I am 42 years old and have never had to shop for my own mattress.  Can you believe that?

When I got married the first time, my Mom and Grandma took me out and said, we’re buying you a mattress … we picked one out and brought it home and it was done.  I don’t even remember laying on them to try them all out.  Poof … it was just there.

Ron and I did them math and it was 17+ years ago that the mattress we were sleeping on was purchased.  No wonder my joints hurt when we were sleeping … there was nothing left to the springs. It felt like we were sleeping on something like this … :: pointing to photo on the right ::

So we decide this is the year for us to bite the bullet and pick out a new mattress.  OMG what a pain in the ass THAT is.  I had NO clue!

We started at the big box companies (Ortho Matress and Sit and Sleep) because their commercials told us that after 8 our mattress should be replaced because of the dust mites.  At 17+ years old, I’m sure that our dust mites needed a cane so they probably were not as scary anymore – haha.  We tried every bed that they hadl … we did the computerized test to see what you were supposed to be sleeping on, we were tired just from laying on all those beds.  Oh and the price tag – YIKES.

So I come home and do what I do best … research.  I looked up reviews on every single mattress and every one of them had some kind of negative feed back on them – they sagged quickly, they were not comfortable, the manufacturer didn’t stand behind the product, etc.  I then expanded my research to include “how to select a mattress” because I figured that surely I was missing something.  That is when we came up with an article that suggested buying direct from a smaller local manufacturer that you could actually go tour to see how they were really making your bed because some big box companies throw all kinds of left over foam into your mattress in order to save cash.  They also do the single sided thing for the same reason now … all about the almighty dollar and not our comfort … figures.

The first manufacturer I found was in Ontario, CA … then the next I found was Custom Comfort Mattresses in Orange County.  I went to both websites and was impressed with the Custom Comfort Mattress because they offered tours … and then I watched a video on their site that explained that they made mattresses like they did 20 years ago … but better.  They don’t make them single sided … they are double sided so that you can still flip them and get more life from such an expensive purchase.

The kicker was that I also did the same research that I did on all the other mattresses and what was a little weird was that I didn’t come up with anything negative. I dug some more and the only thing I saw was something about a lawsuit against the brother to separate stores … families in business have issues … I’m ok with that – it’s their deal.

So Ron and I decided to make a little stop on the way back from San Diego.  If there was something we liked, we figured we’d go to the one that is going to be opening in Pasadena next month.  We got to see samples of a lot of the beds that we were trying out from the big box stores and let me say … holy foam scraps bat man!  Literally … that’s what it looks like in there.

We explained how far we lived away and that we were ok with waiting until the Pasadena, CA store opened and they said, no problem they were not charging us for a delivery fee and they also would take our old bed away!  BONUS!!

We ended up getting a mattress that is double sided with a double sided pillow top and the pillow top is detachable so we can flip that more often and we could even replace just that if we needed to for some reason.  I also dug the fact that this mattress isn’t using foam like the others out there … they use latex and it helps keep the bed a little cooler – ANOTHER BONUS!!

They delivered it a few weeks ago and OMG … I never knew how much of a difference it would make in my sleeping.  The first few nights I figured it was just the newness and maybe I was making more of it than it was, but honestly,  I actually sleep through the night on most nights now.  Oh … but there is one thing that we didn’t count on … it’s MUCH higher than our old bed (it seriously comes up to my waist now) … like so high that I have to jump and roll into the bed each night and THAT makes me giggle like a little girl each time.

So for those of you out there that are in the frame of mind to start shopping for a mattress, before you just jump at a name brand because you recognize it (or your Grandma says it’s good), I suggest you do what we did and find a smaller manufacturer in your area, go look at their facility, ask a bunch of questions and see how the bed you will spend 3/4 of your time in is made.  THEN once you have done ALL that, lay on each one and find the one that your body likes best.  It will save you lots of grief down the road.

You can thank me and my “mad research skills” later .