Everyone has probably caught a whiff of that annoying musty smell somewhere in their house. This is usually a result of the presence of some microorganisms called molds in the area.
As easy as it may be to ignore it simply, it’s essential to know how to get the musty smell out of your mattress. It’s a way of ensuring that your surrounding is healthy to live in.
How to Get a Musty Damp Smell Out of a Mattress
When you find mold in a place, there’s probably moisture there as well. The combination of these two is what results in the musty smell you detect in your basement, closet, and bedroom. Sometimes, the smell may even be emanating from your mattress.
If this is the issue, then you have to ask yourself a serious question— how did it get there? Sometimes, the answer will point to your pets or kids, and at other times you’ll have the lack of ventilation in your room to blame.
Anyway, since the mold is already there, you’ll need to find a solution to it ASAP. You should know that once there’s mold in your room and on such a porous piece of furniture like your bed, getting rid of it may not be so easy.
However, if you can solve the moisture problem, the mold should go too. If you succeed, you can reduce the odor with baking soda, vinegar or sunlight.
Dry Your Mattress
An excellent way to get rid of the musty smell from your mattress is to expose the mattress to fresh air. This way your mattress can breathe. The exposure will also allow the moisture in the bed to evaporate.
Make sure to remove all the bed covers, pillows, and sheets. Keep the windows and doors open so that air can flow in and out freely. Once you’re sure that one side of the bed is dry, flip the mattress to the other side so it can dry too.
The mattress may take a while to dry out, probably around one to two days. Hence, you might want to arrange to sleep elsewhere. If your bedroom is your only option, you can increase the heat there and turn your fan on as well.
These will accelerate the drying process. Another alternative is to take the mattress outside so it can dry out under the sun. This the best option because ultraviolet sun rays kill active molds and deodorize the bed naturally.
Vacuum and Neutralize
A musty bed has a thin layer of mildew on the surface, though you can’t see it. Even after drying out the bed, the mildew will still be there and ready to spring back to life again. As such, you need to vacuum both sides of the mattress thoroughly.
Once you’re done, pour the content of the vacuum bag outside to prevent spores from flying onto the bed again. This should be enough to help you get rid of the musty smell, but if it falls to, you can also use baking soda and vinegar to neutralize the musty smell of your mattress.
However, using both baking soda and vinegar at the same time will yield no result. This is because baking soda is alkaline and vinegar is acidic. So, they cancel each other.
Even if you want to use both, use one first, wait for a while, then use the other. When you do this, the odor will be neutralized, and molds won’t be able to survive there. Here is a better explanation of how to do it.
Step 1: Apply the Vinegar
Pour distilled white vinegar into a spray bottle until the bottle is full. Then, spray it all over the mattress until the surface of the bed seems a little wet. Once you finish doing this, flip the mattress over and do the same thing to the other side. Then, allow the mattress to dry.
Step 2: Apply Baking Soda
This time, take your baking soda and dust it on the surface of the mattress. Then, leave the bed like this overnight. Flip the mattress to the other side and repeat what you did on the first side.
Step 3: leave the mattress under the sun
Leaving your bed under the sun can help too. Stand it up on one edge and keep it supported. This will allow both air and sunlight to get to all the part of the bed. Leave it there for the better part of the day, and the mattress should be free of odor and ready to sleep on.
Can’t Take the Mattress Outside?
If you can’t take the mattress outside to deodorize it, you can do it on your bed. It’s still the same procedure; spray vinegar and let it dry, then flip over and repeat the steps.
Apply baking soda and allow it to sit overnight, flip it over and repeat. Then, vacuum both sides of the mattress to get rid of the baking soda.
Bottom Line
Though you know how to get rid of the musty smell on the mattress, prevention is the best cure.
Save yourself the stress of spraying and vacuuming your mattress to eliminate the musty smell by ensuring that you buy the right quality mattress in the first place.
Make sure it is made with breathable fabric and supports air flow.
