How to Get Urine Stains Out of Your Mattress
Resting in your comfy bed might be one of the things you look forward to after a long, tiring day—until you encounter a very unglamorous surprise. If you have adorable kids or pets, you might also have to deal with bed-wetting. While it's easier to remove the bed linens and toss them in the washer, cleaning pee stains from a mattress can be quite challenging. The good news is that it's not impossible. While pee accidents happen, they should not ruin your comfort and mattress quality.
In this guide, we'll help you tackle urine stains and smells with the items you can find at home, so there's no need to run to the store late at night.
Let's start.
How to Clean Urine from a Mattress
All urine cleaning processes will revolve around these household items and equipment. Other items are optional but can make the cleaning process easier.
-
Clean cloth/ sponge
-
Rubber gloves
-
Mild laundry detergent/ dish soap
-
Baking soda
-
Cold water
-
Distilled white vinegar
-
Hydrogen peroxide
-
Spray bottle
-
Enzyme cleaner
-
Vacuum cleaner
General Steps in Cleaning the Urine from a Mattress
1. Strip the Bedding
Strip all bedding accessories that are attached to your mattress. Before getting into the cleaning process, make sure all your bedding accessories are removed from the dirty mattress.
2. Wash the Bedding
Wash your bedding accessories as soon as possible to prevent the stains and smell from going deeper into the fabric. Many bed linens are machine washable and can be treated with mild laundry detergent. However, it's still important to check the care guidelines to help you preserve the bedding quality while tackling the urine stains. Use cold water to prevent your bedding from shrinking.
3. Blot the Stains
If the urine is still fresh on your mattress, gently blot the pee stains from the mattress using a dry towel to remove as much liquid as possible. DO NOT RUB the soiled area, or you'll end up spreading the stain more. Also, avoid pressing or the excess liquid will penetrate deeper into the lower part of the foam.
Note: Foam mattresses absorb and spread liquid faster than innerspring beds, so it's important to dry the foam mattress sooner to prevent damage. Allow ample airflow into the room to get rid of the remaining moisture faster.
4. Make a Vinegar Solution
Create a vinegar solution using half white vinegar and half cold water. Put the solution into a spray bottle to avoid oversaturation and exposing your mattress directly to too many substances. White vinegar breaks down the uric acid, which helps you clean the fresh urine stain faster. In the case of strong urine smell, we recommend using pure vinegar.
5. Spray the Solution
Once the excess moisture is removed, get your spray bottle and spread the white vinegar solution into the affected area and let it sit for 10–20 minutes. Blot the solution with a dry cloth afterwards.
6. Sprinkle the Baking Soda
Sprinkle baking soda into the area to remove the urine and vinegar smell. Let the baking soda sit for at least 8 hours to fully tackle the odours. Give the mattress proper ventilation.
7. Vacuum the Bed
After the thorough cleaning process, you may vacuum the dry baking soda. Vacuuming the bed regularly, even when there are no urine stains involved, is important to make sure that you preserve the quality of your mattress. Vacuuming your mattress will help you address other problems like dirt, dust mites, dead skin cells, and other substances that can affect your comfort.
How to Get Rid of Dry Urine Stains
If you are dealing with pee stains that have been set on your mattress for a long time, chances are you will need to deal with the tough yellow stain the settled urine caused. In this case, you will need to step up with a heavier cleaning solution with tougher oxidising agents aside from the baking soda. But worry not, a old pee stain can still be removed with items in your home. Here's how:
1. Make a Cleaning Solution
Mixture 1: Mix water, white vinegar, and mild laundry detergent or dish soap and put them in a spray bottle.
Mixture 2: Use hydrogen peroxide (8-10 ounces), baking soda (2-3 tablespoons), and liquid detergent.
Note: If using the second solution, make sure you strip off the bedding accessories from your bed to prevent the tougher solution from affecting the colour of your linen. Hydrogen peroxide can bleach the mattress, so it may not be the best for coloured mattresses. It may also cause lumps in latex, hybrid, or memory foam mattresses. We recommend using it on white-covered innerspring mattresses. Use mixture 1 for your memory foam mattress instead of the hydrogen peroxide solution.
2. Spray the Stain Remover
With your spray bottle, spread a generous amount of cleaning solution into the affected area until the stained area is completely soaked. Wait for a few minutes or hours before vacuuming the mattress. For stubborn stains, allow the solution to sit for 24 hours if possible. Let the solution penetrate deeper into the mattress by covering the part with a clean plastic wrap to avoid early evaporation. Sprinkle a layer of baking soda to remove the smell afterwards.
Dry urine is harder to remove. That's why you will need a tougher cleaning solution and longer cleaning hours.
3. Blot the Excess Moisture
Blot the excess moisture from the mattress using a clean cloth or paper towels. Be careful when doing this to make sure that you won't spread the stains or the cleaning solution further, especially the stronger one. Repeat the process until the stain disappears.
4. Let the Mattress Dry
Once you get rid of the stain and any lingering odors, you can vacuum or simply air dry your mattress. Open the windows and allow proper airflow to speed up the process.
How to Get Rid of the Smell of Pee
Fresh urine with high ammonia content will have a stronger smell, which can stay in your mattress for weeks. Here are some ways you can get rid of this unwanted smell faster:
1. Sprinkle Baking Soda
Use baking soda on your mattress and let it sit to neutralise the pee smell. Baking soda can efficiently remove the lingering scent instead of masking it like many fragrant sprays do. Baking soda has a basic pH level that neutralises the acid coming from the urine. If possible, allow the baking soda to sit for five to ten hours, uncovered.
2. Vacuum the Mattress
After letting the baking soda sit for hours, you can vacuum the remaining residue to maintain your mattress's pristine appearance.
How to Remove Pet Urine from Your Mattress
While we love our pet friends, they are prone to staining your mattress too. Unlike human urine, pet urine is more pungent and sometimes harder to remove. Removing pet stains from the mattress should be thoroughly done because once they acknowledge their smell on the mattress, they may repeat the act. Oh no, you don't want to deal with dog or cat pee all the time.
1. Use the Baking Soda Directly to Clean Urine Stains
Instead of blotting the urine stain with a paper towel, directly treat the cat or dog pee with baking soda. This will directly absorb the moisture and the urine odor. You will notice the baking soda darkens in colour. This is due to the urine absorption that is happening during the process.
2. Vacuum the Baking Soda
Vacuum the stained area and repeat until the layer of baking soda finally remains a light colour and until there are no more lingering odors.
3. Clean the Urine as Usual
After the first process, you can now clean the mattress with the vinegar solution as you are cleaning the human urine.
4. Use Enzyme Cleaners
If the urine smell is too strong, use a few drops of enzyme cleaner. An enzyme cleaner can break down the urine stain and neutralise the pH level, while also breaking down carbohydrates and fatty acids to get rid of the urine smell.
Notes:
-
You may add a few drops of essential oil to your mattress to get the pee smell out of your mattress. However, note that the use of essential oils may affect your mattress's return or warranty.
-
Avoid using toxic chemicals to remove urine stains, especially if you share your bed with children or pets.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Long Does it Take for Urine to Dry?
Small pee accidents take two to four hours to dry, while larger spills can sit on your mattress for 10 hours. This depends on the quantity of liquid present on the mattress. During these hours, stains and urine smells can linger and stay longer on the mattress. This can affect the quality of your bed, especially if it is made of foam. The smell also causes discomfort during sleep. Blotting the excess urine from the mattress using paper towels can help to remove it faster, while the cleaning steps we listed above can eliminate the stain and pee smell.
Can I Use the Same Cleaning Solution for Other Mattress Stains?
The white vinegar solution can be used to treat general mattress stains. However, it comes with limitations. Other stubborn stains like blood might require a tougher cleaning solution. Baking soda will help in neutralising mattress odors.
Is an Enzyme Cleaner Safe?
Most enzyme cleaners are non-toxic as they use biological enzymes that work well in speeding up the change in chemical composition of the stain. However, it's important to check the labels before using an enzyme product or any product in general to make sure there are no toxic chemicals involved.
Can I Use Air Fresheners or Essential Oil to Get Rid of the Urine Smell in My Room?
Air fresheners smell great in normal conditions. However, instead of getting rid of the pungent urine smell, they tend to mask or mix with it. Home items like baking soda, hydrogen peroxide, enzymes or vinegar in a spray bottle can help neutralise the undesirable scent.
What Happens If I Sleep on a Mattress with a Urine Stain?
It can be very uncomfortable to sleep on a peed mattress because of the moisture, smell, mold, and bacteria that can form on it when left untreated. While it's a hassle to deal with an accident late at night, addressing the problem as early as possible can help you prevent further discomfort and the hassle of cleaning a tougher stain.
How Can I Avoid Future Urine Accidents?
The easiest way to protect your mattress from future urine accidents is to use a mattress protector. Mattress protectors are waterproof, so you don't need to worry about the urine going deeper into your mattress. Compared to cleaning a bed, washing the beddings and the mattress protector is easier and faster.
Summary
Cleaning stains from a mattress can be a tough and long job, but you can address this with items available in your home like white vinegar, dish soap, baking soda, cold water, hydrogen peroxide, and some paper towels inside your cupboard. Remember these tips when cleaning urine from your mattress:
-
The faster you remove urine stains from the mattress, the better.
-
Vinegar, baking soda, hydrogen peroxide, and enzyme solutions are effective in decomposing the chemicals present in urine, which helps in speeding up the cleaning process. Mild detergent soap can also help if you find the vinegar smell too overwhelming.
-
Carefully blotting the remaining moisture and layer of baking soda from your mattress using paper towels is important to prevent residual buildup that can cause mould.
A cosy and worry-free sleep is very important to your overall health, so, although cleaning your mattress can be quite a chore within your busy schedule, all your efforts will be worth it. We hope that we were able to help you with today's pee accident dilemma.
