We are happy owners of the old new bed. But there is a slight issue of odors, we have to tackle before our sleep can be safe and sound.

After the cleaning of our new old mattress, it’s time to tackle the odors problem. As previously mentioned, it came from a smoker’s household which means it had a nasty stench of smoke. Sounds quite nasty and I can imagine you all squinting while reading these lines, but rest assured the mattress came with a mattress protector and a full-on zip cover, which we took off and all we saw was an old-school foam mattress of an IKEA bed.

Was it that bad?

The cover was stained, and the odors of smoke were strong. Neither of us can stand the smell of smoke, so naturally, we oppose smoking. By now, you can imagine how little we wanted this addition in our clean and tidy household.

I ripped off the covers of the mattress and squeezed it all into the bathtub (thank god for having one!). I used the hottest tap water to clean the preliminary filth off. I got most of the surface dirt out after soaking it for half an hour. Then I put the mattress cover and the protector to the washer and washed it at the highest temperature to clean it as much as possible.

While the covers were in a washing machine, I started wrestling with the 2-meter long mattress on our balcony. Before that, I did thorough research on how to get cigarette smell out of the mattress. Unfortunately, there is not much information out there. The wisdom I obtained from the few sources proved the be trustworthy and will become a good help.

Simple steps, for a clean and fresh smelling mattress:

1. Use a vacuum on a low suction setting. Vacuum the mattress with the vacuum’s upholstery attachment to remove any dirt and dust, which are in the cover. If you have a traditional mattress, remove the cover and do the same covering both sides.
2. If you notice vacuuming doesn’t give results, then try the old-school tapping the mattress with a carpet flapper.
3. Using a spray bottle fill it with equal amounts of water and distilled white vinegar. Lightly spray the surface of the mattress. Apply enough of the solution to dampen the upholstery but not to saturate it. The same goes for the plain foam mattress.
4. Allow the mattress to air-dry. Flip it over and spray the other side similarly. Allow it to air-dry.
5. Cover the mattress in a thin coat of baking soda. Let it sit overnight and soak up the odors. Vacuum the baking soda off the mattress in the morning.
6. Flip the mattress and cover the other side with baking soda. Let it sit overnight. Vacuum it off in the morning.
7. If possible take your mattress on the tarp out for the day, letting it absorb the direct sunlight. Bring the mattress indoors overnight, then expose the other side to the sun the following day or keep it in a balcony, as what I did. We had quite warm nights and no rain, so luck was on our side!

Keep going, a full night’s rest will be your reward!

I repeated points 2, 3 and 7 over and over to make sure that the smoke stench had disappeared. I was really surprised about the vinegar-water solution, which really made the whole situation hopeful for me and indeed provided us a clean-smelling mattress.

When the mattress cover and the mattress protector were all nicely wind-dried on the clothesline I put them back on the mattress. Finally, I sprinkled some lavender essential oil on them to add a nice and relaxing fragrance of our favorite plant.

Ah, the smell of success!

In all, it took me a week to get the mattress to the frame of the bed, so we could enjoy our 10€ salvaged bed. I can tell that those 15 minutes I spent every day working on the mattress was completely worth it. Good luck working on yours. If you come across any new tips, please be kind and share them below in the comments.

You may profit from reading this article on how to get odors out of your mattress.

*UPDATE – I have successfully cleaned the vintage shoulder bag inner lining, which smelled like mold and old things, but the vinegar-water solution really did the game again.