Last week I decided a good Spring clean was needed. The boyfriend and I took a week off and went home to visit family and friends so when we came back to the apartment, it seemed like as good a time as any – seeing as we all know dust will move in when you’re not looking – like squatters!
Before starting my usual routine cleaning around our apartment, I decided to have a look on Pinterest and other blogs to see what I could find – any useful tips and tricks! While I was trundling around, I found a post about cleaning your mattress, in a very short space of time I went from envisaging our bed as a squishy safe haven, to a frightening war zone infiltrated by…well let’s just say I made the mistake of finding out what they look like….THEY HAVE A FACE PEOPLE!! First thing I did was send our duvet and two pillows straight to the dry cleaners to be laundered. I wouldn’t advise trying to launder them yourself unless you have a massive tumble dryer as it’ll take you forever to get them suitably dry. Put them on your bed too early and your duvet could get mouldy on the inside and make you sickly – and that would be bad times all round!
I decided to put the rest of the house on hold and I wrote out a “How To Clean Your Mattress” and decided I’d take Saturday to do the job by which time our pillows and duvet would be back (in the interim we used the pillows and duvet from the spare bed). I sent an email to the boyfriend during work saying “This is what I’ll be doing on Sat, FYI!” to which his response was “WHO DOES THIS?!!” but he agreed to assist with the lifting of the mattress when necessary all the same – good egg that he is and all.
But honestly, it’s not as hard as I thought it was going to be. To carry out this task, you will need:
- Baking soda; and
- A vacuum cleaner.
On Saturday morning I woke up at 10:45am, stripped the bed and put all the linen straight into the washing machine on a 120° degree hot wash. This was mainly for the allergy protector as I’ve had it on the bed for the last month which is the norm but still, I’m a bit funny about bed linen; it has to be super clean!
Next, I got my trusty Dyson Vacuum and found that little attachment that I learned from Martha Steward is the “Upholstery” attachment – if you knew this you’re a cleaning god/goddess. I hadn’t a clue!
Cute right?
Anyway, I vacuumed the entire mattress thoroughly to remove any icky unmentionables on the bed. Next, you should use an upholstery cleaner on any stains you may find. Be careful not to saturate your mattress, getting it overly wet is a bad idea as it can cause mold and other nasties in your mattress. Thankfully, there were no stains on our mattress so I proceeded to the next step.
I sprinkled baking soda all over the mattress and left it sit for two hours. This removes any odors that may be hanging around. Now I left it for two hours because at this point I sauntered off out to buy a few bits of shopping for a dinner I was cooking the next day but if you’re just in the house you have to leave the baking soda on for at least 30mins.
Next I vacuumed off all the baking soda and then attached a piece of paper with “Used Side” written on it so that when the boyfriend and I started to move it round, we wouldn’t forget which side we had been sleeping on.
Another great tip from dear ol' Martha is to pin a piece of paper on the side of your bed with the months written on it so you remember in 6 months to flip your mattress. It’s been about a year since I last flipped mine and honestly, I couldn’t believe it because the side we sleep on was all soft but the new side was firm and had the look of “brand new”!
I tipped the mattress up and over and leaned it against the wall and vacuumed the block before turning the mattress over and rotating it (so that we were then lying on the new side with the head of the bed at the end of the bed).
I left the mattress standing up for several hours beside two open windows to give it a good airing. Those of you who have treated any stains, airing out the mattress is a must before putting your linen on.
While I was out, I had a look around the shops and bought a brand new M&S Anti-Allergy mattress protector and from John Lewis, I got two Anti-Allergy pillow protectors. The pillow protectors are the first I’ve ever seen like this, they’re really cool with zippers! Really sad to be excited about pillowcases…I know!
I unpinned my “Used Side” note and we flipped and rotated the mattress and then I put the protectors and fresh linen on our sumptuously smelling duvet and pillows.
By the time the weekend was at a close my house was at “Mom status” … if she’d dropped by without warning I would’ve been delighted to show her around! To say I slept like a log that night is an understatement. Part exhaustion – part peace of mind!
