How to Clean Your Mattress

• Mattress encasement: The best offense is a good defense. A mattress encasement (also known as a protector) has six sides and zips entirely over your mattress, protecting it from allergens and dust mites. The best ones are waterproof, machine-washable, tightly woven, and don’t feel plasticky. The AllerEase Platinum Zip-Off Top Mattress Protector is our top pick. If you use an encasement, you may not need any of the items below.
• Waterproof mattress protector or pad: Waterproof protectors typically go on your mattress like a fitted sheet and keep moisture of any kind from soiling your mattress. They are ideal for people with incontinence, young kids, or anyone prone to spills. We recommend the SafeRest Premium Mattress Protector.
• Vacuum cleaner: Look for one with good suction, cleaning attachments, and a HEPA or S-Class filter, such as the SEBO Felix Premium, our pick for the best upright vacuum.
• Spray bottle: This will evenly distribute cleaning liquids, preventing them from penetrating deep into the mattress and causing mildew.
• White vinegar: This cleans and deodorizes.
• Dishwashing liquid: This cuts through any grime and oils in a mess. We like Dawn Platinum Dishwashing Liquid and Palmolive Ultra Pure + Clear Dish Liquid.
• Enzymatic cleaner: This handles especially tough situations, such as pet stains. Our pets writer recommends using Nature’s Miracle Advanced Stain & Odor Eliminator.
• Baking soda: This neutralizes odors and absorbs grime.
• Cloth diapers, washcloths, or microfiber cloths: These are less likely to fall apart as you gently scrub away stains. Cloth diapers are extra absorbent, so they’re perfect for blotting up excess moisture from your mattress. Writer and resident laundry expert Andrea Barnes recommends the Gerber Prefold Birdseye Cloth Diapers.
• 70% pure rubbing alcohol or store-bought disinfectant: Disinfectants kill bacteria, viruses, or other pathogens.

If you have a mattress encasement, it takes only a couple of minutes to zip off the encasement and throw it into the machine.

If you don’t have an encasement, routine vacuuming could take about 10 minutes. If you’re dealing with an emergency situation (pee, spilled coffee), then that might take 10 minutes or so of active cleaning and vacuuming time, and a few hours for drying in between.

We’re not the only ones who recommend using a mattress encasement. Everyone we’ve interviewed — including a textile expert, a chemist, an allergist, a mattress seller, and a mattress maker — also advised that people use one.

An encasement’s tight weave keeps skin flakes, dust, dust mites, and liquid droplets (pee, sweat, coffee, and so on) from getting through the pores of your sheets and mattress fabric.

Dust mites are generally harmless. But if you’re allergic, they can cause sneezing, runny noses, and other respiratory problems. Whenever you change sheets (which should be once a week), double-check that the encasement is completely zipped.

Unless the encasement gets soiled, you can get away with washing your encasement once or twice a year. “Washing too often will loosen the fibers and make it not work as well,” said Dr. Sonal Patel, a Pasadena, California, allergist.

If you soil your encasement, the experts we spoke to recommend wiping away any excess gunk that leaked through the bed sheets and washing the encasement according to the manufacturer’s label

Make sure there’s no leakage on the mattress. Assuming that the encasement worked as it should, take a few moments to marvel at the miracle (I always do).

If you’re looking for additional spill coverage, whether you’re in the throes of potty training, have incontinence, or are just prone to spilling stuff, a waterproof mattress protector or pad can help. Most options, like our pick, the SafeRest Premium Mattress Protector, function like a fitted sheet, which you can place on top of your mattress encasement. Pads, like the Peapod Mat we recommend, usually come in several sizes, are even easier to take on and off, and can be used on the go while traveling, in pet crates, or on the couch.

If you don’t have an encasement for your mattress, you need to be diligent about keeping it clean, both from accidents and everyday dust.

Vacuum it regularly

If you don’t have a mattress encasement, vacuum your mattress once a month using a full-size vacuum cleaner with powerful suction.

Run the upholstery attachment across the surfaces to pick up debris. Use the angled, hose-like crevice cleaner on the nooks and crannies to suck out trapped dust in the tufting, quilting, and edge piping.

Clean up accidents quickly and gently

If you spill anything on your bare mattress:

1. Use dry paper towels to clean as much of the spill as possible.

2. Add equal parts white vinegar and warm water to a spray bottle. Aqsa Tasleem, a textile expert and product manager for Corsicana Mattress Company, suggests adding a squirt of dishwashing liquid to cut through the grimy bits and any oils. (For tough stains like cat pee, consider an enzyme cleaner; enzymes break down molecules that can cause stains, says William Carroll Jr., adjunct professor of chemistry at Indiana University and owner of Carroll Applied Science. Follow instructions on the label.)

3. Spray the soiled area of your mattress. Be thorough, but go sparingly. “You do not want the solution to soak deep into the foam and make it difficult to dry,” Tasleem said.

4. Use a cloth diaper, washcloth, or microfiber cloth to work the solution through. Avoid pressing into the mattress. Continue until any coloring is gone.

5. Finish with a spritz of plain water to remove residual cleanser. Dab with a clean cloth or paper towel to dry.

6. Sprinkle enough baking soda to absorb the wetness. Leave it on for a few hours. While the white vinegar (an acid) reacts with the basic components in urine to help neutralize the smell, the baking soda (a base) takes care of the smelly acids (including stomach acid in vomit).

7. Wait until all of the baking soda is completely dry, and then vacuum it up. If you feel that you need to disinfect the mattress (for instance, if someone with a stomach bug got sick on it), spritz the mattress with store-bought disinfectant or 70% pure rubbing alcohol.

8. Dry the mattress completely before you sleep on it. Open the windows or use a hair dryer to speed up the process, if necessary. “Whatever you do, avoid turning the mattress over on the frame,” said Stuart Carlitz, president and CEO of Eclipse International. That old trick leaves the mattress damp and invites mildew.

Most old mattress stains can be treated with products you probably already own. The experts we spoke to recommended a few approaches.

Sammy Wang, senior engineer in fabric care at Procter & Gamble, recommends using a clean, damp cloth to get out as much of the stain as you can before adding a small amount of an enzymatic liquid detergent or pretreatment solution (we recommend the Tide Free & Gentle Laundry Detergent and the Clorox 2 Stain Remover & Color Brightener as a pretreatment). You can then continue to rub the stain gently with the cloth. She advised making sure you use your stain-treating products sparingly, since your mattress can’t be rinsed out like a normal piece of laundry.

Next, blot the stain with another clean, damp cloth to rinse the product out. Follow that step with a clean dry cloth to get as much moisture out of the spot as possible before allowing the area to fully dry before remaking your bed.

Jessica Ek, associate vice president of strategic communications at the American Cleaning Institute, recommends using a carpet or upholstery cleaner for spot cleaning stains on mattresses. Ek instructs that when using these enzymatic products, you should follow the guidance on the label carefully. If the stain doesn’t come out the first time, try again. For really set-in stains, she recommends trying a steam cleaner. Just make sure your bed is fully dry before putting your sheets back on.

When it comes to old/mystery stains, our experts were divided on whether kitchen cupboard essentials like vinegar or baking soda really work in these cases. Wang believes that the most effective way to get out old stains is by using products specifically made for the task. Although John Merwin, CEO of mattress manufacturer 3Z Brands, says that pantry essentials can work, you’ll just have to repeat the cleaning process a few more times. Like Ek, Merwin also says that a steam cleaner can work wonders on deeper stains, but they’re not a must-have for cleaning.

However, all of our experts agreed that dish soap, hydrogen peroxide, and vinegar (all diluted with water) can work well for grease stains, blood stains, and pet messes. And baking soda does the trick for lingering smells (just make sure you let it sit for at least an hour before vacuuming it up). The dish soap, hydrogen peroxide, and vinegar can be used in the same manner as the detergent or pretreatment spray explained above.

This article was edited by Christina Colizza and Marguerite Preston.