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How to Move a Mattress

My site is popular for reviewing memory foam mattresses. With today's bed-in-a-box options lasting much longer than the traditional 7 years of a spring mattress, there's a good chance you'll eventually need to move one. But how?

This is how to move a mattress without damaging it - even by yourself! 

When we were faced with the challenge of moving our beloved Amerisleep AS3 to our new home, it seemed like my readers would enjoy the details. This handy tip should work for any memory foam bed, including Casper, Leesa, and Nectar. I'm happy to report there is an extremely simple way to do it. Apartment and dorm dwellers rejoice!

How to Move a Mattress

At first, I wasn't sure how to move our king-size mattress down a flight of stairs. It's a problem we've dreaded solving ever since we made the decision to build a new house. 

The answer? It was right in the back of our truck. Ratchet straps.

This solution could also serve as a 'How To' for returning a Bed In a Box if you don't like it. All the companies offer a return policy, but they know the mattress will never fit back inside its original box.


How to move a mattress
See how huge this mattress is? When we moved it upstairs originally, it was secured tightly inside a box.

Leading up to our move, we often joked that the only way to get our mattress back downstairs was going to be to drag it to the top of the steps and just let it fall, lest it clobber us on the way down. It didn't seem like the best idea for our bed or our walls.


Engineer husband to the rescue!


mattress folded with ratchet straps
This is the only time you'll ever see me advocate for a taco mattress.

Mattress secured with truck straps
Ratchet straps, like the ones you use to secure a load in the back of a truck, folded our king mattress down to a more manageable size within moments. You could maybe get by with rope or cable, but these straps just made everything so easy.

my husband is proud of his mattress handiwork
Our Simmons Beautyrest could never have done this.
Our Simmons Beautyrest (yuck!) could never have done anything.

So easy your dog can do it
Pica likes to help us whenever we need to move something downstairs. She helps by sitting down directly in our way.


pushing the mattress down the stairs
See how large our Amerisleep mattress is, even when folded in half? If it weren't for this ratchet strap solution, we would never have gotten it downstairs.

Moving a bed in a box
You can just go ahead and ignore the mess you see in this photo. We were mid-move. It doesn't count!

As a quick side note, that bag of coffee beans you see expired way back in 2014. The crazy things that turn up when moving, right? I mixed it with a bag of fresh coffee and it was as good as new.

It was a breeze to fit our mattress in the back of our truck, along with several other boxes for the new home. If we hadn't had a truck, I'm fairly confident we could have squeezed it into the back of my car. Chevy Volts are surprisingly roomy!

King mattress is taller than a giraffe
Ta da - it made it to our new house! Here's a fun fact for you. Did you know a king-size Amerisleep bed is taller than a giraffe?

Mattress models
We were ready to set up our guest bedroom a few weeks later. I held the mattress steady while my mom loosened the straps, lest it whomp her over the head.

Take my mattress when I move
Next great product = memory foam sofas? I would buy one of those.

Also, I seem to have monstrous Peggy Hill feet here. They're only a size 8.5! What is going on??

box springs easy to move
Our bed frame is still at the old house (it's being used for staging while we try to sell our home), so we just placed our box springs on the ground for now. My mom tried to convince me to place the bed under the window, but I insisted the wall next to the door was where we'd planned to put it all along. We actually designed the room for this.

Fast forward to the bed fully set up, I saw instantly that my mom was right and that the mattress should actually have gone under the window. Don't you just hate when that happens? I can never move it now or she'll win.

Ours is a complicated mother-daughter relationship.

mattress on the floor
In my old mattress reviews, Pica always got to show off her modeling skills. She's become a little too enthusiastic about this. Wait for the mattress, Pica!

bed comics

(A little reminder. She's so comfy!)

microsuede mattress cover
I shooed Pica out of the way and we laid the bed on the base. This photo really emphasizes how plush and thick Amerisleep mattresses are. Look at those wimpy box springs underneath! You don't want to cheap out with short sheets on a bed like this.

our guest bedroom looks so comfortable
In my original review, I proved how well our bed was aging by placing a level on it. Even after more than 5 years of heavy use, the top was still perfectly flat. I decided to see if it could still pass my level test after being rolled up tightly and stored upright for several weeks. Truth be told, I wasn't confident it would. Mattresses just aren't meant for that.

We're still unpacking, so I also wasn't confident I'd be able to find the level.

check out our new backyard before your nap
It was sitting right on the patio table. Lucky me!

So much for construction being completed, right? Rather than unpack or work on one of the many urgent things to do around the house, SN has randomly decided to build a backyard fire pit. I'd complain, but I think it's going to be awesome.

post-move quality test
So after all that craziness, does the bed still pass my test?

results of quality test after moving the mattress
The bubble is centered! I love this mattress. Also, now that these tests seem to be a recurring theme on my blog, I should really invest in a level that's not so dirty and gross.

Now you know how to move a mattress. This technique should work on other memory foam mattresses too, especially as I think ours is one of the most sturdy options. If you have any questions about this or my other Amerisleep mattress reviews, please send me an email. I love to hear from my blog readers!

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