How to keep your mattress mould free!

Mould. Argh! It seems to rear its ugly head from time to time in my home especially the master bedroom due to the humid weather in Sydney and the fact that my bedroom is sub-terrain on a sloping block attracting moisture and rising damp. 

We went to flip my mattress a couple of weeks ago (a really good practice to get into which I have been guilty of not doing anywhere near enough) and to my horror the underside was covered in black mould. (Flash to an image of my head exploding off my shoulders). This is AFTER all of the extensive work I have done over the past 5 years to arrest mould in my master bedroom. Obviously I was not doing enough. 

By way of background…I experienced extensive mould incident in my home in 2016 which left me and (to a lesser extent) my kids sick for months on end with respiratory issues and brain fog. I then wrote an extensive blog on mould which viral around the globe. I then blogged about how to keep your wardrobe mould free and then teamed up with one of Australia’s leading building biologists to put together a 4 step mould protocol which revolves around Young Living Thieves products and the work of Dr Ed Close. To access or discuss this protocol if you are not yet a YL member in my community, please fill out the contact form on the essential oils page of my website and someone in my team will be in touch. In terms of detoxifying mould from your body refer to this blog.

Ok now that the background is out of the way let’s get back to my mouldy mattress. Despite doing all of the things listed in my blogs above you can image that I was somewhat peeved when mould presented on the underside of my mattress. Before you tackle the treatment of mould, you want to get to THE CAUSE of it (as per my mould protocol) otherwise it will keep on re-occurring. The cause, is a nutshell, was lack of ventilation under the bed in a humid and damp environment. The bed is very low to the ground (trapping stagnant air), we were diffusing oils in the bedroom for about 3 hours a night which adds moisture to an otherwise humid environment, and failed to flip the mattress more than once a year (due to sheer laziness and the fact that it’s king size and bloody heavy). Yep, recipe for mould. There is no other mould in the bedroom - just under the mattress - so it looks like it was this one area I was neglecting.  

So this is what we did about it:

1. Restore or discard the mattress: As per the Mould Protocol I co-wrote, soft furnishings including mattress typically need to be discarded when they become mouldy: “For porous surfaces (e.g. plaster board, textiles, soft furnishings, books), safest to discard.” Our mattress is the Cloud 9 from The Natural Bedding Company (I’m not an affiliate or get any kick backs - I just love their organic mattresses and love supporting local businesses). When I called them to confirm that I have to throw the mattress out and get a new one, to my delight they told us to send them some photos of the mattress to see if they can restore it by removing the mouldy layers and replacing them. The Natural Bedding Company make their mattresses in such a way that they are layered so that when the top couple of layers are affected they can simply replace those layers without discarding the whole mattress. And that’s exactly what they did. They were able to restore it at a fraction of the cost of buying a brand new mattress. Yay! Keep this in mind when purchasing new mattresses!!

2. Stop using a diffuser in a moisture-prone room or buy a waterless diffuser: It’s not wise to use an essential oil diffuser in a room that contains mould or has poor ventilation as it will simply add moisture to the room. You can get the benefits of the essential oils in other ways like applying them topically to your body before bed and/or applying a couple drops on your pillow. Young Living does sell a moisture-less diffuser called the Aromalux that does not diffuse any moisture into the air (only the essential oil neat) made specifically for rooms that are prone to mould or lack ventilation. I am going to buy one of those for my bedroom.

3. Purchase a couple damp chaser rods for under the bed: I quickly got my trusted Sydney-based building biologist, Jo Lia, to come over to investigate the damage and she suggested to buy a couple of damp chaser rods to stick under the bed. These emit warm air (and warm air rises) so the idea is that they are creating air flow under the bed through the movement of air of different temperatures. These are typically used in small storage places for the maintenance of antique furniture but Jo had the genius idea of popping them under the bed. These run on electricity so plug them into the power point near the bed and leave them turned on all day and then turn them off from the powerpoint at night when going to bed. I purchased online from here.

4. Flip the mattress regularly: a very painstaking, laborious and boring task but oh so necessary because you can investigate any potential moisture and mould growth on the underside of the mattress and give the underside an opportunity to aerate. How frequently you should flip your mattress really depends on your room but for my bedroom we decided monthly. Flipping (and ideally rotating) the mattress is better for the mattress and better for your back too.

5. Give the mattress a bicarb and Thieves oil sprinkle then vacuum: after flipping the mattress and before making the bed, sprinkle the mattress with bicarb of soda and approx. 10 drop of Young Living Thieves oil (you can make up a pre-mix in a container or apply separately). Allow the mixture to sit on mattress for a couple hours or longer before vaccuming. Bicarb absorbs moisture and Thieves creates an environment hostile to the growth of mould. If you can also stick the mattress outside in the full sun for a couple hours, then extra bonus points to you. (If you don’t have Thieves in your life please don’t order it from the YL website – instead contact me and I will explain the most economical way of ordering it and set you up with a wholesale account for you and give you access to our online member resources, personalised support and community educational events).

I hope you find these 5 suggestions helpful and please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions around mould. 

Love Soulla

PS Are you in the market for a new mattress? 

If anyone is in the market of buying a mattress (or any product over $500 from The Natural Bedding Company) and would like a $50 gift voucher off your purchase all you need to do is email me your name and mobile phone number. The condition is that you join our low tox community by purchasing a Young Living starter bundle as a wholesale customer which we organise for you on the YL website  so that you fall within our community and get access to all of our incredible online member resources, personalised support and community educational events. First in first served!!!