The mattress can be a jungle of dust mites and bedbugs, milling around among dried remnants of blood, saliva, sweat and basically all the other bodily fluids you can think of – CNN [1]

80% of people with allergies are allergic to dust mites, and these critters feed off of dead skin cells, which shed onto our sheets all night and work their way into our mattress, creating a buffet for the mites. Mattresses harbor tons of gnarly stuff including a few bacteria I don’t want to think about

– Micrococcus, Staphylococcus, Enterococcus, Pseudomonads, Bacillus just to name a few.

We tuck our tired bodies in with all of that, and although we live naturally alongside a plenitude of little critters, it doesn’t mean we should put out the fine china for them.

How can YOU clean a mattress?

For day to day dirt: Use a towel dampened with diluted dish detergent suds. Wipe the surface of the mattress to clean any spots. “Rinse” the soap away with a clean damp towel.  Vacuum Regularly.

For spills: If liquid penetrates, use a dry towel to soak up as much of the liquid as you can, then call us.

(Be very careful not to get your mattress wetter. Made up of fabric and foam, it will absorb water readily, thus spreading your spilled liquid further and further into the mattress. If you soak a mattress, it will not dry properly and you will be worse off than before you tried to clean it.)

For Odors: Baking soda is great – sprinkle directly on the mattress or make a thick paste, lightly scrub the area, let dry and vacuum.

What do WE do?

· We spray the mattress with a special non-toxic allergy spray formulated to deal with odors and the allergens created by your skin cells and the waste of the dust mites.

· We use a hot water extraction process with an attachment with a vacuum seal that will spray hot water onto the fabric and immediately remove it with powerful suction. The water is mixed with a rinse that pairs with the pre-spray to rid the mattress of allergens and remove stains and all surface dirt.

· If you have urine on the mattress, we use an enzyme to treat the spot. A different attachment creates a vacuum seal, and puts a higher amount of water into a targeted area and immediately suctions it out – again with a powerful vacuum.  We don’t want to soak the mattress, but we want to deposit the enzyme and lift as much of the urine out as we can. A spray enzyme will be absorbed by the foam.

· The mattress will be damp to the touch, but will not be wet.

· The mattress will dry in a couple hours. If you can, leave it in the sun to dry. Sunshine is very effective on dust mites and bacteria.

After we are done, and the mattress is full dry, the following steps will prolong the cleanliness:

1) Cover the mattress with an allergen proof, fully encasing mattress cover – we prefer this one:

http://www.elfbrands.com/ It is soft, doesn’t mess with your body temperature, and is effective.

2) On top of that, use a standard mattress pad – it soaks up any fluids before they penetrate the mattress and catches skin cells – all of which can be laundered with your sheets.

3) Wash sheets weekly.

4) Wash mattress pads monthly.

5) Wash mattress protectors quarterly. Always wash in HOT water.

6) Vacuum your mattress when you remove your mattress protector.

Now, go ahead and sleep in peace.