Friday, December 19, 2014

Mattress-in-a-Box

I turned on the porch light so the UPS driver could bump the giant box up the front steps.

"It's all in the legs," she said, "otherwise you blow your back out. Biggest thing I ever delivered was a lap-pool, in 17 boxes. Luckily, there was someone home, otherwise I woulda stacked those boxes up on his front porch. And you wouldn't believe how many mattresses I've delivered. "

My son's new mattress, compressed into this cardboard box. Does it spring up when opened, taking in air? I can't imagine how this will happen.


This is our world: need a bed, order it on Amazon Prime: free shipping, delivery in one or two days.

I bought a white, hotel-quality fitted queen size sheet last night at Goodwill, for $4.99. A little bleach, some hot water, and it's good as new. I thought, I never need buy anything new again.

There is so little that I need, or want, besides two weeks on a beach in Maui. Can I deliver myself to  Kapalua in a giant box, overnight, free shipping?

If only.

The UPS pick-up today at work was in a rented truck, apparently a common occurrence the month of December, when they run out of their own delivery vehicles. So many things, so much stuff, circulating the planet, driving the dollars-and-cents of the economy. But isn't there enough of everything to last us all at least 50 years, possibly more?

When I brought this point up at work, I was reminded that we are makers of stuff. Oh, um, yes. It's stuff that's driving my own economy, paying my mortgage, fueling my own machine of bones and flesh. Seems there's no way to avoid it without a dramatic change in lifestyle.

So where does one start? I started at Goodwill, in the sheet department. Fitted. Queen sized. $4.99.


3 comments:

  1. I can't really explain why (because the internal workings of my wife's brain is a mystery to the medical world), but Lady Magnon recently bought 3 Mole traps for one of our very young grandsons. Her understanding of the ordering process on Amazon is a bit haywire.

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  2. I hadn't thought to look in Goodwill for sheets/pillow cases. I think I need to re-think, especially given I can use bleach to get out what I perceive is "the used" thing. As for mattresses in boxes, we bought one not too long ago for Oliver's bed, and it was WILD.

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  3. It is all amazing, isn't it? I just had a king size down comforter delivered and it was squished into a pretty small box. I do most of my holiday shopping on-line. But I was in the SPCA Resale shop yesterday and bought a gift for someone, for a mere $2.50. I was standing there looking at all the china and glassware and thinking, "man, I coulda outfitted my new home at very little cost." Instead, I've just forked over some serious dough for cut glass martini glasses. I guess we can do both. I often buy clothes at resale shops, they are broken in and comfy!

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