Let’s set the scene: you’ve just woken up on a relaxing Saturday morning and your other half has brought you a cup of tea in bed. You’re settling back to take a sip when *shock horror* your pet jumps on you and your tea spills everywhere, including soaking into the material of your best mattress.
Since you change your bedding regularly (see how often you should really be changing your sheets for more), you might not realise how important it is to clean your mattress. As you sleep on it every night, your mattress can easily collect dust, dirt and stains, like urine or sweat stains, or the tea spill we spoke about earlier. But if you’ve noticed that you have a few stubborn stains that just won’t come out of your mattress, it could be time to try this shaving foam hack.
Yes, you read that correctly: you can remove stains from your mattress using shaving foam… and here’s how.
What is the shaving foam mattress cleaning hack?
The shaving foam mattress cleaning hack has become incredibly popular on everyone’s favourite social media app, TikTok. There are many videos covering this hack, including this tutorial from Carolina Mccauley, and it seems to work exceptionally well.
As you can see in the video, Caroline applies a healthy amount of shaving foam directly to the stain on her mattress. After leaving it in a thick layer on the stain for 20 minutes, she takes a damp cloth and wipes away the foam before drying it with a hair dryer, although other people who have tried this hack have left the foam for up to an hour.
@carolina.mccauley ♬ original sound - Carolina Mccauley - Home Hacks
Aside from applying shaving foam to your face, legs or other parts of the body to get a clean, smooth shave, shaving foam can remove tough stains easily due to its make-up. The ingredients in shaving foam work to break down the different areas of the stains, including sweat, urine and blood, so you can wipe it – and the stain away – more easily.
When it comes to cleaning your mattress, you should avoid getting the material too wet, as soaking your mattress can damage the material and create an unsanitary environment. But because shaving foam has quite a thick consistency, it doesn’t get absorbed as much into the mattress, even if you leave it for up to an hour like some people do.
How to remove stains from your mattress
Aside from this clever shaving foam hack, there are many other ways to remove stains from your mattress and avoid them altogether. Firstly, avoid eating and drinking anything in your bed, besides water. Getting crumbs or spills in your bed is uncomfortable, unhygienic and can result in attracting bugs and mites, so keep your breakfast out of your bedroom.
If you’d rather not use shaving foam on your mattress, you can use special stain removers or make your own using baking soda. Most supermarkets have stain removers – remember to check if it can be used on a mattress – that will easily remove any stains. But if you have any baking soda lying around, mix it with some water to form a paste. Spread this over the area, massage it in and leave it for 30 minutes. Remove this with a damp cloth and let it dry. Baking soda also acts as a deodoriser so your mattress should smell clean and fresh afterwards.
Finally, to avoid damaging your mattress from any spills, invest in one of the best mattress protectors. A mattress protector guards and prolongs the lifespan of your mattress, and can add an extra layer of comfort to your sleep set-up. For more cleaning tips, check out our full step-by-step guide on how to clean a mattress.
