How do old people (i.e. me and DH) turn their mattresses?!?!?!

[WitchesofPainswick]

We bought a new mattress that needs turning every week. FUCK ME. It's SO heavy and nearly breaks our backs every time. But if we don't turn it, it DOES get lumpy and uncomfortable.

Wish I'd stuck to my Ikea shitty mattress.

How do other people/old people manage this?!!!

My DPs have a mattress like this. They can just about do it between them, but I'll always offer when I'm visiting.

It is much easier if you've got a divan with no base board as you can slide it down first, then spin it for the rotation. If you have a base board OP, maybe contemplate changing to a divan??

If you have to flip it, however, it is much harder. Thankfully we only buy pillow top mattresses nowadays that only need rotating and not flipping!

Our old mattress required turning. It had fabric handles on the sides. I could do it myself by dragging it to the side of the frame then lift it onto its side. Then I’d let it tip off to the other side.

Seems to me like the maufacturers and retailers are saying this as a get-out clause for dodging the guarantee so they don't have to replace a poor quality product.

I've been on this planet more years than I care to remember, and twiddling a new mattress weekly has never before been a thing you had to do in order to prevent a brand new mattress from going lumpy and horrible.

What are single people and those of limited mobility/strength supposed to do?

I’m single and have a super king and find it fine
if I’m rotating it I grab the head bit and pull so it’s at the side then pull again so it’s at the foot end and it’s done (using my knee to shove it into place!

picking up the bed to hoover under it is a bit more tricky and I often use a chair to help with that!

I have a spring only king sized mattress and I agree with your struggles.
A memory foam mattress does not suit me because I ruin it with using an electric blanket all winter.
I rotate the mattress fortnightly with the bedding change (which i can manage myself) and flip it the next fortnight.
As I am widowed I have relied on my son popping in before work on the day it needs flipping.....but he has just moved 2.5 hours away! What is the chance I can persuade him to come home every 4 weeks for 5 minutes???? I did make sure it was a flipping day on the day he moved away!
Honestly, I would end up squashed under the mattress if I attempted it alone.

You just don’t. No one is turning their mattress weekly regardless of age.

The secret is to buy 2xsingle mattresses. We have a superking bed with 2 mattresses. So much easier to handle. I suppose they come in all sizes. Ours was from Heals. I turn them every 3 months or so.

You said "old people (i.e. me and DH)..." which sounded very much like you were suggesting you and your DH were old!

I specifically asked for a mattress that I could turn round as I couldn't flip it over, especially not on my own. I bought a Harriet mattress and turn it every time I change the bedding. It seems to be bearing up well.

Ours is super king size and does weigh a ton. We have always rotated it regularly. A spring popped out of it after 7 years. They wanted photos of it to see if we’d been turning it correctly ( not sure how they could tell) and sent a free replacement even after 7 years so I do recommend following instructions as it saved us £1000 on a new one!

We turn ours every six months , that’s enough.

Is it one sided?

An awful lot of mattresses are now made with only one side. You can turn them end to end but not turn them over. Some retailers present this as an advantage but in reality, they are selling you half a bed.

We have had a deep sided, double pocket sprung mattress for some years which was supposed to be flipped and turned monthly. It was turned end to end monthly initially but we have never been able to turn it over between us (we are now in our 70s and my husband is very frail) - it's just too heavy. We have the single version of this mattress, too, and I can just about turn that one over myself - but it is a struggle.

We only turn our mattress about 3 times a year and DH does that job on his own.

Have given up turning or rotating our super kingsize - dont want to end up in hospital! If i had thought about it i might have bought 2x single mattresses instead.l

Get a topper. You’ll still need to rotate from time to time but it absorbs some of the weight distribution.

I live alone and flip and rotate my fully foam mattress twice a year, at the same time as I swap between summer and winter duvets. It has a summer side and a winter side. I have no idea whether I'm supposed do it more often, but it's still very comfy with no indents 10 years after buying it.

My Tempur mattress doesn't need turning.

Most modern mattress do not need to be turned, just rotated. We have recently bought a Relyon Pashmina mattress, the store we bought from said because of the weight of mattresses most do not need turning over now. We have rotated ours once so far since it was delivered.

I don’t turn/flip the mattresses very often, I don’t find they need it. But I’m 64 and a mere 5’1” with pretty paltry upper body strength and can rotate the king size memory foam mattress in the main bedroom in multiple moves - it’s not too bad doing it with DH diagonally opposite.
And I can fairly easily turn the double that I use by myself - we’ve had it decades, it was the spare room bed before I adopted it. It’s not too heavy, maybe it wouldn’t be supportive enough for someone bigger but it suits me.

That doesnt make any sense, surely its weekly for a little bit then monthly?

Reminds me that I havent done ours for years. I dont think we turn ours but perhaps just to rotate.

Older person and disabled - I buy no turn mattresses!

I thought modern mattresses didn’t need turning?

To rotate we just sleep the other way round for a bit.

Turning is a twice yearly pain.

I turn my mums nearly every time I visit, which is about every 2 weeks. And change the bedding. It’s easy as she got a single bed after my dad died. She was managing herself until a couple of years ago but it got a bit much for her.

What mattress & where did you buy it from? Some bed companies have a 100 day exchange policy so would you be able to do this?

I don’t think our mattress needs turned but it is so heavy I can’t lift it by myself to change the sheets. Will never buy such a heavy mattress again but it is so comfortable