If your bedroom is smelling a bit funky, it might be coming from your bed. Your bedding harbors a lot of icky stuff from dead skin cells to dust mites and even body fluids like sweat. This mix is the perfect breeding ground for bacteria, mold and mildew, bringing a variety of odors to your bed and bedroom. 

In this post, we discuss the best ways to keep your bed smelling clean and fresh. We have easy tips on how to deodorize your mattress and bedding. 

What Causes Your Bed to Smell?

We have mentioned this before, but your bedding is often dirtier than it looks. Everytime you get in bed, you shed dead skin cells, sweat, and body oils on your bedding. A lot of stuff from around the room also settles on your bed including dust, pollen, dust mites and pet dander. 

If you don't keep up with good bed hygiene, all this stuff builds up and eventually starts emitting a smell. 

Some of these odors are from the substances trapped in your bedding like moisture (musty smell) or pet dander (pet odor). But most of the funky smells coming from your bed are caused by microorganisms who have made home on your mattress or bedding.  

Bacteria is especially notorious for causing odors. It feeds on dead skin cells, oily compounds in sweat and other stuff on your bed and produces even smellier substances. Mold and mildew, which love the moist and warm environment of a bed, can also cause a musty or earthy smell. 

Several factors can make your bed more odorous than usual. 

• A mattress with poor ventilation such as memory foam. It traps more heat and moisture, creating an ideal environment for bacteria and mold. Spring, hybrid and latex mattresses offer the best ventilation. 
• If you have frequent night sweats, your bedding will obviously smell more. 
• You eat in bed. Food crumbs and spills attract odor-causing bacteria and pests.
• Your pet spends a lot of time on your bed. Not only will they leave pet hair and dander on the bed, they’ll also transfer dirt and bacteria. 
• A poorly ventilated bedroom will accentuate even mild smells from the bed.   
• Using synthetic bedding such as polyester sheets will cause a stronger odor. Synthetic textiles tend to retain odors more compared to natural fabrics like cotton and silk. 

5 Easy Ways to Deodorize and Freshen Your Bed

Here are some ways to get rid of funky smells from your bed and keep it smelling good all the time. 

1. Change Your Linens Frequently 

This is an obvious one that we have covered in multiple previous posts. Change your sheets often. I’m looking at you dudes. Don’t go for weeks sleeping on the same sheets or pillowcase. It can give you acne, cause allergies, worsen asthma and even cause infections. It also causes your bed to smell. 

Change your sheets, pillowcase and duvet cover at least once or twice a week, more often if you sweat a lot at night or you have acne-prone skin. 

If you prefer going longer without cleaning your bed sheets, get the Jax range of antimicrobial bedding — Jax Sheets, Jax Pillowcase and Jax Duet Cover. These are treated to kill bacteria that cause odors, acne and other problems. You can go a bit longer without washing them and they’ll still smell fresh.  

2. Get a Waterproof Mattress Protector 

Most of the time when your bed smells funky, the mattress is the source. Unlike bed sheets or the duvet cover, you cannot wash a mattress. So all the icky things we mentioned build up over the years until it’s home to all kinds of nightmares you don't want to see. 

A dirty mattress will not only funk up your bedroom, it’s a danger to your health. The best way to keep your mattress clean is covering it with a waterproof mattress protector. It keeps dirt, sweat, dead skin cells, allergens and other stuff from getting through to the mattress. 

And since you can launder the mattress protector, it’s easy to keep it clean and smell-free. 

3. Use a Duvet Cover 

You can wash a comforter, but not as often as the rest of the bedding to avoid damaging it. So your comforter can get pretty dirty before you get around to laundering it. 

It not only collects skin cells, sweat and oils from your body, anything airborne in the room is also likely to settle on it including dust, mold spores and dust mites. A dirty comforter is bad news for acne-prone skin and can even trigger allergies and asthma attacks. 

To protect your comforter, get a duvet cover. It will keep the comforter cleaner and fresh smelling, and ensure you can go for months before you need to wash it. The duvet cover itself needs to be washed once or twice a week along with the rest of the linen. 

4. Use Baking Soda to Deodorize Your Mattress

If your mattress is already smelling funky, there’s an easy way to deodorize it without resorting to any harsh chemicals. 

Strip the mattress and sprinkle baking soda on it. Let it sit for half an hour or a couple of hours then vacuum it up using an upholstery attachment. You can also spritz it lightly with some vinegar — it’s great for removing smells, as well as mold and mildew. 

Deodorize and vacuum your mattress weekly or every couple of weeks to keep it smelling fresh. 

Another way to deodorize a mattress is airing it outside in the sun for a couple of hours. The sun dries the mattress and kills any bacteria, mold and mildew on it. This also works for your sheets and comforter. 

5. Air Your Bed Daily

On the days when you are not changing your sheets, air them out. This will release any trapped moisture and smells, especially in the mattress. 

To air your bed, simply remove the comforter or duvet and leave just the sheets. You can also remove the sheets to air out the mattress more effectively. Open the windows to improve ventilation in the room.