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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.
I have in fact used this type of recipe many times for old dog pee stains and new ones, it works wonders! Love that we can all share stuff like this! One of the things I found that can help with the removing the discoloration from the stain (if it doesnt come out with this great recipe) you can add hydrogen peroxide. There are of course many recipes out there, but its best to start with a minimal amount since peroxide is a natural “bleaching” agent.
Its great to have artillerty ready when my dachshund “Bruiser” strikes…does anyone know the home remedy for a stubborn dachshund?! LoL
Hi! Thank you for posting this article, it’s very helpful. I have a bit of a problem though. I live in Indonesia and it’s very hard to find baking soda here. My cat just peed on my bed last night and I don’t have baking soda nor distilled white vinegar. I only have some apple cider vinegar at the moment. Any other tips on how to clean the urine without those two ingredients? Or should I just leave it to dry and work on it as soon as I manage to buy baking soda and distilled white vinegar?
If you dont have vinegar, you can try water solution with a little bit of hyrdogen peroxide instead. There are many recipes for the ratios, including some that also say to add dish soap.Thankfully the recipe she gave above can work on old stains so you have time to get vinegar and baking soda if you want to try it! Good luck!!
Omgosh, I am so glad I finally said I would just look on Mommy blogs for answers. I cannot wait to try this method. Our daughter’s mattress is gross. She has a mattress protector that either is off when she has an accident or it goes through. We started making her wear those overnights for bigger kids, but they don’t always work if they’re not placed perfectly. We were about to call a professional company to clean it, because like you, I wouldn’t find out about until it was too late. But I can’t wait, lol, toget to work and clean it up. Thank you so much.
Kristin, Thanks for the tips!
I try to get rid from odors, not from stains. so should I do only the steps with baking soda without vinegar?
I would still do both steps. The two products work well together for both odors and stains.
Hi there
Thank you for this tip
Can I use Epsom salts or just salt?
No salt, it’s just baking powder.
Would baking powder work? I don’t have baking soda and am in a hurry.
Baking powder is completely different and has other agents in it. I would get some baking soda.
In the UK baking soda is called Bicarbonate of soda. Just in case your UK readers are confused, I was. I looked it up online lol.
As far as odor goes, there is an incredible product online called SCOE. It does a great job on any odor- urine, skunk, vomit etc. The thing with mattresses is that the liquid can seep very deep and you have to get the solution down to get all of it. They have a squeeze bottle with a big needle on the end which you can use to get the solution deep to get all of it. I havent found any odor it couldn’t remove. However, after my mattress was odor free there are still yellow stains. I’m hoping that this suggestion will work for me.
You can try adding hydrogen peroxide to the mix….peroxide is a natural bleaching agent. Smallest amount to start with and there are many recipes out there to know the measurement.s
After 6 months without an accident, my daughter had one on her trundle bed and I was furious with myself for neglecting the mattress protector pad. It’s on all other mattresses.
So, let me ask all of you why it seems you don’t protect your mattresses first?
Hi Claire, There are a lot of reasons, as you can see by the hundreds of comments. Sometimes I would just plain forget, or they would be in the dryer and not quite dry at bedtime. My son would go for a month without an accident so we would get lax about it and then he’d have one. Or, maybe it’s the first time and you don’t really think about it. There can be lots of reasons.
I hope it works I’m nervous it will make it worse but I’m thankful for finding this site so I have tried everything
Hello Kristin!
After the vacuuming how long does it take for mattress to dry before putting bedding back on?
It depends on a variety of factors, like the air temp, fans blowing on the mattress and how much you saturated the mattress. If you did this in the morning it should be dry by the mid-late afternoon. You could always take it outside and let it dry in the sun (depending on where you live).
No where did it say how much backing soda or vinager to use???
Caroline, the post is broken up into a couple of pages since it’s so long and to help with load time.There isn’t a specified amout of either because it depends on how bad the stain is.
Hi There,
I also have a problem with stained mattresses and of all the blogs I have read it seems that vinegar, bi carb, dishwashing liquid and hydrogen peroxide are most popular but I can never seem to find out what measurements of liquid I need to mix ? I tried chucking all ingredients together in a spray bottle but did not work ? Any info would be appreciated . Thanks
I wet my bed until I was 6 years old. I would dream I was on the toilet and it was okay to pee. I had that dream over and over until I finally made myself wake up before I told myself it was okay to pee. There’s no telling why some kids seem to take so long, but I do remember my mom never shamed me. Very important! Thanks for the tips!!
My son wet the bed into junior high years. When very young he would wake me up and I would put towels on the wet bed (until morning) rinse him off and put a clean night shirt on him (easier to change than pj’s) and back to bed. Never any shaming they can’t help it. But very young I just left a stack of towels in his room and a clean night shirt and he learned to do it himself as l had to wake early for work. But I always told him if he needed me I was always just in the next bedroom, wake me up. He was a big boy and took care of his problem himself.
Hi Katrina, What is your son’s diet like? You might consider eliminating wheat and dairy. it could be an unidentified virus that is causing the problem. You can read this article, which doesn’t address this issue, but could be enlightening. Epstein Barr causes a multitude of problems, including extreme debilitation, and these foods feet it, including eggs. Here is the link: http://goop.com/the-medical-medium-and-whats-potentially-at-the-root-of-medical-mysteries/
It could also be heavy metals… or both! http://goop.com/a-heavy-metal-detox/
So this will work on pet pee.as well?
I haven’t personally tried that, but tons of readers have said it works!
Hi Kirsten
Thank you for the tips and all the comments, I’m off to buy vinegar! I’m reading your site for the first time, having looked up the mattress cleaning subject. I normally use disposable care mats (dog ones are much less expensive) but my son was home visiting from boarding school and they were not put on his bed.
I thought I would share some info, which your readers might find useful. My son is 15 and this has always been a problem, but as the years have gone on we have come to the conclusion it is at it’s worst while going through a growth spurt. I met a Chiropractor recently, who told me he had been treating a 6 year old boy. He had received an sms from the boys mother to say 3 months dry, while we were out, so the conversation came round. Having been approached to treat this boy, he had researched and was using the technique for the first time, so was delighted with the success. During growth, particularly in boys, the nerve receptors become pinched and the brain does not receive the message to wake and will release urine, without them even waking in a pool of wet. Probably like me, your readers know there are a number of factors to bed wetting, but this reinforced my theory. Willing to try anything, as we have pretty much tried everything else over the years, I am seeking treatment for my son. It is such a common problem yet still carries embarrasment and anxiety of friends finding out. It also certainly tries the patience of us Mums left with the cleanup duty, time after time. I’m going to investigate your site a bit more now. Hope this helps. K
I’m not a sales person in any way shape or form. But check out Ashley black guru on Facebook, or fascia blaster.com. Moms with kids who have the same problem have treated with huge success. My own pain issues are becoming a faint memory…
Have you tried having him sit to pee right before bed it worked for me Dr said it empties the bladder better
My son (now 35) had tons of food allergies that were the cause of bed wetting into puberty. He was embarrassed to have friends over or go stay at anyone’s home. I came up with this solution: Buy 2 identical oversized t-shirts or pajamas (whatever he prefers to sleep in.) Get a sleeping bag. Pack the second identical set of sleep clothes into a plastic trash bag with a towel and put the extra clothing in it.
I taught my son to place the unfolded trash bag inside his sleeping bag, then place the towel over the trash bag. When he woke up wet, he could get up, grab his towel and trash bag, go into the bathroom and change his clothes into the same outfit! He simply put the wet clothes and towel into the trash bag, climbed into his still dry sleeping bag, and none of his friends suspected that he had a problem!
Hi just wondering if it’s ok to use vinegar on a coloured patterned mattress or will it bleach it?
Our have always been white, so I’m not certain. For me it would be more about getting rid of the smell – I could live with the bleach spot. 😉
Vinegar does not bleach colors as far as I know. In fact you use vinegar to set your colors on dark items. Add it to first wash, learned it from my daughter in law they use it on their dark nursing uniforms. I use vinegar in every wash load of laundry. Removes stains and odors. The smell disappears soon.
I have read quite a few articles om bed wetting, many of them recommend Persil Bio or Natures Miracle. These have an enzyme that breaks down the urine. I have a pillowtop mattress that is covered in urine. My son peed twice on opposite sides of his mattress AND our new puppy peed with him. My husband said he cleaned i, but he just used Fabreeze… Ugh!!!
Oh no! Good luck!
Can I use cleaning vinegar?
I used this method on my love seat that my dogs love to lay on. Wherever I am, they are (5 Shih tzu’s)!!!! Only problem is I have 1 male who will occasionally hike his leg on the corner. I think I have tried everything, and still can’t get it clean. Any idea on how to put use this method on the side of the sofa?
Clorox Urine and Stain remover works great for dog urine. It has a light, fresh scent. I bought it at Sam’s club. My sister-in-law offered us their king size bed because they we moving out of state. What she neglected to tell us was her dog was peeing all over the box spring and even got high enough to get one corner of the mattress. I’m talking the box spring was covered with nastiness. Looked liked they never tried cleaning it. Even though as we loaded the truck to bring it home and hubby was fussing the whole time we shouldn’t even bother because it was ruined and I promised I could get it clean, I was having my doubts. But this stuff saved the day, the mattress and my relationship. Lol. It literally got rid of the sten and the stain. But since it was such an extreme case I sprayed the stuff on and let it set a few minutes before using a scrub brush a clean hot water to work in the solution and wipe clean. But it was a miracle it worked. Even on the side of the mattress!