Happy Housekeeping: Home And Garden Tips

Since most furniture stores sell mattresses and box springs as sets, you may have just assumed that you’ll need to buy a whole new bed if your mattress wears out. However, purchasing a brand new bed set can be very expensive. If the frame of your bed is still in fairly good shape and you aren’t planning to change the size of your mattress, it might be to your advantage to forgo purchasing a new box spring along with your mattress.

Some things to consider about your current box spring

If your current bed set is over five years old, it’s important to evaluate the box spring thoroughly before deciding whether or not to keep it. Does it still support the mattress evenly or does it sag in places? Have you been able to give it a thorough cleaning recently? Unfortunately, if you’ve been sick or unable to clean the bed properly, it could be harboring a host of nasty pathogens.

As a result, you may experience an increase in allergies and illness. Even though your box spring doesn’t come into direct contact with your body, it’s important to remember that it’s still composed of fabrics that can harbor bacteria. Therefore, if you haven’t been able to properly clean this part of your bed – or if it’s showing serious signs of wear – it may make sense to purchase a new model as part of a set.

Cost factors

Of course, wear and tear should be the most important factor in your decision to purchase a new mattress or mattress and box spring set, but cost can also play a crucial role in your decision. If you need to buy both a mattress and box spring, it’ll be cheaper to buy both as a set. However, if you can get away with just buying a new mattress, you’ll be able to spend much less upgrading your bed set.

How a mattress and box spring work together

Most manufacturers recommend purchasing a mattress and box spring together. Among other things, while they are developing and testing mattresses, they use box spring models of their own manufacture to test them on. As a result, when they optimize each model, it’ll be with these constraints in mind. This is also important to consider when you are testing out a new mattress. In some cases, when you get home and put the mattress on your existing box spring, it may feel completely different.

At first glance, you might think that the box spring for your bed set is less important than the mattress. However, it’s important to realize that the box spring provides support and helps to balance the flexibility of the mattress. Unfortunately, the box spring wears out just like a mattress and can harbor pathogens just as easily as other parts of the bed. Therefore, it’s important to consider these factors – along with your budget – when shopping for a new mattress. You may find that the extra money you spend on a new box spring will be well worth it in the long run.