Lifestyle Choices

Which mattress is best?

Latex foam on a laminated wood base is considered smart among the handwoven set (a disadvantage is that restless sleepers generally hit base). These mattresses are generally 4inches deep and don’t need turning, don’t make fluff, and don’t attract moths or vermin.

Foam plastic mattresses have the same qualities and keep their shape and resilience better than they used to.

Interior sprung mattresses are made of coiled wire springs, well padded with cotton waste, coiled hair and rubber or plastic foam. Beware of those which are over-sprung: one bed almost threw me out every time I turned over.

Pocketed sprung mattresses — the most expensive — are built to last a lifetime. Each of the hundreds of springs is sewn into a separate pocket, which ensures independent suspension. Everyone moves in bed about four times an hour and man and wife rarely weigh the same. Consequently, unless the mattress has independent suspension the lighter partner often slides downhill. But not on a pocketed sprung mattress.

Flock mattresses are to be avoided if possible. They are made from wool waste or flock, which may quickly become lumpy.

Look for a mattress with a BS (British Standard) label.

How long can you expect a mattress to last? Of course it depends on a lot of variables, such as how much you weigh, how often you lie in bed, and how good it was in the first place, but a rough life expectancy might be as follows :

Flock (considered unsatisfactory by bedding experts because of a tendency to lump) . . . 6 or 7 years. Latex foam… 15 years.

Spring interior . . . 15 years.

Pocket spring … 20 years.

Bed dress

Pillows: Down is soft and light and expensive. Feathers are heavier and cheaper. Foam is less yielding, more springy, doesn’t last as long as down or feathers, can make your neck feel tense and I can’t stand it. Comparative shopping is essential with pillows because there are amazing price variations. British Home Stores give good value. Buy at sale time.

Towels: White towels get dirtiest fastest and most publicly. Black towels look sordid. Cigar brown, French blue or olive green towels are a splendid idea for a family with young children.

Buying bed clothes: When buying sheets or blankets, a generous allowance is the width plus 18 inches to tuck in on all sides.

.Sheets: Having impulsively and creatively bought patterned bed linen over the years, I gloomily admit that the glamorous, glossy magazine, bed image which I originally had in mind has been shattered. If you scorch a pillowslip here and lose a sheet there, you end up with one rosebud strewn pillow, one scattered with teddy bears, a multi-striped top sheet and a brilliant blue undersheet. If you want to simplify life, buy only white bed linen, which always looks crispest, is easier to launder if badly stained and is cheaper anyway. Cheap sheets can be full of filling which makes them feel less thin but which comes out with the first wash. Look closely at your sheets and ensure a tight, firm weave. Crunch a corner between your fingers, you can then see if there seems to be a lot of starchy filling.

Buying blankets: Warmest and lightest are fine Merino wool, then pure wool, then Acrilan, which is moth-proof, easy to wash, quick to dry and will not shrink or ‘ felt’, that is, get thick and stiff. Some synthetics can feel funny — it’s difficult to describe, but a bit as if they’d been made from sticky candy floss and not nearly so cuddly as wool. Wool and rayon blankets are less warm and don’t wear as well as most all-synthetics but they feel better. Wool and cotton blankets are generally cheapest and hard-wearing, but heavy and not so warm as all-wool blankets. Buy at sale time. Comparative shopping essential.

Below is a guide showing metric bed sizes and the correct sheet and blanket size for each. Any larger bed or (ugh) round bed requires special sheet and blanket sizes which are (comparatively) fantastically expensive, and as they’re generally specially made they generally take months to arrive.

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)
TO BUY OR NOT TO BUY (Household Gadgets) part 3

• TO BUY OR NOT TO BUY (Household Gadgets) part 2
• TO BUY OR NOT TO BUY (Household Gadgets) part 4
• Watch How You Go
• Lovely Fragrance and Floral Perfume
• Ten Bathing Tips, Luxury of Relaxing in a Bath
• Scents Sense continue...
• Hydrotherapy and Bathing
• Essential Aroma Bath oils Tips
• The Beauty of Bathing
• Herbs for Beauty and Health Part 3