As a way of promoting Earth Day, Kansas City’s Loose Park has a Twitter account with a very unique user: a tree. Penny Oak “speaks” from the perspective of what a tree might be experiencing and gets a little help from the Heartland Tree Alliance who are promoting the growth and benefits we get from trees. Penny is located on the east side of Loose Park near 54th Street and has accumulated many followers who are engaged in a conversation about practical approaches to supporting the environment. This brings up an interesting question. What if other inanimate objects in your home decided to open their own Twitter accounts? What might they tweet about?

Take for instance your mattress. Would it tweet that it’s time for a replacement? After years of dependable service and many sleep filled night, that old mattress has gotten a bit lopsided. What was once a smooth, firm platform has now become a lumpy mess. Maybe your mattress would tweet, “It’s time I got out of here.” The official duration of a mattress is five to eight years. At least that’s the recommended lifespan that most mattress manufacturers go by. They know that their product isn’t meant to last a lifetime. Of course if you have a mattress in a guest room that is hardly used you don’t have to swap it out in that time frame. It’s only your popular sleeping habitat that needs upgrading.

If you haven’t bought mattress in eight years you might actually be surprised of the types of advancements that have been made in the design of our beds. There was a time when mattresses were pretty basic; just some stuffing that was stuffed between some padding. Now, mattresses have gone high tech. There are coil springs designed to adjust to the contours of your body. More importantly, they remain firm and can spring back into place.

The cushioning used in today’s mattresses has also been improved and upgraded. The materials used are geared towards being hypo-allergic. This means that they won’t become an irritant to anyone who has allegories or sinus problems. That’s extremely important when you consider just how much time you’ll be spending on that mattress.If you have the chance to try out a couple of mattresses in a showroom don’t rush through the choices. Yes, you might feel silly stretched out on a bed in the middle of a Kansas City store fully dressed but consider the alternative. If you bring a mattress home that is not a good fit it’s going to haunt you for many sleepless nights ahead.

When you’ve made your decision you’re going to have to get rid of that old mattress. While it’s true that some mattress stores offer a removal service, check the fine print to see how much extra you might be charged. It might be cheaper and more efficient for you to hire you own local Kansas City mattress disposal crew, Junk King, to come by and take away that old mattress. Once the switch has been made, you’re in for some very sweet dreams.