Moving a Mattress Without Ruining It

A mattress is frequently the most expensive single item in a bedroom, and it is handled with less care than a bookcase. It is also the one item where damage is not repairable.

Just-In-Time Moving works throughout Washington and Washington County.

Do not fold or bend it

The important one. Modern mattresses, particularly memory foam, latex and pocket-sprung, are not designed to bend.

Folding a pocket-sprung mattress damages the springs and their pockets. Bending foam creases it permanently. Both are done routinely to get a mattress round a tight turn, and both end its useful life.

The exception is a mattress supplied compressed in a box, which was designed for that once and generally should not be re-compressed at home.

If it will not go round a corner flat, the answer is to remove a door rather than to fold it.

Bag it, properly

Use a proper mattress bag rather than sheets or a tarpaulin.

The reasons are practical: a mattress carried through a doorway picks up marks from every frame it touches, and once dirt is in the ticking it does not come out. Fabric also picks up moisture from wet ground or a damp truck.

Tape the bag closed rather than leaving it open at one end.

Do not store it long-term sealed in plastic without ensuring it is completely dry, since trapped moisture is worse than dust.

How it should travel

Flat where there is room, which is best. On edge if there is not, but supported along its length rather than left to sag or bow.

Nothing stacked on top of it, and nothing sharp beside it. A mattress makes a tempting surface for boxes and it should not be one.

Never on a roof rack, which people do and which ends badly for the mattress, the vehicle and occasionally other road users.

Handle the frame separately

Dismantle the bed rather than trying to move it assembled. It is faster, it is safer, and it is the difference between a piece that fits through a door and one that does not.

Bag the fittings and tape them to the frame, not into a box of hardware.

The honest question

If your mattress is close to the end of its life, do not pay to move it a long distance. It is heavy, it takes real space, and freight on an old mattress approaches what a replacement costs.

Note also that charities will not take used mattresses, so a discarded one is a disposal job.

Call (435) 862-3080 or email office@movingjustintime.com.