Introduction
In today’s age of constantly moving world, heavy and large assets often turn uneasy on the move. If you are often changing your abode for job or other reasons, you are sure to hate the moment you bought that king-sized bed, which no longer enters your new staircase leading to your room. Well, here’s some solutions for your troubles. Here, we discuss five substitutes for your bed that will be cheap on your wallet but be as comfortable as a normal bed. Yes! That is possible.
1. Cardboard bed
Difficulty level: Easy-Moderate
Time required: 5-15 minutes
Resources required: Cardboard boxes or beer boxes
Estimate cost: Up to $100
Instructions: If you are tired of transporting your huge bed from one lodging to another, it is time to get rid of it. You will surely get some good amount of money for it if it is in a good condition.
Step 1: For a cardboard bed, gather store boxes from your nearby grocery store. Beer boxes are also a good option. You normally get these boxes for something around $9-$10 each.
Step 2: Ensure that the boxes are not tampered. The tampered boxes will slump down and make a very messy bed. So, get the cardboard boxes in good condition. Now you can either line up the boxes or tape them together for better strength of the bed.
You can use as many number of boxes according to your need. If you want a broader bed, you can use three rows and three columns of boxes. For a less broad one, the rows can be made of two boxes.
Step 3: You can fill the boxes with either junk, sacks, or even use it as a box bed and stack up your things that you rarely use. This will give greater strength to the bed.
Step 4: Now, you can place your mattress over the bed structure and enjoy a normal bed with extra space for storage.
2. Light weight metal bed forms
Difficulty level: Easy
Time required: 5-10 minutes
Resources required: Metal bed frame, wooden frame or plywood sheet
Estimate cost: $200 – $400
Instructions: If you are the kind that likes to have things as they are and no substitutes, this could be a good option for you. You want your table to be a table, bed to be a bed, and no substitute and yet long for that solution where you had less trouble carrying these furniture pieces from one place to another – get a light weight metal bed frame. It will be a little costly than the other bed substitutes, but still be much less heavy than a box bed or the like.
Step 1: Get the metal bed frame into your bedroom.
Step 2: Place a really thick mattress over it. If you use thinner mattresses, it would be better to place a wooden plank or a plywood sheet on the frame before throwing your mattress onto it.
3. Suitcase bed
Difficulty level: Easy
Time required: 10 minutes
Resources required: Your suitcases, buy additional if required.
Instructions: If you are a man/woman of suitcases, this one is for you. If you are a person constantly on the move, you will definitely have several suitcases that you carry around with you while shifting to new abodes.
Step 1: For this bed, all you need to spend is on the mattress. You can either buy a mattress that suits the size of suitcases put together or take the route vice versa, choosing the number of suitcases to use after you have secured yourself a wonderful mattress.
One cautionary advice is that you should ensure that your suitcases are of real good quality; else you not only stand to lose on the bed and the mattress form but also your suitcase.
Step 2: Now you can line up the suitcases in a way like you are about to open them, with the upper lid facing your roof. Ideally two rows and three columns of suitcases should serve as a good size of bed.
Step 3: Throw on your mattress and enjoy a wonderful sleep.
This bed would not cost a single additional penny to your budget except for the mattress.
4. Substitute for mattress
Difficulty level: Moderate
Time required: 1-2 hours
Resources required: Sleeping bags, a bed cover with a zipper, some dresses
Estimate Cost: $150 (depending on the number of sleebing bags you use; A sleeping bag costs anything between $10-$50)
Instructions: If you do not want to spend much on your mattress, here’s a solution for you. Mattresses do turn limp and curve down in due course of time and with your ever-travelling schedule of life, you would like to carry around something as bulky as the mattress only if it lasts really long and gives you the worth of its money. A good king-size mattress can cost you anything around $300. So, let us look for an alternative. For this alternative, you need some sleeping bags and a bed cover with a zipper.
Step 1: Open the bed cover zip and lay down the sleeping bags in a neatly folded style. You can also add some of your dresses that you rarely wear or those that are season specific and not currently in use.
Step 2: After you have stacked enough clothes and sleeping bags onto the cover for the thickness that you would like for your mattresses, simply zip close the cover. There you have a good mattress without spending much.
Yes, this mattress will not be as tough as the regular one but as long as you have stacked the fabrics inside nicely and you have your desired thickness for the mattress, it works well.
5. Tile bed
Difficulty level: Easy
Time required: 15-20 minutes
Resources required: Leftovers of tile shops or construction sites. You can even use those tile leftovers if you have some stacked in your backyard at home.
Instructions: This is a good substitute for your regular bed if you are not too fond of a bed that’s off the floor.
Step 1: All you need to do is gather the tiles and arrange them in a finely described line. If you do not find the tiles compatible in their borders, you will have to grind them a little with a tile shaper. You can borrow this from your tile shop-owner.
The thing to be kept in mind for this bed is that you cannot use just any mattress or a substitute of a mattress for this bed, you need to have a proper and preferably thick mattress to along with this bed.
Now, that is all we have for the section now. You can add your valuable suggestions in the comment box if you have better and cheaper options for bed substitutes.
Frequently asked questions
Question 1: Will cardboards hold up to the strength a normal bed has?
Answer: As long as you use the bed just for your sleep, it holds good enough like any normal bed.
Question 2: Where can I find cardboard boxes?
Answer: Even if you do not have boxes from your own grocery shopping or shifting ventures, any grocery shop or liquor shop will offer you these boxes.
Quick tips
1. It is advisable that you tape the cardboard boxes together for better strength of your bed.
2. Choose tile pieces that have fine edges and are finely cut for your tile bed substitute.
Things to watch out for
1. Ensure that the cardboard boxes you use for the cardboard bed substitute are in good condition. Boxes that are limping on sides or edges will not be strong enough.
2. Do not use any suitcase that is old and in a bad condition for the suitcase bed substitute.
3. Avoid using larger frames for the metallic bed. This will ensure that you do not face difficulty while transporting your things to a new place of abode.
