My First Mattress Buying Experience (Friday Five Edition)

I have a confession.  I've had the same bed that I slept in when I was in high school.  I know you are thinking, oh that's just a few years ago, but no, it was quite a bit more then a few years ago.  The reason I had not needed a new one since then is that it was a waterbed.
 

I was born in the 1970's when waterbeds were popular.  My parents had one.  And my parents bought me my first one when I had grown out of my crib.  Basically I have been sleeping in one my whole life.

Waterbeds do start to sag like normal mattresses because of evaporation.  But unlike normal mattresses, which you need to replace, I just need to add water every so often.  Over the last year I had noticed that while there was no actual holes, water was being lost quicker than the normal evaporation.   I knew it was time to do something about it.

I did look into another waterbed bladder to just replace mine, but there are just a few online retailers and each site looked a little like the other and just felt a little bit scammy.  I then decided to go the traditional route.  And man are there a lot of choices out there and with no true experience on a mattress I had no idea where to start.

A couple years ago, a friend told me about a time where she went to a mattress store and she lay on this bed and it measures how firm of a mattress best works for her.  I did some digging and found a local store that had that.  I went there and he said that I was right in the middle of firmness.  I lay on a few mattresses, but honestly, after the third one I couldn't tell what I liked and what I didn't.

I then did some research online as well as with Consumer Reports.  It turns out that there is this huge market for mattresses in a box.  Basically you buy a bed without trying it and get 90+ days to evaluate it.  And if it's not to your liking, they will take it back for free.  I was very uneasy about not being able to try a bed out, but I didn't rule these companies out.

The more research I did, the more I came to realize, that I probably will go the mattress in a box route.  This is so not like me, as I had to test drive my top two choices of the car I bought a couple years ago 3 times before I decided it.  After all my Googling and reading about mattresses, my choice was down to the Avocado Green Mattress and the Purple Mattress.  The Avocado Green Mattress was the highest rated mattress in Consumer reports for my sleep position and it is the most Eco friendly mattress out there.  The Purple Mattress was also highly rated in Consumer Reports, but it also had the best ad ever.  OK, the ad really wasn't a deciding factor, but you should watch anyway.  What I did add to the pro list of the Purple Mattress was the fact that I saw a few different reviews on different sites stating that those that went from a waterbed to a mattress had the best success with the Purple Mattress.  And the nice thing about both of these mattresses, was that they just needed a flat service.  Not box springs or anything.  This would save me money as I could use my current frame.

My final decision was the Purple Mattress.  I ordered my mattress and set up delivery.  On the day it was supposed to arrive, I went to empty my bed and realized that was going to be the hard part.  The best way to do it is to hook up a hose and put the hose out the window and use gravity to get the water out.  Well my screens are nailed shut because they would pop off very easily.  That means that when I had my windows open and a cat decided to lay in the windowsill, they fell out the window.  True story.

I put the hose in my bathtub but there was virtually no gravity and the water was drizzling out.  So I called and rescheduled my delivery.  I then headed to Lowe's and bought the cheapest wet vac that they had.

The next deliver date I was given was for in the morning of the day after Christmas.  After getting home from my parents kinda late on Christmas, I decided I was going to get up early and empty the bed.  I knew it would take a couple of hours to do it with the wet vac, but OMG that was the hardest couple of hours I spent.

I connected the wet vac, turned it on and let it fill up, then rolled it to the tub and dumped it out.  I did that probably 50 times.  My back hurt from all the bending over.  Brianna didn't seem to mind the noise of the wet vac and was happy to stay on the bed.

I barely finished up emptying the bed when the delivery guys came.  I then understood why they only offered white glove delivery (for free) - the mattress weighed a ton.  It came rolled up and the guys had a time trying to unwrap it from the plastic.

The moment that they had it lose, the mattress looked like it was inflating and soon it was a normal mattress size.  They put it on my bed frame and I had a new bed.

The first night I slept on it, it was FREEZING.  I knew it had some cooling ways too it, but OMG it was miserable.  By the second night it was fine, it was just that cold because it was sitting in a very cold warehouse somewhere.

The first week, I did feel pain in different parts of my body.  I almost cried cause I knew I couldn't sleep on something like that and the thought of trying again was not something I wanted to research.  I then read on their site that it could take a couple of weeks for your body to adjust to it.  So I gave it some more time.

Now I love the mattress.  The firmness works perfect for me and the purple grid is a good cushion.  And no, you really do not feel the actual grid, it just meshes with your pressure points.

I'm linking up with Fridays with Fairytales and Fitness and other healthy lifestyle bloggers.