquid cleaning solutions like hydrogen peroxide onto the mattress to remove stains, leading mattress manufacturers have recently been collectively made statements against wetting mattress with any fluid. In fact, vacuuming is the only cleaning method which is evaluated safe for the mattress.
Whenever there is spillage on the mattress, always attend to the stain immediately. Remove as much excess fluid or spilled residue as possible using clean cloth or kitchen papers to prevent the fluid from penetrating into the mattress. If stain is formed, you may apply some homemade baking soda paste on the stain and blot the stain away. Rinse the cleaned area by blotting using a clean damp cloth. The damp area should be dried thoroughly before covering the mattress with bed linen and duvet.
4. Engage professional mattress cleaner
There are many cleaning service companies that offer mattress cleaning but they are not cleaning using the right method that has been approved by mattress manufacturers. Unfortunately, many cleaning companies have been misleading customers to believe that it is safe to shampoo, steam or “wash” the mattress.
Unlike sofa and other fabric soft furnishings, the mattress is manufactured with layers of sensitive material, high quality fabric and spring coils to make it cushiony and cozy to sleep on. Using wrong cleaning methods run the risk of damaging the mattress resulting to less comfort when sleeping on it.
Responsible cleaning company that provides thorough cleaning services would deep clean the mattress without using any form of liquid, not even steam, and typically does not require any drying time. Professional services would commonly clean mattress using deep extraction technology, a higher grade vacuuming compared to household vacuum cleaners, and would be equipped with more tools and products to thoroughly remove the embedded dirt and micro organisms trapped within the mattress.
