The Mattress Report, Part II

In “Part I”:http://www.polytropos.org/archives/000407.html I reported a surprisingly painless shopping experience. And, having given it a couple weeks, I am pleased to report that the mattress itself is not only painless but pretty darn comfortable.

On a Tuesday morning two guys in a delivery van came on up. One carried the mattress and the other the box-spring, single handedly. Having spent quite a bit of time wrestling the old mattress and box spring out of the bed and pushing them against the wall, I don’t know how they _do_ that. I imagine it’s a similar principle to lugging a baby around: sure, they’re pretty heavy, but they’re a lot less heavy when you’re used to it and know exactly the right way to hold ’em.

One awful thing about the mattress business is that manufacturers are actually allowed to sell you a “new” mattress that contains used parts. (That’s why mattress retailers are always perfectly happy to relieve you of your old mattress when they deliver a new one.) By law any such mattress must have a red label on it indicating that it contains used material, so your shadier mattress delivery types will drop off the mattress in its thick plastic wrapping and skeedaddle, leaving you to wrest it out and discover the red tag on your own. These guys weren’t like that, though — they whipped out the boxcutters and de-plasticized the mattress and boxspring in brief, efficient gestures, and then placed them neatly on the bed. No red labels. Then they hauled the old ones out and just like that — poof! — they were gone.

Anyway, two weeks in and the acclimation period is pretty much done. Firmness is good. Suanna and I both sleep better on it. It’s especially nice how comfy it is to sleep on my side on it, which is usually how I end up. The best part is that it’s firm right up to the edge, so even though it’s the same size it ultimately provides a little more sleeping room. We ended up getting a Serta, even though Sealy generally came better-recommended, because the Sertas tended to be firmer and this was the one that just fit. I forget the exact name — “Castle” something-or-other, though that tells you almost nothing because the exact same mattress could go by a completely different name when sold somewhere else. And at a wildly different price, for that matter — just another fun fact about the wild world of mattresses, which I’m happy to be quit of for a decade or so, none the worse for wear.