The "New" Mattress

I hate to admit it but I'm almost as bad as the Island King is about picking up junk off the side of the road. I'm a little more discriminating than he is but people throw away some perfectly good stuff and I have no problem stopping to grab something if I see a potential use for it.


There are two things that I don't ever stop for and those would be couches and mattresses. There is just something gross about grabbing either of those items off the side of the road.


But...


I was standing behind a furniture store the other day and I saw a guy throw a mattress out the back door onto a small pile of broken furniture.


We need a mattress for our shed Tiny House and I decided to walk over and ask him why he was throwing this one away.


He said he had a customer who wanted a bigger bed so when the store delivered a king sized one to his house they hauled off the old one. Then he tells me that he sold this mattress to the guy about 6 months ago and that there's nothing wrong with it but they don't sell used beds so he had to throw it out.


Then he asked if I wanted it.


Hmmm. I'd planned on ordering a “bed bug cover” to put on whatever bed we took to camp so that I didn't have to worry about spiders or bugs invading while I was gone and I realized I could put a cover over this mattress and it wouldn't be like sleeping on a used bed at all.


I told him that I did want it and he offered to carry it up the hill to my truck for me. He jokingly said it would cost me $5 and even if he wasn't joking I was getting a free bed and I wouldn't have to carry it so five bucks sounded good to me.

He carried it up to my truck and when I went to get my wallet he told me he was just kidding about the money. I told him I didn't care – it was worth it for me not to have to carry it myself so I wanted to give him something.

I only had $4 so I gave him that and a cold beer – which made him very happy on a hot Friday afternoon.

And there it is.



Our new bed for Tower Camp and it only cost me four bucks and a beer.


Now I just need the building finished so I have somewhere to put it.

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