The European Union Announces the End of Visa-Free Travel Strange Brew: 22 Over-the-Top Cocktails Worth Trying Once BrewDog Raises $60K in 24 hours for ‘The DogHouse’ Craft Beer Hotel Ski-Mountaineering's Power of Four Race Training, Week 7: Race Recap! Ryan Zinke Gallops into Office, Immediately Pits Conservationists Against Hunters King of the Hill: How Vail Resorts Conquered the Ski Industry You Have to Punch Up to Power: Speaking With 'Samantha Bee' Executive Producer Miles Kahn The Spartan Race Goes Indoors With Its First Gym 72 Hours With the Casper Mattress The pros of a good night's sleep go beyond taming 3 PM yawns. Getting the requisite seven or eight hours a night provides real health benefits: It can help lessen chronic pain, leads to a more productive sex life, and strengthens your immune system, among others. Dedicating that block of time to sleep is important, but so is the mattress — that thing you'll eventually spend a third of your life on.
We tested a king size Casper foam mattress over three days to see if this bed-in-a-box provided the support needed for quality sack time, while making other bedroom activities easier. RELATED: The Bedside Gadget That Improves SleepDay 1: Memory foam mattresses have been popular for years as a way around the inconsistent pressure points of a spring bed. We've had one before, and early on that foam worked well: less tossing, reduced aches and pains, and better mornings because we slept right through someone else's trip to the bathroom. But it wasn't long before the mattress developed a fissure, or more accurately, a pit under our ass. That lack of support throws the hips out of alignment with the spine, and having to crawl out of a body-shaped abyss in the morning wasn't fun either. We were skeptical when the Casper showed up in a manageable box only slightly bigger than a dorm refrigerator. The entire mattress was compressed in a giant plastic bag — imagine the largest, most powerful food vacuum system ever.
Casper provides a letter opener to slice the plastic away. Once placed over the box springs and freed from its plastic confines, the bed grew like a children's toy. In less than a minute, it was wrinkle-free and with no notable off-gassing smell. Day 2: Instead of using one foam in the mattress, Casper uses three different kinds to deliver a medium-style firmness. The top layer is made from a 1.5-inch thick slab of latex foam, which provides more of a standard mattress-like bounce and support. Casper says it also keeps you cooler, which it turns out, is a bigger deal than we thought. Foam beds have a toasty reputation because your body's weight presses into the foam, creating a snug-fitting mold. That leaves less room for air circulation and more heat buildup and sweating. Because the Casper is firmer, there is less of a defined pocket around you and better airflow. The company claims the latex top layer is 20 times more breathable than most memory foams on the market. Beneath that is an equally thick layer of traditional memory foam, which is slightly less cushiony than traditional foam.
The base layer is made from polyurethane for support. There is certainly more support in this mattress than our older foam, and it took a night to get accustomed to, especially as a side sleeper. We tend to keep sleeping conditions in the room cooler with lightweight blankets, shorts, and by going sockless, so quantifying the breathability of the latex was difficult, though there was more airflow around the body. Day 3: We grew more accustomed to the springiness of the foam and decided to test it with weights. We dropped a 10-pound dumbbell onto the Casper, and it bounced twice. The same weight just sank into our other foam mattress. To test firmness, that same weight sank into the Casper mattress — 1/4-inch less than our other foam mattress. By day three we noticed that, unless your partner makes a terrible ruckus getting out of bed, you should remain undisturbed. And as a final test, sex on the Casper was infinitely more enjoyable and the extra bounce helped in nearly every position.
A huge, cozy couch to read on during a rainy, drizzly day can bring you a significant amount of joy. However, furniture – couches especially – can be some of the most expensive and most overpriced stuff in your home. From bedroom sets to living room sofas to kitchen tables, you can easily spend thousands of dollars on your home furnishings just adding the basics to each room. And with trends constantly evolving, it can be tempting t0 update your decor as time goes by. (And I don’t know if you’ve checked lately, but even throw pillows can get really expensive!) Many people want their homes to look nice but they don’t want to spend thousands of dollars on their furniture or other home furnishings like curtains and vases. Luckily, there are many affordable options when it comes to buying furniture. Not only that, all the stores listed below have quality furniture that have kept customers happy for years. Check big-box stores: Many people know where to find the furniture stores in their town, but often private furniture retailers and mattress companies are incredibly expensive.
Instead, consider going to big-box stores like Target, Costco, and Wal-Mart. These stores carry your typical household items like brooms, paint, and even groceries, but they also have an incredible array of furniture from headboards and tables all the way to custom storage solutions. Ask friends and family: Search reviews on Yelp: You can use user-review site Yelp to read reviews on a variety of businesses, including furniture stores in your area. Not only will this help you to discover smaller (and possibly cheap) furniture stores that might not come up in an Internet search, you’ll also be able to tap into the knowledge and experiences of other customers – so you know whether it’s worth your time to actually check out a given store. Don’t rule out thrift stores: Well-made, wooden furniture can last for decades or even centuries – and if you’ve ever seen Antiques Roadshow, you know that a good piece can actually grow more valuable over time. Take care when buying upholstered pieces used (or anything that can harbor mites or bed bugs), but check yard sales and thrift stores for affordable or downright cheap dining room tables, dressers, end tables, chairs, bookcases, storage chests, benches, and other items.
Below are several affordable furniture stores that get positive reviews and have a history of satisfying customers with great prices. Depending on where you live, some names will sound familiar, but others may be new to you. Location: 45 states & Puerto Rico Not every single state has a HomeGoods, but they all should. HomeGoods is owned by TJX, the same company that owns T.J. Maxx and Marshalls. Similar to those stores, HomeGoods offers several quality and luxury items at majorly discounted prices. If you’re in the market for organizing products to go in your home or pieces of furniture that double as organizers, HomeGoods is great about that too. They have tons of different throw pillows, tasteful furniture, and even rugs. I personally bought a nice wool rug from HomeGoods a few years ago for under $200. It’s impossible to compile a list of affordable furniture stores and not include IKEA. The Swedish home store has long been known as an affordable-but-on-trend option for people on a budget.
In fact, 75% of the furniture in my house is from IKEA. While many people talk about moving on from IKEA and buying more “grown-up” furniture, I think IKEA is the perfect option for a growing family — partly because kids are so adept at destroying furniture. You can get everything under the sun at IKEA, from living room furniture to bedroom sets to kitchen cabinets, as well as lots of discount decor items. There’s an entire cottage industry around hacking IKEA furniture to make it more luxurious or unique, and most stores have an area where they sell floor models and scratch-and-dent items at an even better discount. You never know what treasure you might find! Target, which often partners with designers to create incredibly attractive furniture at affordable prices, is a favorite big-box store among the frugal-but-fashionable set. I’ve owned a number of bookshelves from Target and my children’s nursery is decorated with Target items. The best part about buying furniture at Target is that they have such a large selection of furniture on sale, too.
Online, just use the drop-down menu to select furniture and then select furniture deals to see all the current pieces on sale. is that so many of their products have reviews from customers — this is especially important when it comes to buying furniture online. After all, you can’t sit on it or feel the fabric yourself, so it’s hard to know exactly what you’re buying. These reviews allow you to see how other people feel about the products you’re interested in. I personally bought a dining room table off of Overstock, and I’ve had it for almost two years now. I’m really happy with the quality and craftsmanship, and I’d buy another table from them in a heartbeat. Overstock also has free shipping for orders over $50, and shipping for orders under $50 costs just $2.95 — yep, even for furniture. You can’t beat that. If you’re worried about returns after buying furniture at an online store, be sure to check the return policy for each item you want you buy and contact Overstock if you have any questions.
is another online-only home goods store, but with a touch more worldly whimsy than Overstock. Items are deeply discounted and largely on trend — in fact, Wayfair partners with big names in home and design, from This Old House to Ellen. And once again, scoping user reviews can steer you in the right direction, helping you choose between hits and misses. Location: Southern and Northeastern United States On a recent trip home to Baton Rouge, I stumbled into this store called Nadeau, drawn in by the colorful furniture in the window. I was surprised to see so many affordable and gorgeous pieces of furniture and excited to learn that they have a store near me in New York City (and several other cities across the U.S.) The prices do vary by location and seem to be more inexpensive in the South. Ultimately, the furniture here is cheaper than at Pottery Barn, more expensive than at Target, but really unique and interesting. I loved it, and I’m sure you will too. has 1,400 stores nationwide.
They’re a closeout retailer, which means they resell items that other stores weren’t able to get off the shelf. In addition to having an array of household goods, they also sell furniture. If you love a good deal, I encourage you to check out their furniture clearance section on their website, which shows current deals on a variety of items from lamps to larger pieces of furniture. The deals constantly change, so keep checking back. Bob’s Discount Furniture is a chain of furniture stores clustered mostly in the Northeastern United States. The best part of the Bob’s website is actually their outlet section. Check this section regularly to find sofas and other pieces at significant discounts. While I’ve never purchased furniture from Bob directly, I have many friends here in the New York area who have with no complaints. Furniture, at the end of the day, is just stuff. It’s great to have beautiful furniture and a nice home, but it’s okay if your furniture is mismatched or not catalog-perfect — especially while you’re young or have little kids.
I personally am so glad I bought my couch off of Craigslist, because my kids have spilled tons of things on it in the two years they’ve been alive. I probably won’t purchase an expensive sofa for a very long time, if ever. Also, remember that furniture is marked up significantly, even at more affordable stores, so it’s often worthwhile to wait for holidays or sales to try to get the best prices. Buy floor models whenever possible and try to save on shipping or delivery costs by picking it up yourself. Lastly, the best tip I have for you is to be patient. You don’t have to fill up your home with furniture all in one shot. It’s okay to add to your home slowly over time, picking up a side table here or an additional bookshelf there. Add art and trinkets as you travel and experience life. Don’t feel like your home has to look like a magazine photo right now. This, above all else, will help you to let your home and your style evolve over time without breaking the bank.