by Claire
Do those crazy mattress commercials that talk about sweat and bugs and now obesity run throughout the country? The push is that we all need to buy a new mattress every 8 years. That’s not 7 years and not 9 years, but 8. Now I haven’t done any extensive research on this but the entire ad campaign is alarming! DD heard it the other day and turned into “the mattress police” asking how old our mattresses are. Thankfully ours are 2.5 years old. DD was still sure we needed to consider a new one bc of all the gross stuff. We discussed a mattress cover and crazy advertising tactics and she was satisfied.
I honestly have no idea how frequently my parents bought new mattresses but I do know my mom is VERY germ aware! She would have gone without a lot of other things in this life to buy a new mattress every 8 years if she heard about the yuck factor! At 82 years of age she doesn’t care anymore! As she says, she has survived the germs!
Born and raised in Texas. I’ve at least driven through every state in the US courtesy of a roadtrip loving Dad.
I’m single with two children and a good parenting relationship with their father.
I am a “life is just half full of funny” kinda gal. Humor is my saving grace and I am thankful for it every single day. I have a strong Catholic faith and am thankful for that foundation.
I read a lot for a living but still enjoy a good book. I love biographies but in recent years have found the need for fun fictional books–sadly, for a long time I just didn’t enjoy fiction!
I love live theatre of any kind–from local productions to Broadway.
I love to scrapbook and pride myself in my kids’ albums.
I love being a mom but also love my career. I’m blessed to have found a balance allowing me to be at everything my kids need and want me to be at–while also having a career.
Favorite Quotes: Well behaved women rarely make history.
Behold the turtle. He makes progress only when he sticks his neck out. -James Bryant Conant
Meh. Natural horsehair mattresses can last generations and be passed down. It depends on the quality and care. If it is comfortable and doesn’t stink it is fine.
Put a tightly woven mattress cover on under everything to keep out dust and mites, flip/rotate it regularly, vacuum it when you flip, put a waterproof sheet on to protect from spills and accidents. A little maintenance will keep it appealing longer. Who knows how the industry derived the 8 year timeframe.
Have you noticed you can’t flip mattresses anymore? That’s how our parents kept mattresses for decades but now, with the pillow top or other special toppers, you can no longer do so and are forced to buy a new mattress more often.
I use a waterbed, so no issue (and no place for the icky things to live, either, I just wipe it down every month.)
If I was doing the regular mattress routine, I’d buy a flippable mattress and a separate topper (Sears sells them in their catalog) and then just replace the topper as necessary. A lot cheaper and less landfill as well.
BTW: my 32 year old mattress from my first marriage is on the guest bed and still very, very, comfortable – I have used the bed when I was sick but it gets great reviews from guests as well. Of course, it was only used nightly for the first 8 years but was flipped and rotated faithfully during that time.
Great point re: flipping. It seems like yet another way to get us to consume more!
Agreed on the flipping…unfortunately my current mattress is nonflippable and non-rotatable. It’s got a one-sided pillow top & in theory, there are different zones of support for your head, hips, etc. Not sure how it would fare if we were to rotate top to bottom. 🙁
It’s such a huge expenditure to buy a new mattress & box spring. When we get our next mattress set, I’m going to definitely do more research & go with something that we can flip & rotate so we can get more years out of it. If you keep a waterproof mattress cover on it and if it’s a good quality mattress, there’s no reason it can’t last 10+ years.
We flipped our pillowtop – works just fine. I do believe in mattress/dust mite covers – once in college I moved in last to a pre-furnished house. The girls had already set up the mattresses, and failed to mention that mine came out of the garage. And wasn’t covered. Mite central. I still shudder.
I use the following to remind myself when it’s time to take action with the matress:
Flip in the fall. Spin in the spring.
By spin I mean just reverse the head/foot 180 degrees without turning it over.
I have a waterbed, so no mattress flipping here! I just clean it regularly with a vacuam and wipe it over. We’ve had three new ‘bladders’ in 30 years so pretty economical