how do you clean and disinfect a mattress.?

You might have some success cleaning the outside of the mattress using soap and water and letting it dry outside, and maybe some Febreeze could help with odors, but I don't know of any way you can clean and disinfect it all the way through. I saw a show on recycling, that included a segment about used mattresses. A guy had a business collecting and refurbishing them, and to kill bugs he put them in basically a giant oven - a room that got very hot - which was supposed to kill all organics, like molds, bedbugs, etc. However, they tested one of the mattresses after that and still found problems.

So, I would suggest you clean the outside as best you can, let it dry thoroughly, and then buy some plastic mattress covers to cover the mattress. In fact, you might put two over it - they aren't that expensive. Then, whatever might be living there will be trapped away from you. You can put some mattress pads over the plastic for comfort and style.

You can't really. You can clean the surface material with a spot carpet cleaner product - used all over the surface. But to truly disinfect the mattress, there's nothing you can do because of the mass and thickness of it. Dust Mites which live in carpets primarily and feed off of shed skin cells are often transferred from our feet to the mattress, can live there as long as there is a food source. They can be greatly reduced in number by surface cleaning and bacteria can also be greatly reduced by direct sunlight and items like alcohol and Lysol, but are never completely eliminated. As humans we have evolved to become compatible with these critters and they don't harm us. But yeah, it's kinda creepy knowing they're there.

Here is an article on mattress cleaning and disinfection, there are a variety of other articles available as well if you want some more tips...

http://vacman.com.au/articles/cleaning-and-hygiene...

Vacuum it to get the out the dust mites, then use a steam cleaner with an allergen type soap, and use a little bit a lysol spray every time you change the sheets

Shampoo it like any other fabric furniture but then put it outside in the sun to dry. The sun kills germs very well. You may feel better giving it a light spraying with a lysol product too.

A big can of lysol.