How to get smells out of a mattress is almost always the same answer — baking soda and air — but the cause changes the details. Sweat and musty smells lift with a deodorising routine, a brand-new mattress just needs to off-gas, and pet or urine smells need an enzyme cleaner. Here's the fix for each.
Remove all bedding and, if you can, open a window or set up a fan. Even an hour of airflow makes a difference before you start.
Use the upholstery attachment to pull out dust and dead skin — the stuff that feeds odour.
Sprinkle a generous, even layer of baking soda over the whole top. For stronger smells, mix in a few drops of essential oil first. Leave it on for several hours — overnight is best. Baking soda absorbs both moisture and odour.
Vacuum thoroughly. The mattress should smell noticeably fresher and feel drier.
Deep musty odours (often from humidity) may need a second round, plus fixing the cause — keep the bedroom under ~50% humidity so it doesn't come back.
That chemical "new foam" smell is off-gassing — harmless VOCs releasing from the foam, and it fades on its own. Speed it up by unboxing the mattress in a well-ventilated room, leaving it uncovered with a window open or fan running for 24–72 hours before putting sheets on. A baking-soda treatment helps too. If a strong smell lingers well past a week, contact the manufacturer.
Baking soda won't fully kill these — the odour comes from proteins that need an enzyme cleaner to break down. Follow our step-by-step for getting urine (and its smell) out of a mattress.
If a smell has soaked deep into the foam (often from a big spill that was never fully dried) and keeps returning no matter what you do, the odour is living below the surface and a deep clean can't reach it — it may be time for a new mattress.
More: the full how to clean a mattress routine · yellow sweat stains · get rid of dust mites.
Practical mattress-care tips — not medical advice.
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