Do you ever vacuum your bed?

United States
May 19, 2008 10:32pm CST
Have you ever vacuumed your bed? Do you know anyone that has? Does it really work to get rid of allergens, pet hair and dust mites? The other day I was vacuuming the bedroom floor and a weird thought occured to me. Why not just vacuum the mattress. Of course, I didn't do it. But it was an interesting thought. After all, dust mites live in the mattress, so why not just vacuum them away? And, those things are the culprit for many allergy attacks. (And, I think they're causing my migraines.) I've heard that dust mites can even bring on an asthma attack in young children. Next time I strip the bed of sheets, I might just vacuum the mattress. What's your thoughts on this?
4 people like this
18 responses
@MNRFOLEY (435)
• Brisbane, Australia
20 May 08
yes i have vacuumed the bed specially my daughters bed. i want to make sure that the place we sleep in is clean and comfy specially because my husband got asthma and my daughter's skin is very sensitive and she got allergies to dustmites etc. it pays to be clean not only in the bedroom but all around the house and the environment.
• United States
20 May 08
I've never done it but I don't see anything wrong with it, because as you've said you'd be vacuuming up all of those nasty things that live on the mattress. I've just taken to spraying beds and what not with Febreze allergen reducer. I've found that spraying surfaces with that often really helps cut down on my allergies. And I don't have to worry about lugging around a vacuum.
1 person likes this
@lingli_78 (12822)
• Australia
20 May 08
i never actually do that before... but i do hit the matress with a broom like what people in my home country do to get rid of the dust and dirt on it... i think it works wonder... so far, i never have any allergy or anything by sleeping on the mattress... take care and have a nice day...
1 person likes this
@babystar1 (4233)
• United States
20 May 08
yes i always vacuum my mattress when I change the sheets on the beds. I been doing this for a long time. it gets rid of the dust mites. I even vaccum the pillows.
1 person likes this
@aries_0325 (3060)
• Philippines
20 May 08
Yes, of course. I often do that once a week to clean some dirty thing in my bed. Sometimes we don't know if there are things inside our bed and we need to clean it to prevent some kinds of skin diseases or some things that bad to our health.
1 person likes this
@lynnchua (3412)
• Singapore
20 May 08
I vacuumed my bed once a month. With this vacuum cleaner specially for mattress. They provide big plastic bag that you can put your pillows in it and place the vacuum host in the bag and it start "sucking". When you opened the vacuum cleaner the water is very very dirty.
1 person likes this
@Calais (10893)
• Australia
20 May 08
I suppose you never really think about it..I had a demonstration for a new vacuum cleaner years ago and they did the mattresses, and I was shocked what came out of them, And they were new ...LOL..But I very rarely do them, I just forget to do them all the time.
• United States
20 May 08
I had someone do that same demo for me years ago. That must be where the idea came from. And, here I was thinking it was an original idea.
@carlaabt (3504)
• United States
20 May 08
I usually try to remember to vacuum my mattress every other time I change my sheets. Sometimes I forget, though, but I still get it done at least fairly often. It's kind of gross how much stuff comes out of there if I go too long in between!
• United States
14 Jun 08
Yes, that is so true! And I'm allergic to many things!
• United States
16 Jun 08
i vacuum it,then hit it with the lysol spray cleaner (fresh AND germ free) and flip it over and do the other side.i'm kind of mite paranoid LOL.
@crackhead (1826)
• India
20 May 08
Well i never had this idea in mind, thats a good idea to share. I dont have pets and so may be i never thought of using vaccum cleaner on my bed. I do clean them very often but never did vaccum.
@schulzie (4061)
• United States
14 Jun 08
I never thought about doing this. Now you have me thinking - that is gross thinking about all of the thousands (or more) of those nasty dust mites living in my mattress. I have never heard of vaccuuming your mattress. I think I will do it the next time I change my linens too. Thanks for bringing this up. It really makes you re-think your cleaning routine.
@schilds (410)
• United States
22 May 08
That is one of those things I have thought of doing, but never have. I think I'll do it today!! I'll even put a fresh bag in the vacuum to see what I come up with.
@Hatley (163776)
• Garden Grove, California
22 May 08
I never have but I do wonder if it would get rid of the nasty dust mites that cause my night time allergy. I would try most anything to be rid of them for sure.Maybe theres an attachement that would do just that. have to look into it.
@aplaza (630)
• Netherlands
20 May 08
I've always vacuumed by bed. I use the extra attachments that the vac has. Although I would like to mention that recently I heard a report on the radio that matrasses don't have as many dust-mites in them as the matrass sellers would like you to think there are. It's unlikely that a migraine would be triggered by an allergy though. (There are different kinds of headaches and although you might get a headache when you also have some other allergy symptoms it's unlikely that it will be a full blown migraine. The easiest way to tell is quite simple: just take two aspirin or tylenol. If the headache goes away or lessons within 30 minutes then you can be pretty sure it's from the allergy and not a migraine because those don't react to aspirin)
@lilybug (21107)
• United States
20 May 08
I have never vacuumed my mattress. Now that you mention it though it does not sound like a bad idea. I am sure there are tons of tiny little things on there that we don't want there.
@julievy (593)
• United States
20 May 08
I vacuum under and around the bed. I have one of those mattresses where the top cover zips off and can be washed. It's big and bulky and needs to be washed at the laundromat. I take it in and wash it every other month or so, adding about 1/4 cup of bleach to the water to make sure it's sanitized. I also use a waterproof mattress cover over it, so hopefully it keeps some of the dust mites from collecting in the mattress cover in the meantime. It's kind of a PITA to wash it, but it's always nice to have a fresh clean mattress under me, so I guess it's worth it.
@cream97 (29086)
• United States
20 May 08
Great idea! Do you have a seperate vacuum? Then if so, use this on the mattress and have another one just to use on the floor..
@salonga (27775)
• Philippines
20 May 08
Yes my dear you've got to vacuum your mattress and you will be surprise that tons of dust are able to penetrate the privacy of your mattress. Yes, you are right those dust mites care the culprit to asthma attacks and even colds, sinusitis, headaches and other respiratory problems. Let us not be confident that just because our bedrooms are always closed they are already dust free. I've always thought that way till someone told me me to vacuum my mattress and OH and OH, the dust mites I got were terrible! From then on I regularly do the vacuuming and it feel wonderful to really to sleep when you know that your mattress are really, really clean. God bless!