New Home
I moved in with Nate B from i3Detroit. To my surprise, I'm right across the street from my friend and former Penguicon Head of Programming Bill K. This house has a lot of empty space for tables and chairs, and is in a great location. I think it's going to work out well.
The current conundrum is how to solve my bed problem. My bed is just a queen box-spring and mattress. These are the only two items I own that I can't fit in my car. I move too often to be so dependent on other vehicles, so I want to just give away or trade the box-spring and mattress.
I'm sleeping on the guest bed for the time being. But it's a single. A bed of this size does not fit into my plans.
What could I fold or break down into small enough pieces to transport in my car, yet be large enough when assembled? At first I thought a futon pad. Would a queen futon pad fit in my car when rolled up?
Then it hit me. Inflatable! Are there inflatable beds durable enough to keep inflated around the clock indefinitely, and use every night?
Comments
jodybrai on Nov. 9, 2011 6:31 AM
Speaking from long experience on the road using several types of bed:
No air mattress will stay inflated indefinitely, even the stupid expensive ones. Unless you feel like regular patching, stay away. Air mattresses also don't hold heat worth a damn, so you'd have to spend more money on extra padding, and probably a heated blanket.
Go to Ikea and ask for a foam mattress of the firmness of your choice. They come rolled up, and, with judicious use of ratcheting tie-down straps, will roll back up quite nicely. Just avoid the ones with a "natural fiber core". Not only are they much more expensive, rolling them tends to break the core down.
Ikea also has break-down bedframes of various types. Just wander their bed section and behold the portable splendor.
I've heard of people getting good portable use out of a water bed, since the insert, when empty, folds down pretty small, but I've always been leery of the spill potential, especially given the clawed pets I've always had.
pstscrpt on Nov. 9, 2011 6:51 PM
My grandmother has a waterbed that's water tubes layed side-by-side inside a foam outer shell. I've always thought it's missing some of the basic waterbed charm, but it's probably harder to break, and it doesn't need a heater.
autopope on Nov. 9, 2011 8:25 AM
Are there no "man with a van" dudes in your town who charge by the hour?
Cost of 1-2 hours' work every couple of years to move a bed is much less than cost of a new bed every 1-2 years.
Also (per Bruce Sterling), if you're going minimal and re-prioritising your life, your bed should be right at the top of your list -- it's the only piece of furniture that you spend a third of your life on!
matt-arnold on Nov. 9, 2011 12:19 PM
Thank you for commenting!
I move most years. Some years I move more than once. I don't make much income, when I make any. This isn't re-prioritization; my life is always simplified and debt-free (other than recent educational debt). Most of my adult life, I've rented rooms in the homes of friends and paid about $250 per month.
That's the base figure that this moving service charges to make one trip. What I have done instead is convince a friend or family member to lend me their pickup truck.
I sleep perfectly well in a sleeping bag on the floor, and often do. Let's just say the quality of my bed is not intended for me, and sleeping is not its most important use.
I suppose if I were to spring for a high-quality bed, I might even buy a bed frame to put it in. But it would need to fold up very small. I'll think about it. I appreciate your thoughts.
A friend at the hacker space was telling me last night about East Berlin, and how, similarly to Detroit, it has a much lower population than it was built for. My friend has heard tales of setting up artist communes and things like that in East Berlin for amazingly cheap because the property is worth nothing. I wonder if some sort of budget co-housing is possible in Detroit?
amanda_lodden on Nov. 9, 2011 9:08 PM
sleeping is not its most important use
Then let me say from experience that air beds are awkward for other important uses. Not generally enough resistance in all the right places, but some in the wrong ones.
blue-duck on Nov. 10, 2011 9:22 AM
I suspect that cheap co housing already exists among the artist population. My brother who now lives in an artist coop in Oakland, ca, talked about living in Detroit in this way for awhile. I just wouldn't know where to find it.
matt-arnold on Nov. 10, 2011 12:00 PM
It surprises me that I haven't found it already.
skintwospud on Nov. 11, 2011 12:43 AM
Oh. This is important.
No airbeds. Just.. no. For various reasons mostly related to physics and heat transfer and motion damping and... etc.
Futon: YES. But a good futon, with a good allergy/bug proof cover. Those things can get a nasty. A good futon isn't super cheap.
Ikea: This is an option, but definitely try it first and expect to let it do a lot of outgassing with windows open for some time.
(As a novel aside: I myself have a low-voltage, DC current bed heater. It's not bad for you like the RF kind is (actually bad, not tin-foil-on-head-I-get-headaches-from-wifi-bad), and you can keep the room at, like, 50 degrees. It's sort of marvelous but costs something like 120 bucks. But it pays for itself eventually, and not just in awesomeness.)
People such as myself who really like super firm beds are luckier, as a futon directly on the floor or ikea bed directly on the floor work quite well. Those who like those poofy, smooooshy beds are more out of luck.
Bedframes are overrated. And noisy. However, a loft, while horrifying at times, is great for opening up space. I used to have one for quite some time in grad school in the lean years. Lean in terms of money (and lean in terms of other things not happening, either.) They do sort of suck to move, though.
I admire your sparse lifestyle. I'm drowning in *stuff* in comparison..!
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