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If stains and odors are taking over the mattress in your child’s room, use this simple 3-step method to clean pee out of a mattress!
This is the very best way to clean pee out of a mattress. This easy process will remove those nasty odors and stains from wetting the bed will quickly become your best friend.
Table of Contents
How to Clean Pee Odors and Stains From A Mattress
This may be an odd topic to discuss on a food blog, but it’s a real life issue that we deal with on a weekly basis when my son was younger. Years ago I talked about my son’s bedwetting issues and I had a lot of feedback from moms dealing with the same thing. I figured maybe you could use some cleaning tips like this as well.
I would clean it as best I could but nothing worked. Febreze and other cleaners simply masked the urine odors, and some cleaning solutions that I’d found online would remove the odor but didn’t work well on the stains.
So I created my own method with a mattress cleaner based on items in my pantry, and it’s been working great! This method of removing odors from your mattress is really simple and doesn’t require any fancy scented oils or kitchen utensils. I also like that the products I use aren’t harmful and my son can help with the clean-up.
Follow these easy tips for how to clean your mattress with my easy, all-natural mattress cleaner.
Here’s What You Need:
There are only a few ingredients and tools that you need to clean pee out of a mattress.
- A roll of paper towels (or lots of rags that you don’t mind washing)
- Baking Soda
- Distilled White Vinegar
- An empty spray bottle
- Vacuum Cleaner
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Step-by-Step Instructions
Step One: Blot the pee as dry as possible with paper towels or rags. If it’s already dry, move on to step 2.
Step Two: Saturate the stain with distilled white vinegar. I highly recommend using a spray bottle as pouring the vinegar directly on the stain could over-saturate the mattress. If you’re concerned about a heavy vinegar smell, you can dilute the vinegar with water, which a lot of methods call for, but that just didn’t seem to work as well. The straight vinegar is very strong and really helps to pull out that nasty urine odor.
Step Three: Let the vinegar sit for 5-10 minutes. If you have a ceiling fan, turn it on, or run a stand alone fan if you can. At the very least open the windows. The increased air flow helps to speed up the process.
Step Four: Blot with paper towels or rags to soak up the vinegar. Press several layers of paper towels into the mattress for this step. You want to soak up as much of the vinegar as possible.
Step Five: Sprinkle baking soda all over and around the stain. You can get real fancy and use a sieve or a sifter for this step, but I don’t think it’s necessary. If there are a lot of clumps just break them up with your fingers. Let the baking soda sit for several hours. The longer the better. After a couple of hours, you’ll begin to see the baking soda caking as it soadks up the vinegar (and takes that nasty odor with it!).
Step Six: Vacuum up the baking soda from the mattress. Make sure to go over the crevices several times. It makes me kinda happy making those lines in the powder with the vacuum cleaner.
That’s it! If the stains and odors are really bad, you may have to repeat this process, but it really does work! And it doesn’t just get pee out of a mattress. Readers have used this method to remove blood stains, wine and more from their mattress. Be sure to read all of the tips readers have shared below.
Pro Tips
- If you have some really difficult stains, use an old toothbrush to rub the vinegar into them vigorously.
- I highly recommend using a spray bottle for the vinegar. However if you just don’t have one, saturate a rag with vinegar and lay it over the stain to pull the odor out.
- Some methods online tell you to dilute the vinegar. You can do that, and it will help with the vinegar smell. But it also dilutes the effectiveness in my experience.
Frequently Asked Questions
I recommend Distilled White Vinegar. I keep it on hand in the gallon bottles because it is amazing with so many different household cleaning tasks like this mattress cleaner, and it’s super cheap.
Other vinegars are for cooking and are more expensive, and really just won’t work as well. However I did have a reader mention that she used apple cider vinegar and it worked great. The vinegar is just a strong acid that breaks down the odor causing proteins.
We do – I actually have 3 of THIS ONE. It works really well, except for that time you are so tired that you forget to put it on, or it rips and you didn’t know, or your son makes his own bed and forgets to put it on, or it slips off the corner because he thrashes around too much at night, or he just doesn’t like the sound/feel of it so he takes it off without telling you, or he wets more than once in a night and you don’t have a back-up, or sometimes, they just fail.
It’s not for lack of trying, believe me. Sometimes these accidents just happen and are totally random and it’s always good to have a great mattress cleaner method ready to go.
Reader Tips
Here are some tips from readers who have tried this method.
Set your mattress in the sun.
Jim says, “Vinegar and baking soda do an excellent job for cleaning a mattress. It has always worked for me. If there is too much odor, you may have to put the mattress out in the sun.” (editor’s note – this is great for freshening pillows, too!).
Works on pet stains and odors, too.
Hadley says, “This method works wonderfully on urine odor and stains from pets, too! Last weekend, my sister’s dog had an accident on the end of my bed, and there was a large, yellow urine stain. I was going to purchase some fancy expensive pet stain remover, but I found your website, and read about your method, instead. Ingenious!
I saturated the stain with distilled white vinegar, let it set for about ten minutes, blotted the vinegar with some paper towels, sprinkled a generous amount of baking soda on the stain. I let the baking soda sit for about three hours, and I literally just finished vacuuming the baking soda up, and the stain and smell is completely gone! Thank you so much for telling folks about this method! Your mattress cleaner saved me time and money!”
Bridget says, “I just had to tell you I wish I could give you the biggest hug! I have a tempurpedic mattress and my cat decided to pee on it! I almost had it out my door to throw away and I was so angry that I knew I would NEVER get that smell out! Yes it had ALL the appropriate waterproof covers too! Still soaked through! Well something told me google it before you throw it. I did and I saw this. Well I did it and oh my god! It worked!!! No smell at all!!!! Thank you!”
Add vinegar to really smelly laundry.
Cassie says, “Thank you! I am going to try this! Why didn’t I think of vinegar before? It’s the best to use on any odors, and I’ve even used to get odors out of clothes and bedding. I tried the baking soda [but] didn’t try vinegar! Genius – I will be doing this today. FYI, they do make vinegar for laundry [too].”
Worried about the strong smell of vinegar? Add scented oils.
Katie says, “I have found that adding a few drops of essential oil (lemon works well) to the vinegar in the spray bottle works wonders to mask the strong smell of the vinegar.”
Don’t have vinegar? Try…vodka?
Sheridan says, “I also have another remedy that is great for getting rid of smells… Vodka! I tried it once to get mildew smell out of a hat and have used it for smelly fabric issues ever since. Same principle, put it in a spray bottle, spray the fabric object down with it until it’s pretty moist to the touch, but for best results put it in a warm sunny spot to evaporate. You can’t really do that with a mattress but alcohol evaporates fairly quickly anyway, and using a fan helps. It doesn’t do much for stains, but works wonders on smells, including mildew!”
*Editor’s note: Basic rubbing alcohol would work the same way, similar to how hand sanitizer works.
Works on vomit, too.
Laura says, “I tried it today on vomit as my son got sick on my bed this morning. It worked great, and luckily there weren’t any stains. I also used a hot iron and damp cloth to get the stains up (to soak up the vinegar & stain), before the baking soda. It’s not great on the iron, but the stains come up so much easier. It’s the same trick used to get (pet) urine stains out of carpet.”
All-Natural Mattress Cleaner
Equipment
- Spray bottle
- Paper towels and/or rags
- Vaccuum cleaner
- Fan optional
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup Distilled white vinegar
Instructions
- Blot the pee as dry as possible with paper towels or rags. If it’s already dry, move on to step 2.
- Pour vinegar into the spray bottle and spray all over the stain to saturate. Let sit for 10 minutes. Run your ceiling fan or open window so air can circulate.
- Blot with paper towels or rags to soak up the vinegar.
- Sprinkle baking soda liberally all over and around the stain. Let sit for 3-4 hours.
- Vacuum up the baking soda from the mattress.
Notes
- If you have some really difficult stains, use an old toothbrush to rub the vinegar into them vigorously.
- I highly recommend using a spray bottle for the vinegar. However if you just don’t have one, saturate a rag with vinegar and lay it over the stain to pull the odor out.
- Some methods online tell you to dilute the vinegar. You can do that, and it will help with the vinegar smell. But it also dilutes the effectiveness in my experience.
- For really stubborn stains and odors, you may need to repeat the process.
You know that feeling when you see something really dirty I mean really dirty (side note I have 5 boys) and it just magically comes off with out a struggle….. best feeling!! both of my kids sleep in the same room and both of my kids wet the bed(*to boys ages 7 and 8) I would have to buy mattress every couple months (* the struggle was real) everyday is a struggle for me cleaning the mattress’s until this came along and I wanted to cry from joy I didn’t have to break a sweat cleaning the mattress’s thank you so much made my life alot easier!!
hello,
Has anyone tried this on a really old stain? My mattress was at my sisters house and she moved so i put it in storage. apparently her cat had decided to pee on my mattress. I didn’t realize it when i stored it. Now one year later i have a smelly mattress and stain. I don’t even care too much about the stain as i do the smell. Also, does it matter if its a pillow top mattress or not? Please help!
Sorry I’m just seeing this! I used it on my son’s mattress when there were months old stains, I hope you at least gave it a try!
Hi Kirstin,
Ive a teenage son that sweats badly at night, my lovely once new looking mattress has yellow/brown sweat stains on. Do u know if it works for this?
Thanks Vanessa
I haven’t tried it for that, but even though it’s different, I’d give it a try!
Thank you love this! I have same problem with my 6 year old. I almost had it solved by buying adult disposable bed underpads. I lay out a few under his sheets in case he moves around and it does not soak through! Tested multiple times lol Problem solved!! Unless of course he falls asleep, like my son did, on the sofa ugh! Best of luck 🙂
That’s a good idea to keep some of those on hand!
My daughter is 14 years old and still wets the bed occasionally and we tried and alarm for a few months but me and my husband and my daughter all sleep so deeply that we never heard it! We just got her a new mattress and she has two waterproof sheets that are very comfortable and she can barely tell that they are there! But as many have said…those sheets aren’t always foolproof and do occasionally leak onto the mattress. she is getting better, but she is nervous to have friends over to our home for fear that her bedroom will smell of urine. All i had in my kitchen was apple cider vinegar so decided to try it and though it did smell of vinegar for a few days..The stains and smell of urine is completely gone! I was amazed at these results and will use this in the future in case of another leak!
I use essential oils and vinegar in a lot of my home cleaners. I use the oils in a lot of aspects of life but in the cleaners it’s just to make the vinegar cleaners smell better. However, I also have another remedy that is great for getting rid of smells… Vodka! I tried it once to get mildew smell out of a hat and have used it for smelly fabric issues ever since. Same principle, put it in a spray bottle, spray the fabric object down with it until it’s pretty moist to the touch, but for best results put it in a warm sunny spot to evaporate. You can’t really do that with a mattress but alcohol evaporates fairly quickly anyway, and using a fan helps. It doesn’t do much for stains, but works wonders on smells, including mildew!
I tried this but it didn’t work for me. Maybe I enough vinegar on the mattress? It looked overall dirtier after I vacuumed up the baking soda. Smelled better though
Sorry it didn’t work for you! You definitely want to saturate the mattress with the vinegar.
I have tried this before and it worked pretty well. I didn’t realize that the vinegar had to be distilled. Our dog is older and is having frequent accidents on our bed. My only thought is what if the mattress isn’t dry on the inside…deep down?
I am hoping this will take care of not buying a new mattress.
Thanks!
Hi Kristin
I have a question about stains on clothing. Would you use this technique to get sweat stains from collars of shirts and underarm sweat stains?
Also, for feces stains on clothing?
Would appreciate your help in this manner.
Thank you
Carol
I haven’t tried this method on clothing so I can’t recommend it.
Ive tried this method on clothing it works fairly decent. Be careful with what materials though & rub the clothing together without scrubbing.
My son had a febrile seizure and lost control of his bladder and wet the bed so I’m going to try this tomorrow to see if we can get the smell and stain out of the bed! Thanks for the post!!
I started using this method on pet accidents on carpet when I ran out of the store bought stuff and found it works better and helps stop remarking too!
There is a reflex that some kids haven’t worked through that can cause bed wetting. A very simple exercise can work through the reflex. If you know an Occupational Therapist-ask them about it. It can work wonders and save those mattresses!
My son has Autism and epilepsy. Wetting the bed is a frequent thing. We did use those annoying plastic sheets. They make a lot of noise and my son had more then once found a way to put it over his face, which is dangerous. I tried padded sheets, but he would soak right through them. He wears night time pull ups but still soaks the bed, especially during seizure nights.
Thank you for this tip. I will def be trying this on his mattress in the morning.
thanks for this great natural remedy. i have a rubber sheet on my son’s bed but he crawled in to snuggle with me and wet my bed! this seemed to work, but so wish the bed-wetting phase would end, for his sake. sometimes i think he’s just too lazy to wake up, it’s so easy to blame the kid. but it certainly can’t be pleasant and requires a lot of patience.
I have gone threw all of this with my Step Brother in the 80’s’
we used the plastic sheets, doubled up on blankets or sheets ect.
even used the vinegar and baking soda to clean up his mattress sense I was using it around the house anyway for cleaning.
His Pediatrician had told my mom that there is a part of the brain ( sorry for get the name of it) where it tells us when we have to use the restroom or not and in some cases it takes longer for it to mature enough to let us know when we need to go or just simply wake up to go to the restroom.. But in time it does kick in to let the child know.
My Step Brother also had abandonment issues from his mom always telling him she never wanted him, she should have put him up for adoption, never good enough but the older brother was the best at everything, the better son ect.
My step dad was in the Navy at the time the boys were born and on a submarine so not much he could do at the time to help. When my mom and him got married they went to Canada to get him from Boston. I worked with him for several years while in High School to help him achieve the goal and proud to say I did. I have sense lost contact with him and my step dad in the 80’s sense my mom and him divorced so have no Idea how he is doing now.. Would love to think he is doing okay.
Hi Kristin!
I just spilled my chicken soup on my bed! 🙁 what i blotched my soaked bed with towel plus poured a ton of alcohol thinking that it may help evaporate faster, then put some hydrogen peroxide. I just saw your link after doing everything mentioned. Problem now is I don’t have baking soda. And im thinking of spraying some vinegar now while it’s fresh? Can i cornstarch instead of baking soda? Thanks!
In my local supermarket they have Baking Powder and Bicarbonate of Soda. Are these the same and will either do the same or which is best to use? As I don’t bake I’m not sure which to use.
Baking Powder is basically Bicarbonate of Soda (ie. Baking Soda) + cornstarch and is used solely as a leavening agent in baking. Baking soda is different and while it is also used as a leavening agent, it has other uses.
Please don’t be afraid to tell your children’s doctor they may also have an overactive bladder or bladder spasms, which I had for years of wetting, My mom tried all the old ways it being the 60’s &70’s . Thanks for the idea my spouse had a medical emergency last night and wow what a mess this morning, thank-you for your help I hope it works as it’s been over 12hrs. of drying time. To all good luck and I hope you find a way to have a normal smelling room, I just hope you don’t have a major winter storm moving in, I guess I’ll have to blow real hard to dry it. ha ha I do think this is a sound idea.
Thank you so much for the advice on getting you know what smell out of the mattress, you rock xx
Hi, what great articles you post, thank you. Have you ever been told about table salt …. just ordinary table salt .. you sprinkle the salt on the “accident area” so it covers the whole area and it will soak up or soak out the urine. Once it has soaked up the yellowish liquid the salt will dry a yellow color at which time you can vacuum up the dry yellow salt, and you won’t have to fight with the stain. I also used the salt trick as well after the stain was dry by redampening the area with a squirt bottle and putting the salt on it then. If the salt doesn’t suck out the “yellowish” hue try using hydrogen peroxide as it breaks down the proteins in the pee. I started using this while training new puppies but it works on carpets, or mattresses. Good luck.