How to Clean Pee on a Mattress

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Looking for a way to remove those nasty urine stains and odors from your mattress? Anyone with young children needs to keep this easy tutorial on hand for dealing with accidents and bed wetting!

The words \"how to clean pee on a mattress\" over a bare mattress

Having potty trained three little boys over the past 9 years we’ve had our fair share of accidents. I quickly realized the best way to handle nighttime accidents was to use waterproof mattress covers which makes clean up remarkably easier-just change the bedding and wipe down the cover.

When we moved a couple of years ago I had taken the cover off my oldest son’s mattress due to a rip and since he had outgrown the accident phase for the most part I didn’t replace it.  Fast forward to last weekend when my kids all decided to rearrange sleeping arrangements and switch beds, it didn’t even occur to me that my younger son was now sleeping on a bed without protection.  Which leads me to this post-how to clean pee out of a mattress.  Not the most glamorous of subjects but necessary nonetheless.  Luckily it’s not too hard to fix!

You might also need my post about getting rid of “boy” smell in the bathroom!

Step by step

  1. Use an old towel to blot up as much of the moisture from the stain. Don’t rub the mattress, just press firmly straight down to blot and soak up moisture.
  2. Generously sprinkle baking soda over the stain.  Allow it to sit for a few minutes while you mix up a 50/50 mixture of white vinegar and water in a spray bottle.  
  3. Spray the mixture onto the baking soda and allow to sit until it stops bubbling.
  1. Using another clean towel, again blot the stain to push the baking soda mixture into the mattress surface.
  2. Allow the surface to dry for an hour then vacuum up the excess.
  3. Let air dry until completely dry before making the bed (and maybe order a bed protector while you’re waiting!)
An in-process picture of how to clean pee on a mattress
An in-process picture of how to clean pee on a mattress

At this point the mattress will be damp but hopefully clean and odor free.  If it’s not completely clean repeat the process, I’ve never had to do it more than twice to remove the stain/odor. Ideally do it as soon after the accident as you can as well as the mattress will take quite a few hours to dry. I’ve even set one out on my porch once in the sun to day but unfortunately it’s freezing here so I wasn’t able to do that this time!

You can see the stain is completely gone below:

The words \"how to clean pee on a mattress\" on top of a bare mattress

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4 Comments

  1. I just got a queen-sized mattress and it already had pee and mold stains on it when i got it? Does anyone know how to get mold stains out?

  2. Great tips! Baking soda works amazing! been using that too. You might want to try adding essential oil or using lysol. Works amazing too! have you tried?