# Putting together a cheap bed **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 23, 2010, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/putting-together-a-cheap-bed/551191 "2010-08-23T19:57:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Telcontar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3bc359/32.png) [@Telcontar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telcontar)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/putting-together-a-cheap-bed/551191/1 "2010-08-23T19:57:26Z")
Hello everyone, My girlfriend is going back to school for one more year later this week and she/we have been thinking that it might be a good idea to get a full sized bed, to use instead of the one in the dorm. The thing is, she’d probably only be using this for one year, so it would be a bit silly to spend too much money on it. One thought is to get this from Ikea: > **[Products](https://www.ikea.com/us/en/cat/products-products/)** > > Browse our full range of products from dressing tables to complete modern kitchens. Click here to find the right IKEA product for you. Browse online and in-store today! It’s fairly soft (we even tried it on the floor) and would definitely be an improvement over the dorm bed. The issue then becomes putting it on something. There is always the floor option, but that seems a bit teenage slumber party-ish. The cheapest Ikea solution is this combination, but we’re not sure it would actually help us comfortwise: > **[Furniture - Shop Modern Furniture, Low Prices](https://www.ikea.com/us/en/cat/furniture-fu001/)** > > Shop IKEA for modern, affordable furniture to make your house a home. We have furniture to fit every room and every budget. Visit us online or in store! > **[Products](https://www.ikea.com/us/en/cat/products-products/)** > > Browse our full range of products from dressing tables to complete modern kitchens. Click here to find the right IKEA product for you. Browse online and in-store today! Any other ideas on how to get the mattress off the floor cheaply? ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/putting-together-a-cheap-bed/551191/2 "2010-08-23T20:13:08Z")
The cost is about the same as what you linked to, but any store that sells mattress will sell you a set of rails. They collapse down quite small and are pretty easily put together. The rails will hold a platform or pallet that you can put the mattress on. Rails [![](https://ep.turbifycdn.com/ty/cdn/tallpaulstallmall/steel-frame-composite.jpg) ](https://ep.turbifycdn.com/ty/cdn/tallpaulstallmall/steel-frame-composite.jpg) Platform/Pallet [![](http://images.crateandbarrel.com/is/image/Crate/BunkyBoardQueenF8?$web_family$) ](http://images.crateandbarrel.com/is/image/Crate/BunkyBoardQueenF8?$web_family$) ---
**Author:** ![Alice\_The\_Goon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Alice\_The\_Goon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alice_The_Goon)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/putting-together-a-cheap-bed/551191/3 "2010-08-23T20:47:16Z")
Today is bulky trash pickup day, one of two a year that the city provides. So early this morning I put out an old crappy (not literally) lumpy twin mattress that had been sitting out in my backyard for a few months, in the rain and the leaves and the bugs and the cats. Someone in a pickup truck with a boxspring in it just came and picked it up. I just thought, ew, you’re going to regret that, that mattress sucks. But hey, I guess it’s a really cheap bed for someone now. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2010, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/putting-together-a-cheap-bed/551191/4 "2010-08-23T20:54:21Z")
> [@Alice\_The\_Goon](#): > > Today is bulky trash pickup day, one of two a year that the city provides. So early this morning I put out an old crappy (not literally) lumpy twin mattress that had been sitting out in my backyard for a few months, in the rain and the leaves and the bugs and the cats. Someone in a pickup truck with a boxspring in it just came and picked it up. I just thought, ew, you’re going to regret that, that mattress sucks. > > But hey, I guess it’s a really cheap bed for someone now. You’d be surprised. Last month a lot of the basements in Milwaukee backed up with sewage twice inside of a week. Some people got a few inches, some got 8+ _feet_, most people got somewhere in the middle. Of course, the next day, the scavengers were out in full force. They stopped at my parents house to grab a couch, when my mom ran out to tell them it was soaked with raw sewage, his response…“That’s alright, we got a bottle of Pine-Sol” I have to wonder if they were really planning to clean it and use it, or if they were going to try to sell it later on.