A mattress gathers dust at night the way a carpet does during the day. Everybody sheds skin in their sleep, it works into the quilting, and dust mites live on it in the warm layer just under the cover. We do not sell a mattress clean as a treatment, and nobody should call a cleaned mattress sterile. What the clean does is lift out a large share of the dust, skin and mite debris from the top layers.
The method
First comes a slow vacuum in overlapping lines, with extra time on the seams, the piping and around any buttons, where dust packs in tight. Marks get a pre-treatment. The rinse uses far less water than a carpet gets, because a mattress has nothing like a carpet backing to stop moisture reaching the foam or the springs. If the mattress is made to be turned, both faces get cleaned. Many memory foam and pillow-top mattresses have only one sleeping side, and there we clean the sleeping face plus the sides.
Before you make the bed
Strip the bed before we arrive. Afterwards, leave the mattress uncovered with the window open and the bedroom door ajar so air crosses it. It is usually ready to make up three or four hours later, which is why a morning slot suits best. In a cold bedroom in winter, run the heating for an hour with the window still open a crack. Test it with the back of your hand: if the surface still feels cool, it is still damp. Hold off on a waterproof protector until that coolness has gone, because a protector seals in whatever moisture is left.
Old marks
Sweat marking lightens well. Old urine marks get paler, but the ring at the outer edge usually stays, because the salts have marked the ticking. The smell improves more than the look does. Blood comes out best while it is fresh and has only ever met cold water. An even yellowing across the whole top face is mostly age, and it lightens only a little.
Price
A mattress costs £35. Booked alone it sits below the £67 one-off minimum, which is why it usually goes with the bedroom carpet: the two come to £71. Two mattresses and the two bedroom carpets they sit in come to £142.
| Clean | Price |
|---|---|
| Two-seat settee | £57 |
| Armchair | £33 |
| Mattress clean | £35 |
| Dining chair | £13 |
| Curtains, short drop | £35 |
| Curtains (long drop) | £42 |
Summer moves round the Junction
Around Clapham Junction and Battersea Park Road plenty of shared flats change hands each summer, and a furnished room often comes with the previous tenant’s mattress. If that is yours, have the mattress and the bedroom carpet cleaned together before your own bedding goes on. The sofa in the shared living room is worth a look too, and so are the bedroom curtains, which catch the same dust. There is more on that part of SW11 on the Clapham Junction page.
Questions we get asked
Does cleaning kill dust mites?
We do not claim it does. The vacuum and the hot rinse take a lot of mites, their droppings and the skin they eat out of the top layers, and that is a different thing from killing every one. Airing the bedroom each morning and washing the bedding regularly keep the numbers down between cleans.
Will the bed be usable tonight?
Book a morning slot and it should be. By the evening the surface should feel dry and room temperature to the touch. If it still feels cool at bedtime, put a dry towel over it or give it another hour with the window open.
How often should a mattress be cleaned?
There is no fixed rule. Once a year suits most beds, and sooner after a spill or an accident. Turning or rotating the mattress and opening the bedroom window each morning slow down how fast the dust builds up.
We have just moved into a furnished room near Clapham Junction. Where should we start?
With the mattress and the bedroom carpet, cleaned on the same visit for £71. That covers the place you spend the most hours. The shared sofa can join at £57 for a two-seater, which brings the visit to £128.