Mattress Cleaner Basics

An efficient mattress cleaner belongs in every household's cleaning arsenal. No matter how careful you are, sooner or later, your mattress is going to become stained. Busy families with children and pets need easy and effective solutions on how to eliminate mattress stains and odors. There are a few mattress cleaner basics everyone should be aware of.

One way to prevent your mattress from spills and stains is to always purchase a mattress cover for use with each new mattress. This way, you have protection right from the start. Even an older mattress can benefit from being fitted with a mattress cover after it has been cleaned and vacuumed. These covers are washable, and can help to reduce, but not totally eliminate, dust mite allergies.

Regular Vacuuming

Vacuuming your mattress should be done on a regular schedule. Dust, dirt, and dust mites can build up quickly. Before routine vacuuming, check your mattress for stains and odors. A concoction of liquid dish detergent and water should work on minor stains. Use great care to keep from getting the mattress padding too wet. This can take a long time to dry, and if the wetness seeps too far into the mattress, an odor can result. For tougher spills and urine stains and odor, you need an enzyme cleaner of the type sold to remove pet accidents from carpeted areas. Whatever liquid cleaner you use, it's best to put it in a spray bottle to avoid oversaturating the stain with moisture.

Dust Mite Allergy

Besides being more pleasing to the eye and nose, a cleaner mattress can help to control allergy symptoms in susceptible individuals. Most people are quite dismayed to learn that a mattress which appears to be immaculate can harbor a quantity of dust mites, tiny insects which are invisible to the naked eye. These mites are notorious for aggravating allergy symptoms. Dust mites eat the dead skin cells of humans and pets. These cells are shed in any spot where a great deal of time has been spent. When you realize that humans spend about one third of their life in bed, it should come as no surprise to find that your mattress is a prime location for dust mites. It has been said that after normal use, a mattress can be the home for up to 10 million mites!

Dust mites survive on the dead skin and dander that is shed at the rate of one fifth of an ounce per human, and a bit less for animals, per week. That may not sound like much, but it's a banquet feast for these tiny mites! They also shed their own skin and deposit their feces regularly, wherever they happen to be. One mite can produce around twenty microscopic droppings per day. Multiply this by ten thousand, and you can see why allergies flare up!

Controlling The Pesky Mites

You can help to control dust mites by making sure you adhere to your vacuuming schedule. Also very important is washing all of your bedding or anything else your body has a lot of contact with weekly in hot water. Cold water washes may be good for the environment, but it takes hot water to kill dust mites. If by chance you need to clean some items that would be ruined if they were washed in hot water, try putting them in the freezer for 24 hours. This will also kill dust mites.

If you are the designated mattress cleaner in your home, these tips should help you keep all your mattresses much nicer to live with.