A mum made a scary but frighteningly common discovery inside her bed and has shared it with the world.Photo / Getty Images
An Aussie mum made a scary but frighteningly common discovery inside her queen-sized mattress and decided to share it with the world.
The mum posted a series of confronting photos to a popular cleaning Facebook page this week after purchasing a second-hand Contempo bagless vacuum cleaner for $10.
"All of this came from my mattress," she wrote in a post beside her photos.
One of them shows a huge pile of dust, dirt, hair and dead skin cells covering the floor.
The following photos reveal just how much grime the mum found inside the bed she slept on each and every night.
She claimed the discovery left her feeling "absolutely disgusted, embarrassed and shocked".
"Please don't crucify me," she begged the group members.
"I just wanted to show everyone how much stuff can come from one queen-sized mattress."
The mum also included several other grim photos showing the almighty collection of brown, filthy powder that was extracted from her mattress into the bagless vacuum.
The mum told the group her discovery ensured she would vacuum her mattress every time she changed her sheets to prevent the build-up from happening again.
Many group members were shocked by the dirt lurking inside the woman's mattress.
"I have never vacuumed mine," one woman wrote.
"Guess what I am doing tomorrow!"
Others thanked the mum for being so brave and reminding them of how important mattress hygiene is.
"This is why mattresses get heavier over the years, build-up of dead skin cells, dirt and bodily fluids," one woman remarked.
Another mum made a similar discovery after purchasing a mattress-specific vacuum on sale recently.
"I bought the mattress vacuum from Godfreys for $99, which was half price," the mum wrote.
"I did my queen mattress and the girls' toddler mattresses."
She posted videos of what she collected inside her Hoover, which featured a canister almost bursting with grey powder, sucked from the depths of her filthy mattresses.
The mum explained that humans shed upwards of 70 skin cells each day.
"99.9 per cent end up in your mattresses," she wrote.
"You must clean/vacuum them."
Other avid cleaners jumped in on the discussion to suggest other foolproof ways of sucking up the dirt that accumulates in our mattresses.
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One woman swore by Polident, the affordable, soluble, denture cleaning tablets.
"Best thing was it cost me $6 to buy the Polident and hardly any effort to clean it," the woman wrote.
"I put six tablets in a bottle of 500mL of water. I then sprayed on mattress.
"It basically disappeared before my eyes. I then wiped off with a little water."
She also posted photos of her mattress cover before and after a spray with Polident.
Others suggested a sprinkle of bicarbonate soda on their bedding to soak up any residual dirt before using a vacuum cleaner to suck up the grime.
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