When Dustin and I got married, we were given several “hand-me-downs” of furniture which we were really grateful for. You know how it goes… you are newly married, just spent all your money on a wedding and honeymoon, so you are now broke (but happily married). At this point in your life, hand-me-downs are always welcome.
We were given a couple of couches, some lamps, a night stand, an end table, a TV stand, a chair, and our bed (mattress and frame) to help furnish our small apartment. The only new furniture item we purchased was our kitchen table.
After a few months of being married, we realized our apartment was just too small for all the furniture that we had. So we gave our neighbors one of our couches (the nicer of the two). A few months later, our couch was really uncomfortable and practically unbearable. So we decided to buy a futon that was on clearance. Boy did we ever feel like we had gone to heaven. So we got rid of the couch that was practically falling apart and was 20 years past it’s expiration date. Now we had two new items of furniture, but we were still broke.
We really wanted to purchase a new bed, but mattresses and frames were really expensive. And, as stated before, we were broke. So we made due.
The bed we were given was a full size. The size that you have to learn to snuggle together in order to fit on the bed. It was brown and orange in color and looked as if it was from the 60’s or 70’s. It had no support and was really falling apart. But we made due. We had placed a piece of plywood between the box springs and the mattress to help hold it together. Later, when that just wasn’t cutting it, we placed 9 regular sized pillows in between the mattress and the box springs to help a little more.
A year later, we moved again. We just spent what we had saved to help get us into a new apartment so we were still broke. At this point, we had two mattress pads in our futon cover, so many nights we would just sleep on the futon because it was more comfortable than our mattress. Other nights, we would drive to Salt Lake and stay in a motel just so we could get a good nights sleep. Finally we decided that we could afford to get a memory foam mattress topper. And once again, we felt like we were in heaven. It wasn’t a new mattress by any means, but it did help us to sleep at night.
A year later we moved again.
The mattress and frame came with us.
Another year passed, and we decided that we could not stand to sleep on this bed for one more day. We were both having back and neck problems and were not getting any sleep at night. So we started the process of bed hunting. We found a beautiful sleigh bed on the day after thanksgiving sale. So we bought it as our Christmas present. It was such a popular model that it was on back order. So we would have to wait until January for it to be delivered. We didn’t care, and bought it anyway, and it was a killer of a deal.
We then spent two weeks shopping for mattresses. This proved to be more difficult and time consuming that we had originally thought it would be. Dustin likes a firm mattress and I like a soft one. So finding something both of us could sleep on was difficult. But we managed. We found one for a great price that we loved. And it was delivered the the next week!
Excitement was in the air. We couldn’t wait. We didn’t care if we had to sleep on just the mattress on the floor, we were excited. We were getting a new mattress!!!
The day that mattress was to be delivered, we took apart the old bed. As we were doing this, I noticed that our old mattress was a Serta brand. And not only that, but it was an anniversary mattress. A 25th Anniversary mattress to be exact. When the delivery guys came, they hauled off our old mattress and gave us our new one. They said that our old mattress was probably one of the oldest they had ever seen. Wait… what? One of the oldest you had ever seen? Really?
This sparked my curiosity. So I Googled Serta. Guess how old our mattress was (according to the 25th anniversary tag on the mattress)? Go on, I’ll let you think about it.
53 years old!!! FIFTY-THREE!!! Can you believe it? No wonder we were in so much pain at night and couldn’t sleep. 53 years is far and beyond the expiration date. Consumer reports says that mattress usually last 8 to 10 years. So ours was…. way way way past expiration.
After going three years on a mattress that is older than my mother, I have learned a very valuable lesson ~
Hand-me-downs are only acceptable when the item still has some useful life to it.
As for our new bed…. I love it. I LOVE IT! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE IT!!!!! I can sleep at night. I wake up refreshed. I don’t toss and turn. I don’t wake up with every single bone in my body cracking. I get my own space and there is plenty of extra. I JUST LOVE IT!!!!
Yesterday, our new frame was delivered and now our set it complete. What do you think?
Thank goodness our room is large enough, because we bought the king size. We realized that this was a big purchase and one that would last us a long time (the frame, not the mattress. That will be gone in 8 to 10 years and replaced with a new one). So we went with the large size.
Even Sophie likes it.
All of our bedding and linens we purchased on the day after thanksgiving sales. So we got some really good deals. I’m really pleased with all of the stuff we got. Now I just need to make some king sized quilts to fit our new bed.
For Christmas my mom gave us new sheets that she had done some embroidery on. I love them. I think they will look fantastic on our new bed.
And that, my friends, is the story of our very old mattress.
Next up… a new couch. It is time to replace the futon and get some grown up furniture.
