As much as most people maintain excellent hygiene of their beddings, we often forget that our mattresses deserve the same attention.
Fun fact, an average human being exudes at least half a liter of sweat every night. This figure goes up depending on the health, weight, and weather.
Aside from sweat, mattresses also harbor allergens, dust, spills, mites, and so forth.
Keeping this in mind, it is imperative to clean your mattresses to reduce sweat odor and take care of your overall health.
If you were wondering how to get the sweat smell out of your memory foam mattress or any other mattress type for that matter, then this article is the perfect place to start.
Contents
8 ways to get sweat smell out of your mattress
Deodorizing your mattress is one of the most ideal ways to get rid of any smell it may have.
The best part is that you can use various products found in your kitchen. Alternatively, you could use a store-bought deodorizer, but why go the extra mile?
1. Baking soda
Baking soda is one of cleaning’s holy grail products, and it isn’t a shock that it is highly recommended for removing sweat odor from mattresses.
All you need to do is get a flour sifter, sift a handful of baking powder on the side of the mattress you sleep on, and wait a few hours for it to do the trick. If you can, try and leave it overnight for the best results.
Once it has absorbed the moisture and removed the odor, vacuum off the pre-sifted baking powder residue.
If you can, perform this activity outside, leave the mattress to aerate as the baking powder deals with the odor. It will come back smelling as good as new.
2. Essential oils
Before using essential oils, try and aerate your mattress to dry out any moisture, then vacuum it to remove dirt and allergens.
After that, apply a few drops of your favorite essential oils (preferably lavender oil as its smell is known to promote good sleep). Let it sit for a few minutes before spreading the rest of your bedding.
The essential oil will get rid of the sweat smell, make your room smell great and help you achieve a great night’s sleep.
If you want to go the extra mile, use the essential oil on your diffuser and leave it on overnight or during the day.
3. Vinegar
If you have allergies or prefer to go the organic route, try using water and white vinegar to eliminate that annoying sweat smell on your mattress.
First of all, you should mix equal parts of water and vinegar. If the odor is strong, feel free to add a little more vinegar than necessary.
Next, fill the mixture in a spray bottle and spray both sides of your mattress with it. After that, aerate your mattress in the sun or dry it manually by using a blow dryer.
Finally, to eliminate the vinegar smell, you could either leave the fans on with open windows for a few hours or sprinkle some baking powder.
However, this last step is unnecessary as the smell will eventually dissipate as the vinegar evaporates.
4. Aerate the room
If your room is musty or dump, the moisture will soon settle on your mattress, which naturally has traces of sweat, resulting in an unbearable odor.
To prevent this, try leaving your fan on for an hour or so after waking up to get rid of excess moisture.
You can also make your mattress smell good by aerating it in the sun once in a while. Then, when the sun goes down, please bring it back indoors and leave it uncovered for a few hours with the windows wide open.
If you don’t have space to aerate a mattress, try stripping it off any beddings, opening your windows, and finally sprinkling a mattress deodorizer and leaving it for a few hours.
5. Wash your mattress cover and the bed upholstery
Just like any other piece of furniture, your bed collects lots of dust, sweat, and different allergens, making it smelling funny.
So every once in a while, remove everything down to the bed frame and wipe them down.
As for the bedding and mattress cover (if you have one), wash them with warm water and your preferred detergents. Ensure you give them enough time to air dry in the sun before spreading them back on.
By air drying your beddings, you allow the UV sun rays to kill any remaining pathogens while also making your beddings fluffier as all the moisture inside them will be evaporated.
6. Use cornstarch
Cornstarch is excellent at absorbing the oils contained in sweat which could be the reason for the odor.
There are two ways you could go about it:
- Sprinkle the cornstarch all over the bedding, then add bits of water to amplify the effect of the cornstarch.
- You could sprinkle the cornstarch and settle it for a day or two.
If you go with the first method, you will need to aerate your mattress after drying the water or use kitchen towels to wipe the water down.
After both processes, grab your vacuum and vacuum all the cornstarch off to avoid sneezing or other health effects.
7. Try homemade or store-bought cleaners
Before you use any cleaners, confirm with the manufacturer that the ingredients will not destroy your mattress.
Many videos on the internet suggest that wiping down your mattress with dishwashing soap does wonders in getting rid of the sweat smell. However, you must aerate the mattress for a few hours afterwards.
Alternatively, you can also buy several mattress cleaning solutions from the store. Most of them contain ingredients like Hydrogen peroxide, enzymes, and lime, which are universally known to do great at eliminating odor.
We recommend getting Resolve Multifabric and Upholstery cleaner. Just make sure you use the right amount and follow the instructions given on the package to the latter to avoid permanent stains.
8. Vacuum
Vacuuming is one of the best ways to get your mattress smelling and feeling squeaky clean. Not only does it get rid of allergens, but it also clears any dust, dirt, mites, and dead skin cells.
After removing all that debris, vacuuming will make way for free air movement between the mattress fibers, making it easy for the mattress to get rid of any dampness and sweat smell.
Make sure you vacuum the bed itself and the areas surrounding the seams.
However, it would be best if you cleaned the upholstery attachment with warm water before using it on your bed, as it usually has debris of its own.
Managed to get rid of sweat from your mattress?
It’s natural for us humans to sweat as we sleep, and the sweat will eventually accumulate and leave your mattress smelling weird.
Above, we have given you a few tips to help combat our little problem. But before you try any of them, make sure the ingredient you are using agrees with your manufacturers’ terms to avoid spoiling the material of your mattress.
More Guides About Odor Removal