The total cost of mattress cleaning will be different for everyone. These are the most common factors that impact how much you'll pay.

The size of the mattress

Cleaning companies charge by the size of the mattress. The larger the mattress, the more it costs to clean it. Nationwide, below are the average mattress cleaning costs by size:

• King mattress: $80
• Queen mattress: $70
• Full mattress: $60
• Twin mattress: $50

Cleaning the underside of the mattress or just the top and sides

Some people only clean the top and sides of their mattress because it's more likely to have stains. Removal of these stains is a key part of the cleaning process. Cleaning just the top and sides means no lifting the mattress, so there's less labor, and less labor means you pay less.

A Thumbtack mattress cleaner in Schenectady, N.Y., will clean the top and sides of a mattress and the sides of a box spring for $60 for a king, $50 for a queen, $45 for a full and $35 for a twin.

How many mattresses you get cleaned

Some mattress cleaning services offer discounts or special pricing if you clean more than one mattress at a time.

A Thumbtack pro in Austin, Texas, charges $119 for the first bed, no matter the size, and $90 for each additional mattress. Some companies clean pillows for an additional charge, others include it in the price of mattress cleaning.

Add-ons like allergy relief and stain removal

Allergy relief, also called antimicrobial treatment, is a liquid solution that gets rid of dust mite waste. It adds an extra layer of cleaning that can help relieve people with allergic reactions to dust. A Thumbtack pro in North Brunswick, New Jersey, charges $15 for an allergy relief treatment.

If your mattress is stained -- for example, you have urine stains on your kid's mattress -- you can get spot cleaning or a full stain removal service.

Two words: Dust mites. They're microscopic arachnids that live in your bed on the mattress, and on pillows, curtains, carpet, and upholstery. They eat people's flaked-off dead skin cells. Ick.

They're aren't harmful themselves, but around 30% of Americans are allergic to the mites' waste products. The Centers for Disease Control says a mattress can have 10,000 to 10 million dust mites, enough to make for a nasty sleep.

Since you spend one-third of your life on your mattress, a bed full of dust mites is a problem. Even if you don't have any allergic reactions, a deep cleaning can get rid of dust mites and other gross stuff like viruses, odor, body oil, stains, and mold. It can also reduce your chances of a bedbug infestation.

Experts recommend a deep cleaning once a year, twice a year if someone in your family suffers from allergies or you let your pets sleep in your bed.

If your mattress gets stained, schedule a cleaning immediately. The sooner you clean the stain, the more likely you are to remove it completely.

No matter how deeply you clean you your mattress, dust mites always return, so make hiring a mattress cleaning pro part of your annual cleaning schedule.

Using a mattress protector will keep your mattress stain-free between cleanings. You can also do a DIY cleaning with baking soda and essential oils between professional visits.

Professionals clean your mattress using a variety of cleaning methods, including high-powered vacuums, dry steam, ultraviolet light and infrared heat. Here's info on each cleaning technique:

Ultraviolet Light

Ultraviolet light kills microbes and dust mites, so it acts as an antibacterial sanitizer for mattresses. The UV light breaks apart the DNA of the germ so it stops reproducing and dies.

The contractors at Clean Sleep come to your home with a truck-mounted machine that cooks the germs with UV rays. Other services use handheld UV machines.

Steam Cleaning

Cleaning your mattress with a steam cleaner is another common technique. This method uses a steam cleaner with steam heated to several hundred degrees, then sprayed on your mattress, to kill dust mites, remove stains, and neutralize odor in a mattress.

It's done with the same steam cleaners used to clean upholstery and carpet and uses cleaning solutions. Since steam cleaning uses water, you'll need to let a mattress dry out for three to four hours before putting sheets or mattress toppers back on it.

Dry-Steam Cleaning

Dry-steam cleaning uses a machine that produces dry-steam vapor with a very low percentage of water heated to a couple of hundred degrees. Dry-steam cleans and sanitizes a mattress without cleaning solutions, so it's more eco-friendly and the mattress isn't damp once it's clean.

Infrared Heat

Clean Sleep has a machine that heats a mattress to 150 degrees while cleaning it. This removes excess moisture and kills dust mites.

Not sure what to expect when a professional comes to clean your mattress? Here are the standard steps they follow:

• Step 1: You remove the linens. This is a good opportunity to wash them, so you can have a fully clean bed to sleep in at the end of your contractor's visit.
• Step 2: The technician vacuums with a high-powered commercial machine to remove surface dirt and other debris.
• Step 4: The technician pre-treats for stain removal with a cleaner.

• Step 5: The technician cleans the mattress using one or a combination of the methods we mentioned above. If you've opted for an anti-allergy treatment, they'll apply a liquid to the mattress that deactivates allergens.

• Step 6: The technician vacuums the mattress again to remove dead mites and their waste products, pet dander, and any other debris remaining.

Cleaning a mattress can take anywhere from 20 minutes to 2 hours, depending on the techniques used and the number of mattresses cleaned. If a damp cleaning method is used, the mattress will need to dry out for two to four hours before putting sheets back on it.