If your beloved pet has spent a penny in your bed, you’re probably fuming! And rightly so. Not only is your bed wet, but now you have to clean the mattress before the stain sets in and the whole room stinks of urine!
So, don’t prolong your anger and disgust, find out how to get the wee out of your mattress right now, so you can get back to the dry, odour free and peaceful land of nod!
Top Tips When Cleaning a Wee-Related Problem
Here are a handful of tips you should keep in mind when cleaning urine of any sorts off a mattress:
- Act fast! Speed is of the essence when it comes to wee-wee. So, as soon as the accident occurs, start to treat the area!
- Don’t wait around for urine stains to dry in – they’re harder to remove.
- You’ll need to treat the stain, as well as removing the wee itself.
- Removing the smell of wee may take time, but it’s worth it if you’ve got pets because they’re likely to go back to the urine spot to have another tinkle.
- You will need to wash the items on your bed – quilt, duvet, blankets and even pillows in some cases.
- You’ll need patience! If you’re lucky it may only take you one go to clear away the wee from your mattress. Although, in a lot of cases this is rarely the case, most of the time you’ll need to repeat the methods listed below a couple of times, or you’ll have to carry out several of the methods outlined below in one session. Either way, this will take time and will require patience.
How to Get Wee Out of a Mattress
Below you’ll find two ways to remove urine from a mattress, one method involves removing human wee and the other involves removing pet pee from a mattress.
The reason why there are two different methods is because pet urine smells more pungent, and is stronger than human pee. So, to remove pet wee you need to use special enzyme cleaners and scent removers. Whereas human urine can be removed in more natural ways.
Although, if you’d prefer to skip to the pet urine section and give that method a go, even if you don’t have a pet, you can do so!
Here’s what you need to do:
Removing human urine
What you need:
- Towels
- Clean spray bottle
- Cup
- White vinegar
- Tablespoon
- Laundry detergent
- Cold water
- Cloths
- Bicarbonate of soda
- Vacuum cleaner
Steps to follow:
- If someone has just spent a penny on your bed the first thing to do is remove all your bedding from the bed. This includes, the duvet and any blankets. If you’re lucky the accident may be on these instead of directly on the mattress. Wash them!
- Keep kids and pets out of the room as you treat the mattress.
- Go and grab lots of towels and use them to start blotting at the wee patch on your mattress – no scrubbing as this will only push the urine further into the mattress!
- Find a clean spray bottle and fill it with a cup of white vinegar.
- Pop three tablespoons of laundry detergent into the spray bottle.
- Add two to three cups of cold water to the spray bottle.
- Give the spray bottle a shake.
- Spray the contents of the spray bottle all over the stained area – don’t worry about soaking the mattress with the product.
- Leave the mattress alone for at least 15 minutes – 20 minutes would also be fine.
- Get a cloth and start blotting at the treated area on your mattress.
- Continue to do this until the area feels dryer – remember to use a new part of the cloth each time you blot an area.
- Grab some bicarbonate of soda and pour it all over the treated area.
- Leave the mattress alone overnight – you should go back to the mattress about 12 hours later.
- Gently start to hoover the bicarbonate of soda off the mattress.
- Repeat the treatment steps above if you still see wee on your mattress.
- The mattress must be dry before you sleep on it again.
Note: Hydrogen peroxide can be used instead of white vinegar, but do keep in mind that this is a strong chemical that should be used with expert care. This alternative method should not be used in homes where there are pets and kids.
Removing pet urine:
What you need:
- Bicarbonate of soda
- Cloths
- Spray bottle
- White vinegar
- Tablespoon
- Cup
- Laundry detergent
- Cold water
- Enzyme-based pet urine remover
Steps to follow:
- Remove all the bedding that is on your bed and locate the wet spot.
- Grab some bicarbonate of soda and pour the product over the entire wee patch.
- The bicarb will soak up with pee and will change colour as it does so.
- With a clean cloth, blot at the area and soak up the dirty bicarb.
- Replace the old bicarbonate of soda with some new bicarb.
- Blot at the area to remove the dirty bicarb and re-cover the stain with more bicarbonate of soda.
- Repeat this process until the bicarbonate of soda stays white in colour – this will signify that there is no more wee to soak up.
- In a bottle mix one cup of white vinegar with three tablespoons of laundry detergent, and two cups of cold water.
- Spray the contents of the spray bottle all over the urine-stained patch.
- Wait 20 minutes.
- Blot at the area with a cloth and soak up as much white vinegar as you can from the mattress.
- Repeat steps 9, 10 and 11 a few times, if need be.
- Grab an enzyme-based pet urine cleaner and spray the product onto the stained area – pick one that’s suitable to be used around pets.
- Follow the instructions on the bottle to use the product.
- If the stain has not been removed you can repeat the steps above.
- You’ll need to remove the smell from the mattress now, even though you can’t smell anything and your thorough cleaning will have worked wonders, because your pet will still be able to smell their pee.
- Jump to the how to get rid of the smell of wee section below to find out how you do this.
Note: Do not use hazardous and poisonous chemicals on a mattress. This is not suitable for your kids, pets or yourself.
How to Get a Wee Stain Off a Mattress
If you’ve not been able to treat a urine stain immediately, you might be concerned that your mattress will be scarred forever. But this isn’t the case, you can treat older and more set-in stains on a mattress. Here’s what you need to do:
What you need:
- Spray bottle
- Tablespoon
- Laundry detergent
- Cup
- Cold water
- White vinegar
- Cling film
- Cloth
Steps to follow:
- In a spray bottle mix three tablespoons of laundry detergent with three cups of cold water and one cup of white vinegar.
- Give the bottle a gentle shake.
- Go over to the old wee stain on your mattress.
- Spray the solution you’ve just created all over the stained area – don’t worry about soaking the mattress.
- You need the stain to be wet enough so that the products can actually get to work.
- Grab some cling film and wrap your mattress up – you should make sure that the stain and surrounding areas are covered. You don’t have to cover the entire mattress from top to bottom.
- Leave the mattress alone for two days.
- Remove the cling film and allow the mattress to dry naturally – this may take a few days.
- Repeat the steps above if the wee stain is still present.
- You will need to remove any white vinegar marks by blotting the treated patches with cold water and a clean cloth.
- Always leave your mattress to dry entirely before covering and using it again.
How to Get Rid of the Smell of Wee from a Mattress
Whether you’ve got a new wee stain or an old urine mark to deal with, one thing is for sure… pee smells and you really have to get rid of the odour!
For one, the smell of wee isn’t the kind of aroma you want to greet you when you go to bed. And secondly, pets, particularly dogs, can sniff out where they’ve peed in the past, and will go and tinkle there again!
So, as you can see, it’s essential that you remove the whiff of wee or it’ll cause even more problems.
This is how you get rid of a human’s wee smell from your mattress:
Go to the urine-stained area and spread an even layer of bicarbonate of soda over it. Leave the bicarb to do its job overnight, and in the morning hoover the bicarbonate of soda up.
The whiffyness should have been picked up and neutralised by the bicarb, but if not, repeat this process.
This is how you get rid of a pet’s wee smell from your mattress:
In a clean spray bottle mix a few tablespoons of white vinegar and about 25 drops of an essential oil that you like the smell of (you should aim to use one that you know your pet won’t like, but is safe to use).
Add a cup or two of water to the spray bottle and give it a shake. Unscrew the cap to check if you like the smell, and if you do, spray the potion over the entire mattress.
You can also buy a pungent spray that repels pets from peeing in the same spot over and over again. However, you can’t be creative with this one, as they usually come in standard scents.
How To Prevent Wee-Related Issues in the Future
Here are some ideas to think about to keep your mattress as dry as possible:
- Invest in a waterproof mattress topper, this will help to limit the amount of liquid that gets through and onto your mattress.
- Buy a fitted sheet, it’ll be an extra layer of protection for your mattress.
- Use bed mats/pads to protect the mattress even more.
- Make sure that your mattress doesn’t smell of urine, particularly if your pet had an accident, as this will encourage your furry friend to wee again and again in the same spot.
How Do You Clean a Duvet?
If your duvet also got a little wet during the weeing session, you’ll need to thoroughly wash it.
Now, your first thought might be that it’ll be difficult to clean a duvet because it’s so big, but believe it or not, it’s actually easier than you think to wash a dirty duvet. Find out how to wash a duvet in our step-by-step guide here.
How Do You Dry a Treated Mattress Quickly?
There’s no real ‘fast way’ to air dry a mattress. It takes time for a mattress to dry, which is why when cleaning a mattress, you should start as early as possible in the day. This will give your mattress all day to dry. Additionally, you can open widows and use fans. But generally, it does take time for a mattress to air dry.
You should avoid using hair dryers to speed up the process, as this may damage the mattress or make a stain worse. And you should never cover or sleep on a wet mattress.
Bethan has a passion for exploring, reading, cooking and gardening! When she’s not creating culinary delights for her family, she’s concocting potions to keep her house clean!
