How to Store a Mattress Without Ruining It
A mattress is the one thing in the house that is ruined by storage more often than by use. Left in a garage, folded into a van, or sealed in a bin bag with a bit of damp still in it, a £600 mattress comes back sagging and smelling of the room it sat in. Storing one properly is not difficult; it is about six decisions, made in the right order.
Key takeaways
- Clean it, then let it dry for a full 24 hours before it is covered. Trapped moisture is the cause of almost every stored-mattress failure.
- Cover it with something breathable: a mattress storage bag or a cotton sheet, not sealed plastic.
- Store it flat with nothing on top. Memory foam, latex and hybrid mattresses must never be stored on their side.
- Keep it indoors, dry and off the floor. Garages, sheds and lofts are where mattresses go to grow mould.
- Stored properly, any mattress will last a year or more in storage; the limit is its age, not the storage.
First: is this mattress worth storing?
Storage costs money and space, so it is worth asking before you start. A mattress that is already six or seven years old, has a visible dip, or has ever been wet through, will not improve in storage and may not be worth what it costs to keep. If it is under five years old, supportive and clean, it is worth keeping: a like-for-like replacement is several hundred pounds, and a year of storage is far less.
If you decide to let it go, most London councils collect mattresses as bulky waste for a fee, and several mattress retailers take the old one away when they deliver a new one. Do not leave it by the bins.
How to store a mattress, step by step
- 1
Strip it and vacuum both sides
Take off every sheet, protector and topper (store those separately, washed). Vacuum the top, bottom and sides with the upholstery nozzle. Dust and skin cells are what the moths and mites are after, so this step matters more than it looks. - 2
Spot-clean, then deodorise
Dab stains with cold water and a drop of washing-up liquid; do not soak the fabric. Then sprinkle bicarbonate of soda over the whole surface, leave it for a few hours, and vacuum it off. It pulls moisture and smell out of the top layer without adding either. - 3
Let it dry for a full day
Stand it on its long edge in a warm, airy room, ideally near an open window, for 24 hours. This is the step people skip, and it is the one that decides whether the mattress smells of mould when you unwrap it. - 4
Cover it with something that breathes
A purpose-made mattress storage bag (most are woven polypropylene with a zip) or two cotton sheets taped at the ends. If you only have a plastic mattress bag, leave the open end unsealed. The cover is there to keep dust and dirt off during the move and while it sits, not to seal the mattress in. - 5
Move it flat or upright, never folded
Two people, one at each end, carried on its long edge. In a van it can travel standing on its edge against a wall, strapped so it cannot slide. Folding a mattress, even for the length of a journey, cracks the foam layers and bends spring borders; a rolled boxed mattress should never be re-rolled. - 6
Store it flat, off the floor, with nothing on top
Flat is the natural position and the only one that keeps the filling where it belongs. Put it on a bed base, a couple of pallets or on top of a flat surface such as a wardrobe or table lying on its back. Do not stack boxes on it: months of even light weight leaves a permanent hollow. - 7
Check it every couple of months
Open the cover, look for any damp, smell it, and if it is stored in less than ideal conditions turn it over. If you find a damp patch, get it into a warm room to dry immediately.
Flat or on its side?
Flat, if you have the floor space. A mattress is built to be loaded evenly across its whole surface; stand it on its edge and gravity spends every day pulling the filling towards the bottom, which is why a mattress stored upright for six months develops a thick end and a thin one.
The exception is a traditional sprung mattress for a few weeks: the springs hold their shape and a short spell on the long edge, fully supported and not leaning, does no harm. Memory foam, latex, hybrid and roll-up mattresses do not get that exception. Foam takes a set. Once it has slumped towards one edge it will not recover, and the manufacturer will not honour the guarantee.
| Mattress type | Store it | How long is fine | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pocket sprung / open coil | Flat; on its edge for a few weeks at most | Years, if dry and flat | Springs settle if stored on the side for long |
| Memory foam | Flat, always | A year or more | Never fold or stand on edge; foam takes a set and stays deformed |
| Latex | Flat, out of any light | A year or more | UV and heat make latex crumble; keep it covered and cool |
| Hybrid (springs + foam layer) | Flat | A year or more | Treat it as memory foam: no edge storage |
| Roll-up / boxed foam | Flat, unrolled | A year or more | Do not re-roll it; the compression is a one-time factory process |
Where to store a mattress (and where not to)
The mattress needs the same conditions you would want yourself: dry, out of direct sun, and roughly room temperature all year. That rules out the three places most mattresses end up.
- Garages and sheds are damp and swing from freezing to over 30 °C. Condensation forms inside the cover on cold mornings and the mattress never fully dries.
- Lofts are hotter still in summer, dusty, and hard to check. Foam and latex both degrade faster in heat.
- Against an outside wall in a spare room is fine in summer and a mould risk in winter, when the wall is cold and the room is warm. Leave a gap.
A spare bedroom, a dry cupboard under the stairs or an internal box room all work. So does a storage warehouse that is dry and indoors, which is what a furniture storage service is for. A self storage unit works too, though many are unheated steel buildings: ask whether the unit is inside a heated building or has an external roller door.
Do
- Raise it off concrete floors on pallets or a base
- Leave space around it for air to move
- Store it flat, with the cover open at one end
- Put a note in your calendar to check it
Don’t
- Seal it in plastic while any moisture is left in it
- Stack boxes, bags or another mattress on top
- Fold it, even briefly, or re-roll a boxed mattress
- Lean it at an angle against a wall for months
No room to store it flat? We collect, store and deliver it back
How long can a mattress stay in storage?
Stored flat, dry and covered, a good mattress is unchanged after a year, and there is no reason it cannot do two or three. What ages a mattress is use, moisture and heat, not time, so a properly stored mattress comes out roughly as it went in.
The realistic limit is the mattress’s own life. The Sleep Charity’s seven-year rule and most manufacturers’ guidance put the useful life of a mattress at seven to ten years. If yours is already six years old and you are storing it for two, you will unpack a mattress that is due for replacement. In that case storing it is only worth it if the alternative is sleeping on the floor for a few months while you settle.
Taking it out of storage
Unwrap it in a warm room and let it air for a day before you sleep on it. Foam mattresses that have been cool for months are firmer than you remember; they soften back to normal after a few nights. A light vacuum and another dusting of bicarbonate of soda deals with any storage smell. If you find a damp patch, mould spots or an odour that does not go after two days of airing, the mattress has been wet and it is not safe to sleep on: this is the one problem storage cannot reverse.
Or let someone else deal with it
The reason mattresses end up in garages is that nobody has a spare room to lay one flat in for a year. That is the problem a collection-based storage service solves. Stackt collects the mattress (and anything else) from your door, wraps it, stores it flat in a dry London warehouse and delivers it back when you book. Every item is photographed at collection and listed in your account, insurance is included, and there is no unit to drive to.
Storing a whole bedroom, not just the mattress? The furniture storage guide covers bed frames, sofas, wardrobes and appliances, and the pricing page shows every plan and term.
Storing a mattress: your questions
Can you store a mattress on its side?
For a few weeks, a sprung mattress can stand on its long edge if it is fully supported and not leaning at an angle. For anything longer, and for memory foam, latex and hybrid mattresses at any length, store it flat: on its side the filling slowly slides towards the bottom edge and the mattress will not sit flat again.
How long can a mattress stay in storage?
Stored flat, dry and covered, a good mattress will come out of a year or more in storage unchanged. The limits are the mattress itself: most manufacturers put the useful life at seven to ten years whether it is slept on or not, so a mattress that is already six years old is rarely worth storing for two more.
Should I wrap a mattress in plastic for storage?
Only as a dust cover, never sealed. A mattress holds moisture from normal use, and sealed plastic traps it, which is how mould starts. Use a breathable mattress storage bag or a cotton sheet, or if plastic is all you have, leave the ends open so air can move.
Can I store a mattress in a garage, shed or loft?
It is the most common way mattresses get ruined. Garages and sheds are damp and go from freezing to hot; lofts do the same and add dust. If it is the only option, raise the mattress off the floor on pallets, cover it, and check it monthly. A dry, heated indoor room, or a proper storage warehouse, is far safer.
How do I clean a mattress before storing it?
Strip it, vacuum both sides with an upholstery nozzle, spot-clean stains with a little washing-up liquid in cold water, then sprinkle bicarbonate of soda over the surface, leave it for a few hours and vacuum again. Let it dry completely for a full day before you cover it: any damp left inside is what causes the smell when you unwrap it.
Can Stackt store a mattress on its own?
Yes. We collect the mattress from your door, wrap it, store it flat in our London warehouse and deliver it back when you want it. It is priced by the space it takes rather than a fixed unit, and collection is quoted from your address before you book.
