Everything You Need to Know About Buying a Mattress in a Box

Justina Huddleston
·5 min read

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We buy everything online these days, from books to groceries to lingerie to, yes, mattresses. And though buying something so large and so tactile online can seem strange — is it really wise to buy a mattress without testing it first? — there are a ton of benefits to going the mattress-in-a-box route over the traditional innerspring mattress showroom experience.

Boxed mattresses vary from traditional innerspring spring mattresses in a number of ways. The best is probably that you don’t have to go to a mattress showroom to deal with pushy salespeople and confusing seasonal pricing in order to get your hands on one. Companies like My Green Mattress, DreamCloud, Tulo, Tuft & Needle and more all sell online.

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If you’re considering buying a boxed mattress, we talked to Tim Masters, the founder of My Green Mattress, to get the low-down on this hot new trend.

How supportive are boxed mattresses?

“Technically, you do lose four percent of firmness,” Masters tells Sheknows. “No matter what the bed is, you lose kind of four percent right off the top. Is it noticeable? No. Durability testing hasn’t proven it to be a hindrance to the performance of the mattresses. So the bed in the box for a brand actually works very well.”

How long do boxed mattresses last?

“It depends on the brand, but our mattresses will last a minimum of 10 years,” Masters says.

Will a boxed mattress make me hot at night?

“The natural and organic materials used in our mattresses sleep much cooler than traditional mattresses,” Masters tells SheKnows. “Even the organic wool that we use is a hollow fiber and when you lay in the wool, you know, on the surface of the mattress, it distributes your body heat through the shaft of the wall.”

Here are a few more things to consider when picking out your mattress online:

Delivery: Traditional mattresses are hugely bulky, and getting them inside your home can require an extra set of hands and pricey shipping and delivery. Mattresses in a box are compressed and stuffed into a large box you can easily fit through your door, and most companies offer free or cheaper-than-average shipping.

Material: Boxed mattresses can be made of a variety of materials. Some companies, like My Green Mattress, also offer completely organic bedding options. Most of them do not have inner springs and are instead made up of layers of memory foam, latex and other proprietary materials. It depends on which company you go with, so make sure to do your research if you have a preference.

Cost: In general, mattresses that come in a box are less expensive than their showroom counterparts (the exception being Ikea). These companies don’t have to worry about footing the cost of rent for all their showrooms, nor do they have to worry about paying salespeople to staff them, so the cost is lower. You can get a mattress in a box starting at about $600 depending on the brand you choose.

Setup: Most mattress-in-a-box companies ship their products straight to your door. And unlike traditional mattresses that are super-bulky, that’s not quite the case with a boxed mattress. All you need to do is remove the plastic, unroll your mattress and let it fully inflate.

OK, now the fun part. Choosing the best mattress. Here are our top picks.

My Green Mattress

This is our top pick if you’re looking for an organic option. The quality is amazing, the company is GOLS and GOTS certified and they hand make their all-natural mattresses in their organic certified factory so you can rest assured that you’re sleeping on the safest material possible.

Tempurpedic

This is a great option if you prefer a firmer bed. It has an extra layer support built-in to deliver pressure-relieving power throughout the night.

DreamCloud

This is our best pick if you like your bed to have a little more cushion. It has lots of layers of luxurious materials that will truly give you a night full of dreamlike sleep.

Nectar

If you’re looking for a budget-friendly option, Nectar is your best bet. While still providing lots of comfort, these mattresses are much cheaper than most others on the market.

Our mission at SheKnows is to empower and inspire women, and we only feature products we think you’ll love as much as we do. Please note that if you purchase something by clicking on a link within this story, we may receive a small commission of the sale and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.

A version of this article was originally published in March 2018.

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