The moral of the story: always inspect both sides of the used mattress you're going to buy before making the final purchase.
Owing to circumstances not of my choosing, I had to move to a new apartment over the summer. And on moving day, I finally got a look at what was on the backside of the mattress I'd been sleeping on for the past 11 months. And what I saw there wasn't pretty.
Having lived in dorms through grad school, I found nothing inherently bad about sleeping on used mattresses. So when the owner of the apartment I was moving to last year offered to sell me hers, it seemed like a no-brainer. A queen-sized mattress was an upgrade from the dorm-sized "twin extra longs" I was used to, and I didn't want to deal with purchasing a new mattress and having to arrange for its transport and delivery. Plus, the price seemed right.
To make a long story short: this summer's moving day was the first time that I'd bothered to flip the mattress over, and was therefore the first time that I'd seen that the middle of the mattress was covered with - well - evidence of liquid bodily distress, both red and yellow. A uniquely female moment appears to have taken place on the mattress, with everything let loose.
The discovery itself was distressing, but it was followed by the minor shame of having to transport the filthy witness from one apartment to the other. I'd hired movers to help with the task, and can only imagine what their speculations were after they carried the mattress into the new apartment (a fourth floor walkup, allowing for plenty of time to look at the thing and draw conclusions).
With the secret of the mattress freshly revealed, I couldn't wait to get rid of the thing. It made me feel unclean. And I could only wonder what other mysteries might be lurking there, beneath the surface.
Eventually, I ordered a new mattress through 1-800-Mattress - their cheapest queen came to just under $300 delivered. If I can, I hope that I'll never have to purchase a used mattress again.
Posted by gminter at October 4, 2004 01:23 PM