Now we are happy owners of a free bed plus many other items of furniture. How to clean the mattress and what keep to mind, when caring for new old things?

The five items we got were free, but for the van rental, we had to pay – 50€. Divided by the items, each item cost us 10€. Not bad, not bad at all. Plus on top of it, we got a mirror and two floor/doormats!

Anyway, one thing you definitely have to keep in mind, when getting things for free, is their condition. They may come from a neat household, well-taken care of and tidy. Or from a smoker’s home, with stains, smells, and signs of wear. If you have never brought free furniture into your home, it may be a bit scary, as the items may need some work. In our case, the mattress needed the most care.

You may be thinking, why talk about about a bed (or you may wonder why to save one from a landfill), as this is what we just use when sleeping. That’s it, this is the reason we need to talk about it and take care of it. I hope this post will help people like myself. I had to do thorough research on the internet to complete my cleaning task.

Get to know your mattress

Our mattress came with a cover and an extra cover. These were both dirty. Had stains and everything smelled of cigar smoke. Pretty gross – for many a garbage, but for us a treasure, which needed a little TLC. I wasn’t sure if the cleaning was going to work out. Really, how was I supposed to get rid of the smoking smell??? Google to rescue. After my many unfruitful searches, finally, a treasure revealed itself  – Clean My Space. I really enjoyed their video and the “leading actress” does a great role, talking about cleaning and maintenance.

What to keep in mind while cleaning the mattress and maintaining it:

*cleaning mattress is not only necessary, when getting a used mattress, but it has to be carried out with every one you are owning and using to sleep on, even if they are brand new and once came from the store, like brand new;

*mattresses become extremely dirty, as we sweat every night a lot, which all will be stored in the mattress, therefore the airing of mattress and your bedclothes is very important;

*turn and flip your mattress every season;

*no water/liquids on your mattress, especially on memory foam mattresses, use a fan to try any wet spots;

*get the protector to protect your mattress, wash it and clean often;

*most mattresses are not cleanable, as they do not come with a cover, you can zip off

Cleaning a mattress without a zip-off cover

If the cover can’t be zipped off, then you should follow these steps:

*vacuum the mattress, to get rid of whatever may be there; do that at least once a season;

*deodorize your mattress, while shifting baking soda on your mattress and letting it sit for a little and then vacuuming it off, adding few drops of essential oils, will add a nice aroma to the cleaning;

*spot cleaning and stains, better tune in the video to get a complete overview of the stain types and how to handle them, but the main thing to know is, tackle the stains ASAP.

Take a look at the video HERE.

Clean My Space is an awesome outlet for all cleaning related questions you may ever have, check them definitely out!

The place where we are living at the moment is not our permanent home. So, therefore, all these mishaps are easier to handle. As we really do not want to bury so much money into something we are not going to use in the long run. Remember you can use these tips in your permanent home. Don’t be afraid of trying.

Read more on how we managed to get the cigarette smells out of our old new mattress in our future posts!