Mattress Talk

Jay Johnson -- This time of year, visions of sugarplums should be dancing in your head. But recently I had a nightmare about giant dust mites. Have you seen microscopic photos of these critters? They look like invaders from outer space!

Eager to revert back to fanciful holiday dreams, I asked our resident design guru, Irwin Weiner ASID, about bed hygiene, bedding, and mattresses. In response to my dust mite dream, he suggested adopting a system of regular turning and flipping for mattresses (great for even wear) and to combat mites, cleaning the mattress pad and pillow protectors with each turn (or more often -- once a month or so). A mattress should be flipped and turned over at the beginning of every three months, amounting to quarterly flips and turns during the year.

He also showed off his Charles H. Beckley Mattress, a handmade beauty that follows the traditional mattress-making methods used for over 100 years in a Bronx factory.