What is the best way to clean urine from a mattress?
By show of hands, how many of you were bed-wetters when you were a kid? Come on; get those hands up. Yeah, I know: no one wants to fess up to something like that; well, almost no one.
As a shameless soul with a small ego and little self-respect, I’ll admit to it. Heck, I was wetting the bed until I hit puberty, and I have to say that it only got more embarrassing with age. But what of my poor mother who had to clean the sheets? I still take her out to dinner once a week to make up for it, and I’m pushing fifty! Fortunately, Mom was a smart lady and very early on, she made me sleep on a plastic mattress protector, so she hardly ever had to deal with a soiled mattress.
My wife, on the other hand… This is a bit uncomfortable to admit, but a few years ago, I went through a series of epidural injections for a severe back injury. One of the doctors performing the procedure was, shall we say, inept and botched the shot. Much to my chagrin—and as a result—I peed in the bed repeatedly for a week after that (and the doctor had to endure several bouts of verbal abuse from me). Luckily, my wife not only didn’t leave me, but also knew how to take care of the mess, as I was unable to due to the fact that I could barely move, thank you very much Doctor Dimwit.
Logically, the first step is to remove the bedclothes (you want to wash the soiled sheets immediately; pre-treat them before washing). Use a washcloth moistened with cold water and sprinkle a little clothes-washing detergent on the affected area, dab up the stain, rinse the washcloth and dab again until the detergent comes out. Then either take the mattress outside (preferably in the morning; it’ll take hours to dry) and leave it in sunlight, or point a fan at the wet spot. Once it dries—and make sure it is dried thoroughly—if an odor persists, sprinkle a little baking soda on the affected area, let it stand for a couple hours and then use a vacuum to remove it.
For particularly large and/or odorous stains, your best bet may be to use upholstery cleaner with a carpet cleaner wet-vac. I’ve also heard that Fabreaz or a product called Nature’s Miracle (available at Pet Smart) work well, especially for dog urine. If all else fails, there is another product called the Black Light Kit that reportedly works very effectively and includes a black light to help find dried stains that are hard to spot (you can buy it online here: http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B000FCSSRA/ref=dp_olp_0?ie=UTF8&condition=all), but my wife’s tried and true method cleaned up my nasty messes rather well.
Under that velevet toppind is a plastic like lining. The best way is to leave it inflated, take it outside and wash it with a big bowl of soapy water (laundry soap) and vinegar (just regular white vinegar) using a soft scrub brush. Then hose the soap off. Then take a five gallon bucket and put half a cap of fabric softener in it and pour it over the mattress and then let it air dry.
