How to Care for and Clean your Natural Latex Mattress

Sleep is obviously an essential part of our daily routine. Therefore it’s really important that our mattress is not only clean in the sense of being toxin and chemically free but also daily clean from daily dust, mites, skin cells, and other allergens. A clean healthy mattress will give you a comfy and restful sleep.

1. Flip your latex mattress over and around every six months. To provide even wear, flip your latex mattress so that the top is now on the bottom, and turn it so that the foot of the mattress is now at the head. Depending on the size of your mattress, this can easily be a two person job. Be careful to protect your back and try not to let a latex mattress fold on itself otherwise it may get damaged.

2. Cover your latex mattress, to protect it and extend time between cleanings . Consider purchasing an organic mattress cover such as the Molton Mattress Protector, to protect the surface of your mattress. The mattress preotctor should be washable, easy to remove and replace on your mattress such as the Molton which can be washed at up to 95C which will kill dust mites.

3. Manually Remove dust from your latex mattress surface. Dust, dander, and dust mites build up in your latex mattress naturally, although the internal wool layer will prevent them from travelling deep into the mattress core. Even those of us without allergies can begin to notice dust and dirt in our latex mattress. Vacuum your mattress using the upholstery attachment on your vacuum cleaner on a weekly basis. If someone does have allergies in your home, you may need to vacuum more frequently and/or purchase mattress covers.

4 If the latex mattress surface becomes dirty or soiled, then patch wash the soiled area. Mix a mild detergent with water until suds form. Apply the dry suds only to the soiled area using a sponge. Wipe the area with a sponge that has had warm water wrung from it. Allow the area to dry thoroughly. If the cover is removable remove it and machine wash at about 60C to kill dust mites, but do not use the mattress until the cover is put back on. Don’t allow the interior padding of the mattress to get wet. If it's warm outside, you can dry a mattress quickly outside. You can also use a fan blowing across the mattress surface to insure that it dries quickly

5 Air Your Latex Mattress Regularly. As often as possible , remove all sheets and coverings from the latex mattress, after hoovering the mattress and floor below the bed , open windows and allow the air to circulate around the mattress.

Healthy sleep for the chemically sensitive.

Organic mattress lovers will be interested to hear about a recent article claiming some organic mattresses contain fire retardant chemicals. What a shock, surely the whole point is to get away from chemicals and sleep on a pure surface! Just so you know this is catagorically unacceptable at buyOrganics!

These companies site the reason for using fire retardants in their organic mattresses as due to fire safety regulations and law. This is actually not accurate, in the UK anyway. In fact what is required is that any mattress pass a flame test, the surface should not smolder if a light is held to it for a designated amount of time. This flame retardency can normally only be achieved through use of flame retardant chemicals, however it can also be achieved through natural means, some companies just don’t have the know how of how to do this naturally and without chemicals.

We can proudly say that our Organic mattresses have achieved fire safety tests and have the BS7177 test naturally without the use of any fire retardent chemicals and are Soil Association certified also

Studies have shown that flame retardants migrate into the blood stream of humans; In addition, Dioxin, a bleaching agent, and formaldehyde are two other unpleasant chemicals which may be found in a conventional mattress that can cause health problems.

To ensure that you are getting the most out of your organic mattress, ensure you get synthetic dye free organic cotton sheets, under blankets and protectors. We have combined the best organic mattresses with the most sumptuous organic sheets together at buyOrganics.

All in all, when buying, be careful to check that the organic mattress you are buying does not contain fire retardents and is in fact pure organic as ours are.