Covid-19 Cleaning Tips For Your Mattress & Bedding

If someone in your household comes down with Covid-19, it is easy to feel overwhelmed about how to care for them and the rest of your family. With this guide, we hope to provide you with some actionable tips to help you keep your bedroom spaces clean and sanitary while this person recovers.

This is a great guide if your partner is sick with the Corona Virus and you now need to clean your shared bed. This is also a great guide for kids who have shared rooms or beds. Finally, you will also want to use this guide to clean the bedroom being used by someone who has been quarantined with Covid-19, as per CDC recommendations, to help stop the spread.

CDC Bedroom Cleaning Advice

The Centers for Disease Control advises that if someone in your household is diagnosed with Covid-19, they should sleep in a separate bedroom if possible. It is important that the person who is infected stays away from other people in the home as much as possible, so as not to infect them, and a separate bedroom is a great way to keep them both comfortable and contained.

However, before we give you our guide to cleaning the bed and bedroom of someone who is sick with Covid-19, the CDC has some advice that we want to make you aware of.

- Only clean the separate bedroom when absolutely necessary. You want to limit your contact with the infected person as much as possible.

- When you do need to clean the bedroom of someone with Covid-19, wear disposable gloves and masks you can toss afterward.

- Caregivers can also provide personal cleaning supplies to the person who is sick if they are able to do the work themselves.

- If you do not have a separate bedroom for an infected person, the person who is sick should clean and disinfect their area after each use. And if it is not possible for them to do so, the caregiver should wait as long as possible before cleaning and disinfecting in order to protect themselves.

How to clean the bedroom of someone with Corona Virus

When someone in your house is sick with the Corona Virus, it is really important to quarantine them in a bedroom on their own (if this is possible in your household) while they recover. This gives them the space they need to rest while reducing the risk of infecting others in your household. While that person is quarantined in their own bedroom, there are some smart practices you can deploy to help keep the room clean and the rest of your household safer.

1. Provide a lined trash can: If possible, give the infected person their very own lined trash can. This way, the contents of the trash can be easily removed from the bedroom. Always remember to use disposable gloves when removing or handling the garbage bags and disposing the trash. Of course, remember to wash or disinfect your hands afterwards, too.

2. Wipe down surfaces: If the person who is sick with Covid-19 can manage the chore, give them the supplies they need to wipe down and disinfect the surfaces in their bedroom. These items include: tissues, paper towels, cleaners, and EPA List N: Disinfectants for Coronavirus. If they cannot do it themselves, do not clean the space unless absolutely necessary (like if a surface is soiled). Otherwise, you can clean and disinfect the space after that person has recovered or has completed their quarantine.

3. Steam clean: We will explain the benefits of steam cleaning your Alaskan king mattress below, but this is also a useful tip for other upholstered furniture in the bedroom. High-temperature steam can be used to disinfect surfaces like chairs, curtains and rugs. But, steam can also be used to clean surfaces like desks and handles.

4. Keep your hands clean: It is important that the person infected with Covid-19 keep their hands clean, especially if, or when, they leave their bedroom and enter the public space in the rest of the household — like a shared bathroom. If you are sharing a household with someone who is sick with the Corona Virus, it is also important that you wash your hands for at least 20-seconds or disinfect your hands after any of the following activities...

• After blowing one’s nose, coughing, or sneezing.
• Before and after touching your eyes, nose, or mouth.
• After using the restroom.
• Before and after entering or leaving a public place.
• Before and after touching your mask.

How to disinfect the mattress

A lot of times, people do not even think about cleaning their mattresses. So when someone in your household comes down with Corona Virus and you need to clean and disinfect the mattress they have been using, you may be worried about where to start. To help you disinfect and clean the mattress, we have a few easy tips to get you started.

First, always remember to

- Wear a mask and disposable gloves.

- Dispose of your gloves and mask after cleaning the mattress, then wash your hands for 20-seconds or disinfect them with sanitizer that is at least 60% alcohol.

- Do not clean the mattress unless totally necessary, or until after the sick person has recovered or finished their quarantine.

Steam clean

Items like pillows and pillowcases can easily be laundered in the washing machine. But when it comes to a big, bulky mattress, like an Alaskan king mattress, there is no way to put it in a washing machine or use a detergent to clean it. Steaming your mattress is a great alternative, though, allowing you to disinfect your mattresses and other upholstered furniture in the bedroom and around the house. Mattress steaming is useful and safe for both spring and memory foam mattresses.

So how do you get your hands on a steamer? Well, you actually don’t need to use industrial supplies. You can buy a steam cleaner, but many clothing and garment steamers also come with a furniture attachment that you can use for this purpose as well.

The hot steam of the steamer — usually between 150° and 300° Fahrenheit — kills germs and disinfects with its high heat, making it a great option for disinfecting a mattress from Covid-19. There is also the advantage that the steam is able to permeate surfaces well and seep into cracks that can otherwise be missed by disinfecting sprays.

While there is no definitive research that steam alone can kill the Covid-19 virus, there are studies that suggest the virus is sensitive to high-temperature exposure. Because of this, we suggest steaming your mattress first, then using a disinfectant before putting clean sheets and bedding back on the mattress.

Spray disinfectant

After you steam your mattress, we also suggest using a spray disinfectant as a precaution and to further sanitize the surface. In a sweeping motion, spray the disinfectant over the entire mattress, being sure to get both the top and sides of the mattress. Then, let the fabric dry out completely. After the surface of the mattress has dried, you can then put clean sheets and bedding back on top of the mattress.

Use a mattress protector

If you don’t have a mattress cover or protector, now is the time to consider using one. As the name suggests, a mattress protector will shield the mattress itself, adding an extra layer between the infected person and the permeable fabric of the bed. However, a mattress protector is not proven to prevent viruses from spreading to the mattress. But, this added layer of protection is useful and can be washed and disinfected after someone has been sick with Covid-19.

How to clean and disinfect bedding

You will also need to clean and disinfect the bedding being used by someone with Covid-19. Per CDC recommendations, you should only do this when absolutely necessary — like if the bedding is soiled — as coming in contact with this bedding puts the caregiver at risk of contracting the virus themselves.

Because this is the case, it is a good idea to give the infected person fresh sheets and bedding every week or as needed, then washing and cleaning the bedding after they have recovered or their quarantine has ended. This strategy minimizes your contact with bedding that may carry the virus. However, when you do need to wash the bedding, experts and the CDC recommend the following.

- To minimize the possibility of dispersing the virus through the air, do not shake out the dirty laundry of someone who is sick with the Corona Virus.

- When you are handling the dirty laundry of someone who is sick with Covid-19, always wear disposable gloves and a mask.

- After you handle that contaminated laundry, always remove the gloves and wash or sanitize your hands with hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol. Always remember to do so again after transferring the wet laundry from the washer to the dryer, too.

- Go ahead and launder items according to the manufacturer’s instructions. When possible, use the warmest appropriate water setting and dry items completely.

- Dirty laundry from a person who is sick can be washed with other people’s items. However if possible, wash separately.

- Remember to clean and disinfect clothes hampers.

If you found these tips useful don’t forget to share them with your friends and family!