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What happens to a mail-order mattress after you return it

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Re: What happens to a mail-order mattress after you return it

#41

Post by deftnerd »

It feels like there might be other possibly uses of old or unwanted foam mattresses. Perhaps they can be cut down to standard sizes for home insulation batting? As insulation between raised garden bed containers and the ground? Insulation between the ground and a fish tank in an aquaponics setup?

While there might be better solutions for all of those things, if these materials are going to end up in the landfill and can be provided for almost no cost, it seems like a waste to not utilize the resource.

Re: What happens to a mail-order mattress after you return it

#42

Post by ghaff »

ska wrote: post #29
leetcrew wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ultimately people prefer not to stop and think about the fact that hotel beds are kinda gross, since there's really no alternative if you want to travel to a place where you don't know anyone. but even if you do acknowledge this, it's not nearly as bad to sleep in a "dirty" bed for a few nights as it would be to own one and use it every night.

I once met someone who always traveled with something a bit like a thin cotton (silk?) full body sleeping bag (like a mummy bag). Idea was you never physically touched the hotel bed. It was apparently expensive. The funny thing to me was the she stayed in high end hotels pretty exclusively who I think you can at least be taking a fairly aggressive kill-it-with-bleach approach to laundry. I wondered if there was a wal…

Sleep sacks can actually be required for hostels. (http://www.reidsguides.com/hostels/sleepsacks.html) I imagine a silk one could be expensive but they're pretty inexpensive for the most part.

That said, as someone who travels a lot, when I look at travelers' catalogs like Magellan at a lot of the safety, germ protection, etc. items, part of me thinks that people who buy all that stuff are probably better off just not traveling.

Re: What happens to a mail-order mattress after you return it

#43

Post by jethro_tell »

PopeDotNinja wrote: post #33
Yhippa wrote: post #24

I bought one of these over a decade ago from Costco. It had a defect in it but I never really pursued returning it. I had no clue how I'd get it out of my house by myself. Use a chainsaw or machete to cut it into blocks and then toss it out the window and then take it to the dump? It was really heavy. Much heavier than normal mattresses. At least it seemed much more flexible to bend around corners.

I once had a loveseat that I couldn't get out of a studio apartment without moving almost everything. Since I was a bit bored at the time, I slowly carved up the entire thing with a Swiss Army knife w/ the saw & scissors extensions. Was actually kind of fun.

I had a friend who moved into an old oddly shaped rental. When we went to move the heavy stuff in, the big front picture window was out for repair and the guys said we could move anything through it while they went to lunch. In the end, we spent an afternoon chopping couches and dressers and such into pieces and hauling it to the dump. Didn't really think that through.

Re: What happens to a mail-order mattress after you return it

#44

Post by wycy »

jacob019 wrote: post #14

Forgive me if this is off-topic. I am currently in the market for a queen size mattress in a box. The last one that I bought on Amazon was perfect, it cost about $300. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07F8NNL8X It is no longer available. Now it seems that you can get a decent one for under $250. Here are some that I found: Ashley: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0777K9RGX Vibe: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074NDQ143 PrimaSleep: h…

I have the AmazonBasics mattress: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07C49ZPQG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b...

It's my guest room mattress but I do sleep in the guest room occasionally, and when I do I sleep better than my normal mattress. That said, the edge support isn't great. Being close to the edge makes it feel almost like you're at a slight slope. Still, no regrets for $250.

Edit: I'm 6ft / 165 lb. It's possible that it would be less supportive for heavier weights.

Re: What happens to a mail-order mattress after you return it

#45

Post by ska »

ghaff wrote: post #42
ska wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I once met someone who always traveled with something a bit like a thin cotton (silk?) full body sleeping bag (like a mummy bag). Idea was you never physically touched the hotel bed. It was apparently expensive. The funny thing to me was the she stayed in high end hotels pretty exclusively who I think you can at least be taking a fairly aggressive kill-it-with-bleach approach to laundry. I wondered if there was a wal…

Sleep sacks can actually be required for hostels. ( http://www.reidsguides.com/hostels/sleepsacks.html ) I imagine a silk one could be expensive but they're pretty inexpensive for the most part. That said, as someone who travels a lot, when I look at travelers' catalogs like Magellan at a lot of the safety, germ protection, etc. items, part of me thinks that people who buy all that stuff are probably better off just…

Makes sense I guess although I've never run into that requirement.

By description the thing she had was much smaller & more form fitting than above link. One of the "selling points" was how small it packed into carry-on, for example.

Re: What happens to a mail-order mattress after you return it

#46

Post by ohazi »

leetcrew wrote: post #12
jrockway wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was happy with the two IKEA mattresses I bought. I have one super-cheap foam one that I used for many years and keep around for guests; guests say they like it more than their mattress at home, and I think it only cost $30 and has lasted going on 15 years at this point. I also had one of their more expensive latex foam mattresses, and that kind of developed a sunken in spot in the middle where I slept on it after ~…

> If you don't like it, at least it was cheap it's actually better than that. you can return it any time in the first year of ownership, provided you kept the receipt.

Provided you can get it into your car. If it came vacuum rolled, the odds of this being the case are low.

Re: What happens to a mail-order mattress after you return it

#47

Post by leetcrew »

ohazi wrote: post #46
leetcrew wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you don't like it, at least it was cheap it's actually better than that. you can return it any time in the first year of ownership, provided you kept the receipt.

Provided you can get it into your car. If it came vacuum rolled, the odds of this being the case are low.

this is probably how they get away with such a generous return policy.

Re: What happens to a mail-order mattress after you return it

#48

Post by nitwit005 »

Reedx wrote: post #25

“In California, a lot of charities can’t accept a used mattress,” So those in need of mattresses don't get them and more likely to go to landfill... regardless of condition. Are used mattresses really that risky? Are charities themselves not able to make a reasonable judgement call on what they accept?

I would assume the issue is partly that there aren't many organizations capable of dealing with it. You need to operate a warehouse for the mattresses, and have some sort of local storefront presence like Goodwill so people can donate and pick them up somewhere.

Re: What happens to a mail-order mattress after you return it

#49

Post by emodendroket »

bsanr wrote: post #30

I'd thought I'd get around the madness of mattress shopping by using just the technique mentioned in the article here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22377160 At least, until I found something I liked. I purchased a Purple 3, thinking that if I loved it, I'd just stick with it. I did love it, but I couldn't justify spending $2k on a twin(!). I returned it, and purchased from another company for ~$700. I didn't…

Casper is losing money in large part because of returns so I'm not so sure!

Re: What happens to a mail-order mattress after you return it

#50

Post by sauwan »

fwip wrote: post #26
Reedx wrote: post #25

“In California, a lot of charities can’t accept a used mattress,” So those in need of mattresses don't get them and more likely to go to landfill... regardless of condition. Are used mattresses really that risky? Are charities themselves not able to make a reasonable judgement call on what they accept?

It's risky for the charity. For instance, if the mattress has bedbugs, it stands a good chance of contaminating everything they've got in storage, requiring them to purge their entire inventory, sanitize, and build up from scratch again.

Can't they set up an offsite hotbox to get rid of the bedbugs before it gets onsite? Surely someone could set up a mobile truck that can come, park, and heat up 15 mattresses for the few hours it takes to kill or drive off the bedbugs, no?
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