When we got married, Bob's parents bought us a bed. The guy in the shop told us to turn/rotate the mattress every three months to ensure even wear. I diligently marked each corner, top and bottom. Thus in the corner under Bobs pillow, it would say Jan 1st/ Apr 1st/ July 1st/ Dec 1st depending on which season we were in. We kept the bed, but changed the mattress a few times. The bedframe had four built in underbed drawers. So useful when we lived in tiny flats.
Then Bob got sleep apnoea. We got a new bed and a new mattress. Now we had one with a definite top and bottom, so it's turned round, but not over - every six months. Last week we did the July turn. This is an IKEA Malm bed, and matches our bedroom cupboards [as does the one in the back bedroom] IKEA are about to phase out the Malm range. Look out for bargains on FB Marketplace!
A few years back, IKEA had an ad campaign for its beds "Where family starts" claiming that German researchers had discovered than 10% of European babies were conceived on IKEA beds. They had a photographic family tree including bed pictures. [The other Europeans were presumably conceived "out of bedlock"]
It is always slightly embarrassing to see how much dust collects under my bed despite my 'swiffering'. There are a few things which live there
- the extension cable for plugging in bedside light, phone charger etc
- A small zip underbed bag where I keep our summer sandals and beach shoes over the winter.
- The big pack of spare kitchen tiles, because when the boiler dies, probably soon, I will need to fill the gap. And these tiles are big and need to be stored flat
- A small box of emergency foodstuffs. A hangover from the days of my Brexit box, I check this and use/swap stuff that is going out of date every so often. Rosie recently asked me "Grandma, why do you keep snacks under the bed?" I pointed out that a can of red kidney beans doesn't really count as a midnight snack!
At the moment I use the duvet cover as a loose top sheet. Even in hot weather, I like to have something over me when I sleep] My preferred heatwave pjs - an ancient "Friends" t-shirt, and M&S men's boxer shorts.[3-pack, for £10 in 2023] Confession; some of these hot mornings recently, I get to lunchtime and I'm still slumming around the house in these!
Our spare room bed was bought 2 years ago from IKEA but it’s just a double size, The bed linen came from M and S sale. Lots of my fabric is in storage boxes under the bed and it’s easily retrieved when needed. At the moment we are using the 1 tog duvet on our bed as I cannot sleep without a cover in case the monsters get me! The duvet I took off is lying on the spare bed in case it turns colder. I have managed to hurt my back this week so discomfort from that is adding to lack of sleep from the heat. Catriona
ReplyDeleteMy sympathies about your back. Sleeping in this heat is hard. I was kept awake last night by an insect bite on my ankle which was incredibly itchy.
ReplyDeleteMy friend, Josie, described dust bunnies as 'half a dead man' as in "There's half a dead man behind my radiator". I can't sleep with my legs uncovered, on hot nights I use a very large, very thin scarf as a top sheet. Even though we've had some oppressively hot days the nights have been quite bearable.
ReplyDeleteI don't like the idea of HALF a dead man!
DeleteSorry about the itchy bite - only one! I seem to have my own personal instant swarm of biting bugs every time I venture out, in spite of citronella drops on hems of clothes.
ReplyDeleteBites are a summer hazard. I always react badly, despite a daily antihistamine tablet
DeleteHow funny!
ReplyDelete😉
DeleteA top sheet is traditional here. That's all I use now for a cover, as it's very hot here also. I have air conditioning, but it bothers my sinuses so I keep it set quite high temperature to take the edge off the heat and run the ceiling fan at night.
ReplyDeleteFollowing reading your blog I thought I would push our bed out from the wall and give it a quick hoover before the removal people come in a few weeks. No treasures or dead people were found. 😉
ReplyDeletePauline W
Our first bed was a wedding gift from Alec's grandparents. They gave us £50 (a lot of money in 1974) and we put £2.50 to it. It was bought in the January sales and had been greatly reduced. I'm itching madly as been bitten twice on my arm. Xx
ReplyDeleteWe have a variety of under-the-bed storage in all our bedrooms, French and English, mostly containing changes of bedding and seasonal duvets. When I was very first married his parents gave us a duvet for a wedding present which was pretty radical in 1972. I had no idea what to do with it! Luckily his sister coughed up a small fortune to buy us a cover for it, which was in orange seersucker material tied with tapes at the bottom. Orange was very much the colour of the 1970’s!
ReplyDelete