How to Compress a Memory Foam Mattress at Home

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Moving your house? Don’t want to hire U-Haul or any moving company to transport your memory foam mattress?

We have a complete guide on how to compress a memory foam mattress at home. The thought of compressing the mattress may sound monumental effort. You will be surprised to know that it is an easy DIY project.

A lot of mattresses are selling online instead of in traditional brick-and-mortar stores. The manufacturer came up with the concept of a “ bed in a box ” mattress.

A bed in a box mattress is compressed in the manufacturing hub for easy and safe transportation to the customers. They squeeze out the air from the mattress, rolled, and packed in a box.

We are going to use the same methodology without any expensive types of equipment.

Here is the list of things you need to compress a mattress at home

1. Vacuum Bag for Mattress.
2. Vacuum cleaner.
3. Ratchet Straps.
4. Duct Tape.
5. Person to help you.
6. Silica packets (~100gms) – Optional.
7. Small plastic bag for a valve for regular plastic mattress bag – Optional.

Steps to Deflate Memory Foam Mattress

Remove your Bedding:

Prepare your mattress for compressing by removing all the bedding including your pillows, sheets, comforter, blankets, and mattress toppers except the mattress protector. It will provide extra safety to your mattress.

Put the Mattress in Mattress Vacuum Bag:

There are two types of plastic mattress vacuum bags available. The most common ones are cheaper without any vacuum valve. These are mattress storage bags and with some modifications can be used for deflating the mattress.

Amazon has proper heavy-duty mattress vacuum bags that have valves to squeeze out air using a home vacuum cleaner. These relatively pricier ($20-$30) but saves a lot of time and hassles. Mattress vacuum bags are available in all standard mattress sizes so choose the right size mattress bag.

Here are the standard mattress sizes:

Mattress Type	Size (in inches)
Cot	30 x 75
Twin	38 x 75
Twin XL	38 x 80
Full	54 x 75
Full XL	54 x 80
Queen	60 x 80
King	76 x 80
California King	72 x 84

Place the mattress in a plastic bag with silica gel and seal it if it has an inbuilt seal. Taking the help of another person is advisable. To strengthen the sealing, tape the seal with duct tape. Silica gel is optional and helps in controlling the moisture inside the bag.

Attaching the Valve:

You can skip this step if you bought a mattress vacuum bag with a valve as mentioned in the previous step.

Remove the valve carefully from the small plastic vacuum bag. Cut out the valve and attach the valve to the mattress bag by cutting the hole. Fix the hole with the valve by taping it properly. Make sure it is completely airtight.

Vacuum Seal The Mattress Bag:

It is time to vacuum out all the air in the mattress bag. Place the mattress on the floor. Connect the vacuum hose of the vacuum cleaner or shop vac to the valve and start the suction of the air. While the suction is in progress, walk on the mattress to help in squeezing out the air.

Roll up and Strap the Mattress:

Within a few minutes, the memory foam mattress will be compressed and ready to be rolled. This is a crucial step and will ensure keeping your mattress compressed in transportation.

Start rolling up the mattress from both the two corners by taking the help of another person. Once the mattress is rolled up, strap it using ratchet straps.

Secure it properly. 

Don’t secure it only with duct tape. Duct tape tends to lose grip and the mattress can start decompressing. Always remember we are compressing the mattress at home and not using any industry equipment to compress. Ratchet straps are the best way to secure a rolled-up mattress.