How To Clean A Pillow Top Mattress

Pillow top mattresses are considered as the best because of the comfort they offer throughout the night while taking rest on them every night. But the cleaning of these mattresses can be a challenging task if you do not know how to do it. Some cleaning tips for your pillowtop mattress are provided in this write-up so that you can easily clean it and happily relax on your hygienically clean and healthy mattress.

Reasons to find cleaning of pillow top mattress difficult

Though there is not much difference in the techniques and methods used for removing stains from a regular mattress and a pillow top mattress but there is some difference in the frequency of their cleaning. The pillow top mattresses need more frequent cleaning than regular mattresses.

The reason for this difference is that any stain sinks deeply into the fibers of the soft pillow layers of pillow top mattresses very quickly and easily as they are very absorbent and porous. You will be increasing the chances of getting your pillow top mattresses dirty very easily and quickly if you drink a glass of water or enjoy breakfast in your bed.

If you don’t already have a mattress protector, then it would be best to get one. A mattress protector can block liquids that turn into stains. Plus the modern-day mattress protectors don’t make much noise and don’t sleep that warm.

I’m a big fan of the Cool Shield No Allergy Waterproof Mattress Protector. Click here to see reviews and the price of the Cool Shield Mattress Protector on Amazon. *

If you are sleeping with your potty-training toddler in the early morning even then you can get it stained very easily.

Another thing that makes the cleaning of pillow top mattresses challenging is the longer time taken in drying them after cleaning. You will have to plan on cleaning it carefully so that you can easily make it usable by the time you come back from your tiring work schedule.

Tips for cleaning pillow top mattresses

The tips and advice given hereunder can be followed to clean your pillow top mattresses. These easy steps will help you in removing bacteria, odors, and stains from your mattress in a hassle-free manner.

First of all, you should try to squeeze out as much liquid from your mattresses as you can. You can use a clean towel or cloth for dabbing it gently over the surface of your mattress.

Tip: Having a Good Stain Remover like this one* will help greatly when cleaning your mattress. 

But you should not scrub or wipe its surface as it will help in spreading the stain instead of reducing it. You should also avoid using a paper towel for this purpose as they disintegrate easily and can leave white fiber of paper on the top surface of your mattress.

After drying the surface of the mattress to some extent, you can use your vacuum cleaner with a hose attachment to vacuum its entire surface.

Though vacuum cleaning may not help in removing stains but it will make it easy for you to access those stains more easily by removing dirt and dust from its surface. A layer of dirt is built-up in every mattress overnight as it contains environmental dust particles, skin cells of the users along with a number of other similar things.

Stains – Get’em

After removing the dirt and dust from the mattresses you should now focus on removing stains. You should use a small amount of a liquid laundry detergent, a thick paste of powdered detergent in water or a quality stain remover for this purpose. You should use them as per the instructions provided on their package to avoid any inconvenience later on.




You should dab any of these cleaning agents gently on the stains of your pillow top mattress with the help of a sponge. It will help you to keep your mattress dry as much as possible to cleaning it effectively. Now you can massage the cleaning agent with the sponge on the top layer of the pillow and allow it to stay there for some time so that is can tackle with the soaked-in stains effectively.

After some time you can wash the pillow surface of your pillow top mattress with water. But you should keep in mind that too much water should not be used for this purpose as it is better to keep the mattress dry as much as possible. You can also remove the cleaning agent from the surface of your pillow by using a clean cloth or sponge.

Vinegar?

You can also use some white vinegar for this purpose as it is effective in two ways. On one hand, it removes the remnants of soap from the mattress like water and on the other, it helps in removing unpleasant odors from it as some stains including stains of pet urine or coffee have a very bad odor.

Now you should allow the pillow top mattress to dry naturally. It may take some time to dry up the mattress but you can speed up the process by opening the windows of your bedroom where you have left it to dry.

Odors That Linger

You should check the lingering odors or signs of discoloration on your mattress after it dries completely. You can repeat its cleaning steps from applying cleaning agent if there are indications of discoloration.

If unpleasant smell still persists, then you can sprinkle a thick layer of baking soda on the effective area and let it remain there for few hours say 7-8 hours. The extremely absorbent nature of baking soda will help in absorbing the leftover odors completely. You can remove baking soda by vacuuming it away.

Quick action can give better results

When your pillow top mattresses get some stains then the best thing you should do is to tackle the problem as soon as possible. As discussed earlier, the stain can go deeper id the liquid is allowed to stay on these mattresses for a long time as they are extremely absorbent.

You can clean these stains easily when they have not gone deeper into the fibers of the mattress so you should try to treat the stains when they are still on the surface of the pillow. So instead of allowing the stain to go deep into the mattress, you should remove pillow top as soon as possible as it is not as difficult to clean as it seems to be.

Thus by following the tips provided in this write-up you can easily clean your pillow top mattress effectively. You should apply cleaning agent at a part of your mattress to check its effectiveness.

If the stains are bad and have set in, then you’ll need some mattress stain cleaners. The damage has been done and it’s now time to get some purpose-built cleaners.

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