Creative Sleeping Arrangements

Sometimes the sofa bed just isn’t enough. When a group of guests is joined by a couple more and then a whole ‘nother group, you can have a real challenge when people start looking for a place to lay their head at night. All’s well and good while folks stay on their feet, but there is nothing like a bunch of bodies flopped all over the place to take up all your extra square footage.

Now, you may actually have a square footage problem. There are, after all, only so many people you can put into a space. In that case, look to the outdoors. I have, no joke, had a pop-up camper on my back patio. Yep. The rational was that if these people went and stayed at a hotel, we would miss half our time with them. It’s those morning breakfast times, before the scheduled part of the day and the late-night talks when random things come to mind that are so precious. I don’t want to miss those with guests. I say, if they’re game to stay, I’ll find a corner. And yes, it may actually be a corner.

To start with, let’s all acknowledge the wonder and creativity of the sofa bed. I hope that whoever designed the first fold away bed was very proud of themselves. If I’d designed one, you’d never hear the end of it from me. (I am not given to self-effacing modesty.) My center living room has a queen sized one, my bedroom has a twin sized one and my boys even have a tiny one. We use them A LOT. But sometimes, they’re just not enough. And besides, not everybody likes these.

The standard couch is a wonderful crash pad for a senior guest’s nap and a twenty-year old’s night sleep. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve got so many people coming thru from overseas, but I see a lot of grown folks taking naps on my couches. The older they get, the more comfortable they are snoring away in the middle of everything. Go for it people, a nap is a gift of time that should be treasured. I’m not judging; I’m just jealous. For a full 8 hours though, that couch needs a little help. Upholstery provides too much sensory stimulation for my taste. Tuck a bottom sheet around those base cushions and do your best to get the back cushions off or out of the way. Let that poor person have a little space to turn over. It’s nice to fit the length of the couch to the height of the person, but beggars cannot always be choosers.

I’ve got a bit of a gripe against airbeds. They don’t last like I want them to. You’ve got to make sure to vacuum your floor before you put that thing on the ground and to avoid any prickly surprises destroying your airbed, you would do well to lay a blanket under it as well. The other thing I’ve noticed is that the children of my guests and sometimes my very own kids are drawn to jump on that mattress with the same consistency that moths are drawn toward light. I can swat my own kids off of it, but I have genuinely been trying to restrain myself from swatting guest children. I’m working on it. So that being said, I don’t usually do airbeds. I’d consider it in a pinch, but if you’ve got one that’ll prove me wrong, you should tell me about it!

Along with our sofa beds, I keep a spare mattress under my boy’s bunk bed. It’s a simple foam mattress, not very thick. It’s quick and easy to pull out and not too cumbersome to move to a different room if needed. The other thing we do is make pallets. If you’re looking at just a few of night’s sleep, for a young body, then take a look around the house. Sleeping bags anyone? How about sofa cushions sandwiched between two yoga mats? Wrap some sheet around that thing and call it your Zen bed. How about a king-sized duvet, folded into twin size? It’s fine! A good breakfast will fix almost anything.