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How To Get Sweat Stains Out of a Foam Mattress in 2 Easy Ways

Whether it’s Mother Nature pulling a surprise with a heat wave, your air-conditioning unit breaking down, or even an unexpected fever, there are tons of reasons you can end up sweating in your bed. As though sweating isn’t messy enough, you’ll also have to deal with the terror of leaving permanent, ugly stains on that beautiful mattress! How To Get Sweat Stains Out of a Foam Mattress easily and effectively?

The two ways to get sweat stains out of a foam mattress are with a mixture of dish soap and hydrogen peroxide or using baking soda. Both of these methods are highly effective. The baking soda method requires less water, but hydrogen peroxide is more aggressive with bleaching stains.

You don’t have to bother researching how to use these methods—we’ve done that work for you! This article will cover the tested and trusted steps for cleaning your foam mattress using either of these steps. Keep reading!

How To Get Sweat Stains Out of a Foam Mattress With Dish Soap and Hydrogen Peroxide

Sweat stains are annoying, but there’s little time to mope around hating them when you can get rid of them for good! The first strategy for taking out sweat stains in a foam mattress involves mild dish soap and harsher hydrogen peroxide.

The items you’ll need for this method are:

• A vacuum cleaner
• Multiple absorbent cloths or paper towels
• Two bowls
• A pair of rubber gloves
• Unscented dish soap
• Hydrogen peroxide with at least a 3% concentration
• Cold water

1. Blot Fresh or Damp Sweat Stains

If you’re dealing with sweat stains that are fresh or wet, you can make cleaning much easier by blotting the damp parts. In a fresh stain, blotting helps to take out some of the sweat so that the cleaning mix can penetrate further and work faster. For an old, damp stain, it removes any moisture that can affect the cleaning.

To blot a sweat stain, get a clean cloth or paper towel—preferably white colored to avoid any damage from bleeding colors.

Place the towel over a section of the stain and press it in for at least 15 seconds as it soaks up the moisture. Use an unused corner of the towel on another section of the stain, working your way from outside to inside.

Be careful not to rub the stain because this could end up locking the stain further in.

2. Vacuum the Mattress

Vacuuming a mattress is important but not absolutely necessary. A common problem with foam mattresses is that, more often than not, there are bits of hair, dust, dead skin, or even insects on them. These specks of dirt may interfere with the cleaning, but it’s not very likely.

If removing a potential cleaning issue isn’t enough of a motivation, you should know that leaving debris on your mattress is bad for your hygiene. Accumulated dirt can make it much easier for your sleeping area to breed dust mites or even bed bugs.

To vacuum your mattress, all you have to do is strip away the covers and run the cleaner over every inch of it. You should concentrate on the top, bottom, and sides but also work on the two surfaces.

3. Spray a Mix of Dish Soap, Water, and 3% Hydrogen Peroxide

Once your mattress is nicely vacuumed, you can move on to creating your cleaning mix. Pour equal parts of cold water, mild dish soap, and hydrogen peroxide into a bowl and mix them thoroughly. If you’re using a hydrogen peroxide solution with a concentration greater than 3%, use a smaller volume to balance it out.

Hydrogen peroxide can be an irritant, so you should wear some gloves to protect your hand immediately after you make the mix. You’ll need to apply the mixture over the mattress, so it’s best to transfer it into a spray bottle for easy use. 

Spray the cleaning mixture over the mattress, concentrating on the parts with the worst sweat stains. Leave the mixture to soak into the mattress fabric for at least 20 minutes.

4. Blot Out the Mixture and Dry the Mattress

After some time, you should see the cleaning mix getting to work and taking out the stains. While waiting, ensure you don’t soak the mattress for too long, so the hydrogen peroxide doesn’t bleach the fabric.

When the cleaning mixture soaks in for long enough, you’ll need to do some more blotting. Grab fresh towels and press them hard to absorb as much moisture as possible. To properly dry your clean mattress, leave it out in an airy or sunny space.

How To Get Sweat Stains Out of a Foam Mattress With Baking Soda

Baking soda is most famous for the exact purpose it’s named after—baking. A surprising twist to this product, though, is that it has more than twenty uses that extend beyond baking to cleaning mattresses! This method is pretty similar to some of my other articles on getting stains out of your mattress.

It’s possible to remove stains with baking soda even after using the hydrogen peroxide mix. The items you’ll need include:

• Baking soda
• A soft-bristled brush
• Multiple absorbent cloths or paper towels
• A vacuum cleaner

Let’s dive into the steps you can take to get this done!

1. Blot the Sweat Stains and Vacuum the Mattress

Before cleaning the mattress with baking soda, you should blot out any wet stains and vacuum it thoroughly. If you’ve done this preliminary cleaning while removing the stains with hydrogen peroxide, then you can skip this step.

In case the baking soda method is your first start, all you need to do is place a towel on the stain and press it down until it absorbs the moisture. Do this for all parts of the stain from outside to inside, then run a vacuum cleaner over it.

2. Sprinkle Baking Soda on the Mattress

To get into the cleaning properly, sprinkle baking soda on the mattress. Unlike hydrogen peroxide, baking soda is quite mild, so you can use it liberally.

When sprinkling, you should pay the closest attention to the spots with sweat stains. Make sure the soda covers the entire area of those stains before continuing to sprinkle it randomly on other parts.

3. Rub In the Baking Soda and Leave It To Sit

The soda can only do so much work if it’s just sitting on the mattress fabric, so you’ll need to work it in using your hands or a soft-bristled brush. Go over the sprinkled baking soda and gently knead it into the fabric, especially around the stained areas. 

If it looks like you need some more baking soda, go ahead and add it. When cleaning mattresses, you can almost never use too much baking soda! After working the powder in, leave the soda to sit on the mattress for 2 to 12 hours.

4. Vacuum the Remnants of the Soda

After the baking soda comes in contact with your stained mattress fabric, it’ll spend all that time sitting in and soaking up the stains and moisture. When it’s done enough, all you need to do is grab your vacuum cleaner again and run it over the mattress.

Unlike in the first vacuuming, the vacuum will take out all the bits of baking soda this time, leaving your mattress stain and odor free!

Conclusion

I’ve handed you all the tools you need for how to get sweat stains out of a foam mattress. If you’re constantly sweating into your mattress with no particular cause, you should check out your health status while getting those sweat stains out!