Moving! Mattresses in boxes!

When your first week or so sleeping situation looks like the one below, you are thankful to see the one above. Although, by now you also know that we already have a bed frame, so the photo above is an older one. It is also the first of three mattress-in-a-box companies we tried.

The key to all these bed-in-a-box companies is their no fuss 100 day trial with free returns/recycling. If you don't like the mattress in the first 3 months, they get rid of it and give you a full refund. We've done this twice now, it's pretty much exactly how it sounds.


First, we tried Tuft & Needle because it looked like the best value. When that didn't work out, we turned to the Casper Mattress since the reviews hinted that a complaint would get you a free soft foam topper. Both of these mattresses are "revolutionizing the mattress industry" by only having one firmness of mattress, no brick & mortar store, and offering a 100 day risk free trial. It turns out that one-size-fits-all does not hold well for mattresses, or at least not for J and me...but 100 day trials do indeed fit all. We made great use of that policy! So, we eventually found a brick & mortar store called Nest Bedding that offered the same trial & return period, but also offered a handful of mattress lines with 3 levels of firmness and different foam materials. We ended up with a Soft Love Bed. Let's hope this works out. No jinxes!

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Tuft & Needle

The process for most mattress-in-a-box companies is the same. For Tuft & Needle, you visit Sleepopolis for a review of the mattress (coolness of foam mattresses is apparently a thing). You order from their website. 'Just one way to avoid interacting with mattress salespeople and save a little money. The mattress shows up a week later in a small 90lb box. You drag that sucker to your bedroom, pull it out, unwrap it, remove the plastic, and wait for the mattress to inflate.

I liked the Tuft & Needle because it had outstanding reviews, it was a great price, and they have the most boring-looking mattress in the world. Who needs a lovely damask mattress, when you're just going to cover it up? Waste of time and money. However, after 30 nights, it was making both our backs sore. Terribly so. Tuft & Needle's return policy had us giving away the mattress for free to some stranger off craigslist.





'Totally beast-moded this 90+lb mattress into place.

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Casper

We had a bit of an overlap where we had a Tuft & Needle and a Casper mattress, so we wouldn't have to sleep on the floor. The Casper was a little more expensive, but had equally positive reviews some of which hinted that if it was too firm for you, the company would send out a soft foam topper after 30 days. So we figured the Casper was worth a shot. Perhaps the foam topper would fix the overly firm medium-ness of the mattress?

After 30 nights, we ended up needing the soft mattress topper. We had to pay shipping and handling ($20), but it did greatly improve the mattress. It no longer hurt our backs, but we never really looked forward to laying in the bed. If you're going to spend a grand on something, you better hope you love it. 'Was not the case with the Casper, even with the foam topper. Their return policy was pretty simple - they just send 1-800-got-junk to your apartment. Easy peasy. And we even got to keep the mattress topper!

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Nest Bedding - Love Bed

In between the Casper and the Love Bed, I ended up sleeping on the slats+foam topper+down comforter+mattress pad. It was not the greatest, but it did remind me a bit of my Japan times. We'd gone into the Nest Bedding store three times (and the same manager was there all three times!) before finally ordering the Love Bed in soft. While trying it out in store is certainly no guarantee for success (T&N and Casper didn't hurt our backs until several full nights' sleep), we're really hopeful. A couple 30-somethings shouldn't be moaning this much about their aching spines! Besides having a physical store, Nest Bedding carries several different lines of beds, most with different firmnesses, at varying price points, free shipping, and all with the great 100 day return policy like the online bed-in-a-box stores.

The Love Bed also happens to be a bed-in-a-box that gets shipped to your door. Although, the mattress was not folded in half like the others so the box was more unwieldy. And the FedEx delivery guy took one look at our stairs and noped his way out of there. He left the box in a random spot in our complex and I had to get a neighbor to help me carry it up the stairs because J was out of town. Thanks for that experience, FedEx!

Ohhhh, I hope hope hope this bed works out. I'm sick of shopping for new mattresses!!