“People buy shoes online even though you can’t try them on… a mattress is no different, right?” Faced with buying a new mattress two years ago, I uttered these words to Mrs. Frugalwoods and then embarked on a frugal slumber experiment. My goal was to see if my wife and I could buy a mattress online, save tons of money, and still get a great night’s sleep. Let’s start at the beginning. Mrs. Frugalwoods is what we would lovingly call an “active sleeper.” She is a tiny woman with powerful kicking legs. Must be all that yoga. We had a double bed for the first several years of our marriage and I have the scars to prove it! So when we moved back to the Northeast a few years ago, getting a bed large enough to provide Mrs. Frugalwoods with room to roam and myself to sleep without being pummeled was on the top of my list. And holy mother-of-pillowtop are king sized mattresses expensive! This low-end tempurpedic is $2,400! Our car isn’t worth $2,400! The Mrs. and I saw those prices and were not impressed.
It also quickly became apparent that mattresses are extremely profitable and sold in a manner similar to used cars. I do not need a salesperson to assist me, thank you very much. But we really needed a mattress. So we made a list of our snoozing requirements and asked the internet. anyway (gloves for hound teeth brushing, for example) so it was a natural place to start looking. Turns out, they have an entire mattress section. After reading through a bunch of the firm mattress reviews, we settled on the LUCID 8″ Memory Foam Mattress. It checked all the boxes and 2 years ago was only $279 for the king size. Plus, and this is the really crazy part, Prime Shipping! That’s right, Amazon shipped a king sized mattress to our door in a mere 2 days from ordering it, FOR FREE. When it arrived, we warily eyeballed the heavy, awkward, long tube that the mattresses was vacuum packed into. The box was plastered with warnings to put the box in the room where you want the mattress before opening it and releasing the tightly coiled foam.
We carefully put the box in the bedroom and then slit the straining plastic holding back the surging foam mattress. As dramatic as it sounds (and as we had imagined it), in reality the foam just slowly unrolled itself and started gaining the shape of a mattress. Did it smell a little “new car-ish” (for lack of a better term)? Yes, but it wasn’t overwhelming. The box suggested leaving the windows open for a few hours while the foam attained its shape. We opened the box when we got home from work and by the time we were ready to go to bed, the smell was no longer noticeable. So how does a $279 mattress from the internet feel? I actually remember chuckling as I lay down for the first time. We picked the 8″ version specifically because it was the firmest (they also make 10″ and 12″ which are softer) and wow does it deliver. Firm but comfy and extremely supportive of our backs. Two years later, internet mattress is still firm and supportive! Since this mattress has foam layered in a specific order, you can’t flip it but you can rotate it.
We do that every 6 months to try and keep the wear level the same. So far I haven’t noticed any significant settling of the foam. One of the things I was most concerned about was how it would feel during the summer. I’d heard from some people that memory foam can hold the heat next to your body. In practice we haven’t noticed any additional heat. In short, it’s been a great mattress and we expect to get many more years of good sleep on it! Over the past two years, I’ve evangelized buying a mattress from Amazon to coworkers and friends, several of whom have bought the same or similar mattresses. So far no complaints! Take a look at the Amazon mattress section, in particular the Lucid foam mattress, and keep it in mind the next time you’re in the market for a bed. Have you purchased a mattress online? Ever thought about it? Think it’s the weirdest thing ever? Let me have it! Note: I bought the mattress with my own money. No one paid me to do this review, I just think it’s a pretty awesome way to save money. T
he links to the mattress are affiliate links, which means if you also score a deal on a great mattress, Amazon will pay the Frugalwoods Family a small percentage of the sale. Frugal Hound thanks you in advance! Never Miss A Story Sign up to get new Frugalwoods stories in your email inbox.Along with electronics, mattresses are one of the most difficult consumer products to get rid of responsibly—which is why they frequently end up getting illegally dumped in alleyways or left on curbsides. Landfills often charge extra fees to deal with mattresses, which are bulky, don’t compact well, and can cause toxic, flammable air pockets to form in dump sites. Recycling mattresses is also a complicated endeavor, as mattresses are typically composed of a combination of wood, steel, cotton, and polyurethane foam, of which only the steel elements are readily recyclable. So what’s the best way to get rid of a mattress you no longer need or want? Given that mattresses can be so difficult to dispose of effectively, you may want to factor durability into your purchasing decisions.
Some mattresses come with warranties that range up to 20 years. With proper maintenance, it’s not impossible for mattresses to last for decades, which can go a long way toward reducing your household’s overall waste footprint. Need Help Moving a Mattress? Get an Up-front Price.User ReviewedHow to Get Rid of Bed Bugs Organically Four Parts:Clearing the clutterPreventing climbingKilling the bed bugsEnsuring the end of the infestationCommunity Q&A As anyone who has been the victim of bed bug infestation will tell you, getting rid of these little blood-sucking vampires is just as difficult to deal with as the actual thought of these horrific bugs crawling all over your body and in your bed while you sleep at night, sucking your blood out for their own sustenance. This guide will tell you how to get rid of these monsters in a simple, cheap, non-toxic, and effective manner that won't involve several bug bombings of the furniture closest to your body. This is also a great method for people who cannot afford to just toss out their mattress and buy a new one;
and even if you do that, you would still want to do everything on this list as that will more than likely not be the only hiding place for these wretched hell-spawn Organize any clutter or mess in your home as well as you possibly can. It is always easier to isolate the problem and work in a clean environment. And don't assume that just because your house is clean/dirty, that is the reason you have an infestation. Bed bugs are an epidemic, and they prefer any environment that houses a warm, living body for them to feed on, including your pets. Your personal cleanliness has nothing to do with it. Bed bugs do like to hide in piles of laundry and (surprise) your bed, bed-skirt, and box spring. They will make it into couch cushions and blankets, and whatever else they can. More often than not, though, they are coming in through a hole, opening, or crack somewhere. Wash any and all exposed clothing, bedding, cushions, fabric, etc. in as hot water as the fabric can stand, and use bleach if possible on anything that you can.
A color-safe bleach would be perfect for this purpose. Vacuum and mop the carpets and floors. Use bleach on the floor first and then use the water/alcohol solution to spray and mop it down after. Wipe down any surfaces that can handle the water/alcohol solution without suffering any damage as a result. If possible, bag up anything you cannot wash with an airtight seal and put it outside (if you live somewhere that temperatures are freezing, somewhere in the snow, or if not, put it somewhere that may expose them to heat but will not damage the bag or the item you have inside it; you are trying to cut off their air supply and kill them with extreme temperature). When in doubt, throw it out (if you have the means to do so). If there's anything else not mentioned yet, just clean it at the very least with very hot water or freezing. Isolate your bed from the wall. That is, move it away from the wall(s) so that there is no direct contact between your bed and said wall(s) (and therefore, no longer an easy route to your sweet, succulent blood).
Cover the bed in the mattress cover (if you have one), and if your bed is on a frame or raised from the ground in some other fashion and can handle petroleum jelly on its surface, cover the legs of your frame with the petroleum jelly; these insects cannot fly and, therefore, must crawl to whatever height they reach. If there's a good bit of jelly on there, they'll get stuck and you can just wipe them off and reapply as needed. For more tips, see How to Avoid Insect Bites While Sleeping. Make sure to keep your bed at least 1–2 feet (0.3–0.6 m) away from everything, including the wall, nightstand, books, etc. Your bed should be surrounded by space only. "Climb Up Insect Interceptor Cups" can be placed beneath beds that have four legs. The cups have two rings inside; the bug climbs into the outer ring, which is coated in a fine dust (don't inhale it) and becomes stuck there permanently, unable to grip on to the slippery sides to climb into the second ring where the leg of your bed is standing.
Make sure the leg of the bed is high enough off the ground so that bed bugs can't reach. Make sure no bed sheet or comforter ever touches the floor or you will still get bitten and have to wash everything all over again. Make sure you never put something that was sitting on the floor on the bed if you don't want to wash everything again. Bed bugs can climb up any object, including the ceiling and fall onto your bed. If your infestation is severe they will even fall down from the ceiling. In that case, it's time to call the exterminator. Sprinkle food grade diatomaceous earth into and onto any cracks, holes, openings, or anywhere else that is dry that you feel may be the entry point for the bed bugs invading your home. Apply the alcohol mixture if your skin can handle it before you go to sleep until the infestation clears. Kill any you see on contact and be prepared to deal with blood stains on your bedding, so you may want to change it. In fact, the small blood stains left as a result of rolling over and killing them is often what makes a lot of people realize they have a bed bug infestation in the first place.
One place you may want to look at closely is in the folds of the bed-skirt. The last of them should die off in about a week, possibly two. But it may happen sooner than that; it all depends on the severity of the infestation. Clean everything thoroughly, again! Wash all of your bed sheets, comforters, duvet/pillow covers. Buy bed bug mattress and pillow protectors. Tips for getting rid of bed bugs naturally Put tape around the foot of your bed. ALL the way around. Next you want to put Delta Dust or Moth Balls on the floor of your home. Also, if you are going to bomb, make sure to separate the mattress and box spring by standing them up apart from each other and preferably against a wall. They will really come out then and it will be easy to come in and either kill them by hand or grab some of the alcohol (use a more concentrated version this time) or the direct aerosol bed bug spray and hit them with it. They will crush with very little effort or force, but be careful when squishing them;
they will squirt blood out (and it's probably yours). Calling an exterminator, sleeping with the light on, putting baby oil on after applying alcohol, tying your hair back, saturating bed legs with petroleum jelly or tea tree oil are a few ideas. The best cream or lotion or gel to use against the bites and itch is the Benadryl spray or anything with diphenhydramine as the main anti-itch ingredient. Calamine lotion doesn't work so well but the diphenhydramine works great on contact and will be your best bet in suppressing the itch, and it doesn't leave any pink blotches on your skin! If you must bomb, Hot Shots has a fairly non-toxic bomb that uses primarily diatomaceous earth and only requires you to let it sit for 2 hours before opening the windows and letting it vent for about 15 minutes. Then it is safe to re-enter. It isn't very successful in killing the bugs, but it does bring them out of hiding. It is made with the intention of being used in a bedroom so it is really one of the safer bombs to use period.
Direct sunlight is a good method to get rid of the bugs. On a warm, sunny day, bring all the drawers and items from your closet, sofas, and bed, comforters, pillows, rugs and drapes etc in your back yard, for 4 to 5 hours of direct sunlight. The bugs will leave your stuff and crawl into the grass for shade. This is a lot of handwork but is not as messy as killing bugs. Bed bugs feed at night so it may be easier to hunt for them in the dark with a flashlight. If you can, you may want to try to leave the light on for as long as possible when you go to sleep at night or not turn it off at all; that will sometimes lessen the possibility of being bitten during the night. Bed bugs are one of the hardest infestations to get rid of. It's possible that the infestation you are battling is beyond the scope of your capabilities and it may be best to call an exterminator if it continues despite repeated treatments and offensive attacks. If the bedbugs keep on coming out of the same mattress, throw it out because it's not safe.