Question from Brie
Hi Debra,
What a great website – congratulations on all your hard work! My question is this: my husband and I desperately need a new mattress. We have decided (long, long story) that we have to buy a traditional innerspring – so we are trying to buy a floor model, hoping that it will have had time to outgas some of the toxins (wish we didn’t have to go this route, but can’t afford organic, and don’t like the wool ones).
Do you think it is safe to buy a floor model – at least it hasn’t sat in a warehouse, wrapped in heavy plastic. However, what about the possibility of germs from the hundreds of people who’ve tried it out in the store?
Would a plastic cover or barrier cloth help? This entire mattress buying decision is enough to drive you crazy – wish we could just go organic – but cannot at this point.
Thanks for everything!
Brie
Debra’s Answer
I can’t in good conscience advise you to buy a floor model. Yes, it would have outgassed some, but not enough. And who knows how unsanitary it might be.
If you want to put a plastic cover on it, use polyethylene plastic. A barrier cloth cover would help some.
I’d really like to encourage you to find a way to get the money together and get a good mattress. It will save you money in the long run. Some things I’ve done in the past to get money for big-ticket items were to save for it week by week, have a garage sale, ask everyone in my family to contribute money to it for birthday and Christmas instead of giving me another gift.
I’m a firm believer in “where there’s a will, there is a way.”
