When I moved into my camper, I thought I would have a problem adjusting to a twin air mattress after sleeping in a king sized bed, but surprisingly I did not.
My only real gripes were that I’d slide down if I wasn’t parked level. and that the bed was always covered in dirt from paw prints to footprints to desert sand.
After returning to civilization, I decided to sleep on the air mattress until I was certain I needed a bed.
After about a week, I decided I wanted something wider so that Snickers could sleep in bed with me.
I always wanted to try sleeping on a Japanese Futon on the floor so I bought one. I’ve been sleeping on the floor with this now for a few weeks.
It’s been fine. I sleep fairly well. I’ve made some discoveries too.
- A thin mattress on a hard floor feels fine.
- It is nice not to have my arms hang over the edge when I flip over.
- The bed is always dirty! There’s something about being at floor level that means I get footprints, paw prints and dust on the sheets constantly.
- Making the bed is a pain. Instead of just flipping out a sheet and blanket, I have to fold up everything and store it in the closet. This is great for creating floor space, but I have plenty of floor space.
- I can’t “plop” onto the bed. Since the futon is just a 2 inch loosely packed quilt like mattress, plopping down would be like belly flopping onto a hardwood floor.
- A bed is a nice platform for folding laundry, playing with the dog, sitting on and reading. A floor mattress, not so much.
I suppose a potential issue is the social stigma of sleeping in the floor but whatever, I don’t care about that.
Now that I’ve lived a few months without a bed I am getting one. It’s not a necessity, but it is a comfortable convenience I am ready to have once again.
What I like is that I didn’t buy a bed immediately after I moved back into my house. Instead I took my time to determine what I actually wanted vs buying what I had before without thinking about it.
I am doing the same with tools, housewares, furniture and clothes too.
In the end, I’ll never have as much stuff as I had when my wife was alive.
I will also not live the acetic, minimalist life I aspired to live when it was all in my head.
But I will have enough.
