Accidents will happen especially on mattresses. Nothing worse than having urine, vomit, sweat, or even blood on your mattress. It gets even worse if it’s a Memory Foam Mattress because it’s a giant sponge ready to soak up anything.
The good news is that this problem can be fixed, but you got to do it the correct way. Everyone on the internet likes to say get out the vinegar and baking soda for these types of messes, my advice… ignore those people.
If you use Vinegar to clean up urine or vomit, then all you’re going to end up with is a mattress that smells like urine+vinegar or vomit+vinegar which are far worse smells. As for baking soda, it’s bad to suck up with a vacuum cleaner as it can destroy it over time because of the fine dust particles.
Most of the messes that do happen on a mattress are organic, so you need a cleaner that “eats” organic matter. That cleaner is called an Enzyme Cleaner, let’s talk about it.
Tip: Having a Mattress Protector like this one Here* can help to keep stains and accidents from getting to your mattress and ruining it. Many of the modern day mattress protectors look and feel like a normal bed sheet, so why have you not gotten one yet?
You Need An Enzyme Cleaner
If its vomit, urine, sweat, blood, or anything that comes out of you then it’s organic. Using an acid such as vinegar will not help in this situation unless you love them smell of vinegar.
What you need to use to clean a memory foam mattress or any mattress that is stain with the above organic matter is an Enzyme Cleaner. I recommend you look at Sunny & Honey Enzyme Cleaner Here*. I’ve had the best luck with Sunny & Honey for things like vomit and urine that it’s my go to cleaner for that stuff now.
The reason why Enzyme Cleaners work so well is that the stuff in them will eat the organic matter. Vinegar or Baking Soda won’t do that, and that is why you should not use them.
Here is a great video talking about the Sunny & Honey Enzyme Cleaner here…
How To Remove Stain
Step 1 – Absorb as much of the stain as you can with a towel.
Step 2 – Spray the Enzyme Cleaner on the stain and let it sit for 10 to 15 minutes. Don’t over saturate the area with the cleaner.
Step 3 – Absorb as much of the cleaner residue with a towel or use a Shop Vacuum to suck it up.
Step 4 – Allow to air dry or point a fan on the spot. It’s important to let the mattress dry before sleeping or covering it back up.
Repeat as many times as you need to remove the stains from the memory foam mattress.
We do have another post where we go into more detail about cleaning bodily fluids from a mattress here.
Don’t Do This
Along with not using Vinegar or Baking Soda we also recommend you avoid Steam Cleaners. Steam Cleaners are a big no-no for memory foam mattresses, and we talk more about that here.
I have seen some homemade cleaners like the ones with dish soap and hydrogen peroxide used, but those can stain mattresses if you’re not careful. If you’re in a pinch, it could be worth a shot, but I would avoid it if you can.