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Love your new mattress and want to ensure it lasts for many years? Read on for all the tips about caring for your mattress.
Mattress protector
To prolong the life of your mattress we recommend you use a mattress protector and wash it as often as you wash your sheets. Body oils, perspiration and any other fluids can actually break down the cell structure of mattress foams, meaning that they’ll compact and lose their comfort faster. An inexpensive mattress protector will absorb any of these, helping the foams to live a long, bouncy life.
We don’t recommend a waterproof mattress protector unless the mattress is being used by a young child or an invalid. Anything that is waterproof will also prevent your body heat from dispersing away from your body as you sleep, meaning you could be waking through the night in a hot mess!
Spills and stains
Any liquid spills should be immediately dealt with as liquid of any kind will rust the steel springs in an innerspring mattress. You should dab at the spill with something absorbent like kitchen paper towel, to try to lift the liquid off the mattress before it is absorbed into the mattress. We see a few mattress companies promoting their mattress covers as being waterproof, but as with waterproof mattress protectors above, these types of mattresses can be very hot to sleep on and that will probably cancel out any benefits of having a waterproof cover.
When it comes to stains, this is definitely one of those things where prevention is much better than the cure. Stains can be very difficult to remove from a mattress but if you’re determined to give it a try, we recommend that you contact a professional upholstery steam cleaning company.
Rotate your mattress
The upholstery layers will compact slightly with use, this is how a mattress wears out. By regularly turning your mattress, this will even out the wear on the upholstery layers and will help to prolong the life of your mattress. We recommend rotating it every 3 months even if it’s just you sleeping on the mattress.
No jumping on the bed. Ever.
Believe it or not, your mattress wasn't designed to be a trampoline. We don’t want to be kill-joys but we suggest you find something else to jump on. This doesn’t mean you can’t flop down horizontally onto your mattress - it’s more about jumping up and down in a vertical position. When one of your feet lands on the mattress with all the force of your body weight, this can push all the mattress foams into the spring unit and damage the mattress beyond repair.
Do not vacuum your mattress
It might be tempting to get the Dyson out and give your mattress a once over but it really isn’t made to be vacuumed. The head of the vacuum could pull the quilt fabric and maybe even tear it and the suction could pull the quilt up off the first layer of foam. Anything that a vacuum will remove from a mattress can probably be brushed off with a soft brush but If you really need to vacuum, use the upholstery head and make sure the suction is turned right down.
The correct way to move a mattress between homes.
Mattresses can be heavy and awkward to move and it can be tempting to think that they can be dragged instead of carried. This can damage the side of the mattress severely and is the most common form of damage that we see. Mattresses should always be carried by at least two able-bodied people.
If moving house, protect your mattress in a bag, even if the mattress is going in the back of a removal truck. You can buy plastic mattress bags at Bunnings and Officeworks.
Sherman mattresses come in their own canvas carry bag with handles, you should definitely hang on to these for when you move house - you can't buy these in any shop!
Wash your linen regularly
Allergy sufferers will know that symptoms can be set off by dust mites and their casings, as can asthma symptoms. Unfortunately, these little critters like to live anywhere that you do, especially in your bed. To avoid them, you should wash sheets and linen regularly. If left for too long, dust mites can burrow into your mattress and set up a long-term home. Washing your sheets once a week on high heat is essential, and line drying in the sun is better than tumble-drying. Make sure that all sheets are 100% dry before placing them back on the bed as damp can also increase the risk of bacteria or mould occurring.
The right bed base
The base of your bed plays a big role in the lifespan of your mattress! If the foundation doesn’t support your mattress correctly, you might find that the mattress sags or dips. We have a comprehensive article on our site about finding the right bed base for Sherman mattresses.
Long term storage of a mattress
If you ever need to store your mattress for longer than a couple of weeks, you’ll want to make sure that the mattress is placed on it’s side, never flat on the ground. We see a lot of confusing information on the web regarding this, partly because different types of mattresses will need to be stored differently. But for innerspring mattresses (as Sherman mattresses are), the innerspring unit provides the structural integrity of the mattress and will not buckle or warp when standing on it’s side, even after many years of storage. The upholstery layers such as the foams and top quilt are all sewn together and fastened to the spring unit, so they won’t droop when stored this way.
As with moving a mattress, we recommend that you cover the mattress with a heavy duty plastic mattress bag and seal it well before placing it into storage.
