Is it safe to clean a mouldy mattress or should I throw it away?
Mouldy mattresses are extremely difficult to fully disinfect, especially when moisture or urine has soaked deep into the materials or internal framing. Even if you try to clean the surface, the lingering presence of mould and deep contamination often makes throwing it out the only safe choice.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Throwing the mattress away immediately
- 2Buying a low-cost replacement mattress from IKEA
- 3Trying to clean the mould off despite recommendations to discard it
- 4Throwing the item away to cut losses and avoid permanent discomfort
- 5Washing surfaces with soap, water, damp rags, or chlorine bleach solutions
- 6Dunking items in bleach water to ensure no residual contamination remains
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I'm thinking we have no choice but to just throw it away.”source ↗
“I figured I would ask here before throwing it away if there is any reasonable chance that we could fully disinfect it?”source ↗
“I am mostly worried about the edges soaking up any urine.”source ↗
“You could disinfectant and clean it up but the Knowledge of what happen at least from my perspective i would throw it away cut my losses.”source ↗
“I've cleaned things with evidence of mice before, but the wood on this makes me wonder if it would be impossible to fully clean.”source ↗
“My mattress has grown this mould and I don’t know if Its safe to attempt to clean it and sleep on it again or if I should just get a new mattress, I’m kind of broke right now so if there’s any way to clean it off fully and properly please lmk some tips how!”source ↗
Where this came up
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