How are Memory Foam Mattresses Compressed?

How are Memory Foam Mattresses Compressed?

If you need to pack away your mattress because of a big move or for storage in your home, then this is the perfect guide to follow. A mattress is a big, bulky piece of item and can be immensely difficult to transport, or ‘shove’ in a car as well as store in your house as of its size. Knowing how to compress a mattress can mean that space be used efficiently within your home, car, or transport vehicle, making space for other items, and making it easier to pick up/handle as you please. Another great benefit is that if you are moving away, there’s no need to spend money on those costly removal trucks/companies.

Gather items needed for compression

To compress your bed, it may be useful to get a helping hand to make the process much faster, but this is only optional as it can be done by just yourself. You will also need a few other things:

  • Mattress Bag 
  • Ratchet Straps 
  • Tape 
  • Vacuum Bag 
  • A Vacuum

Prepare bed for compression

After you have gathered all the items necessary for compression, the next thing you going to have to do is remove all the bedding and sheets from the bed, except for the mattress protector. Your mattress protector will need to stay on to keep the mattress in good condition, safe from any damage, germs and dust mites that might ruin the mattress when you are transporting or storing it.

Put Mattress in the Mattress Bag

Now that the mattress has been stripped from most of its coverings, you can put it inside the mattress bag- this plastic bag will keep it safe and covered from damage. Make sure that you use a correct size so it can fit in, it mustn’t be too big either as this can take up more space than needed when you store it in a vehicle.

Add a valve to mattress bag

Mattress bags can already come with a valve, but the cheaper option may not come with one. So, if your mattress bag doesn’t have on then follow this step- if it does, then you can move onto the next step.

Get a vacuum bag and use scissors to cut it the valve out. This valve will need to be attached to the mattress bag, so use the valve as a template to draw the shape onto the mattress using a pencil or marker. Make sure that this is done correctly where the nozzle is sticking outwards. Once the markings are done, cut this so there’s a whole in the mattress bag where the valve can be attached into. Use tape, either duct tape or packing tape, to properly secure the valve on. Secure it so that the bag is airtight and ready for the compression.

Use Vacuum to Vacuum Mattress

Use the vacuum hose to vacuum the mattress, by placing it inside the valve that is attached to the mattress bag.  This will suck the mattress air out, shrinking and compressing it. To speed this up, you can walk on top of the mattress or use hands to compress the mattress more quickly. You can use any ordinary vacuum that you have.

Roll and seal

Once the mattress is all flattened and compressed, the next thing to do is to roll it. The tighter you roll, the better. If you are finding this difficult to do so, it might be that you never vacuumed it enough or air has entered the mattress bag making the plastic blow up with air, so assure the valve is sealed properly and repeat the hoovering step above.

Once rolled, use ratchet straps to secure the bag so it doesn’t unravel. These are the best type of straps to secure your mattress. If you don’t have these, you can use any type of string/ tying rope that is strong and long enough to fasten the mattress. But this may be harder to keep mattress compressed – you might have to gather many of them. If you want to add more security, them duct tape is an excellent additional option. Don’t use duct tape on its own, as this doesn’t offer a tight enough grip to keep the mattress rolled and compressed.


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