The Mattress in my Living Room

I have never been one to have a super clean house. But I do pride myself on sweeping up the tumbleweeds of cat hair before people come over and making sure everything has a place. Right now, this mattress’s place is in our living room.

This golden, floral beauty landed there a few weeks ago, and there it has remained. My parents brought it to go on our new trundle bed, but it was too long. We propped it against a chair and bookshelf for the weekend and planned to find a place for it after they left, but here we are… three weeks later. 

During these three weeks, the mattress has made itself at home. It has camouflaged itself as part of our decor to the point that I don’t even notice it anymore when I walk into the room. Once it fell over, and we left it flat for a few days because the cat liked to nap on it. This mattress is like a dinner guest who had too many drinks and was unable to drive home, so we let him stay the night. The following day, he had nowhere important to be so decided to grace us with his presence for the rest of the weekend. Things were slow at the office so he decided to extend his stay for the remainder of the week. Now he’s receiving mail here, I’m doing his laundry, and I anticipate his wife and children will join him any day now.

I realized I had become too content with this new addition when I moved it while sweeping the other day, as I would any other piece of furniture. I simply pushed it aside, did my cleaning, and put it right back as though it belonged. As though it were a part of our family.

A year ago, this would never have happened. I would never have allowed a giant, unattractive eyesore to settle into our living room with no plan to relocate. I don’t know if it’s because my husband and I both work, have a 5-month old, and are trying to maintain some form of a social life, but having an unnecessary mattress in my living room doesn’t seem to bother me as much as it would have in the past. Previously, the clutter would have given me anxiety, the fact that my husband didn’t even notice its presence would have bewildered me, and the entire situation would have all around been a huge ordeal. 

I mean, do I want it to stay there forever? Absolutely not. 

Would I love if it found a new home soon? Obviously.

Am I writing this post as a passive aggressive way to bring it to my husband’s attention?

But have I learned to be okay with the presence of this mess? Most certainly.

Life is messy. Throwing a baby into the mix has made me realize this in more of an “in your face” way like when I’m changing a blown-out diaper in the Target dressing room, but life without a baby, is equally as chaotic. If I recall correctly, there’s less poop, but still… it ain’t easy.

There’s so much relief that comes with welcoming the mess. With realizing other people are dealing with their own giant, embarrassing mattresses, and maybe all they want is to come over to your house and realize that you have one too. That they’re not alone. That we all have struggles we’re dealing with.

So let’s be kind to each other. More importantly, let’s be honest. We can read all the books we want and listen to every podcast on the app about how to get rid of the mattresses, but I think more importantly than getting rid of them, we need to be unashamed of them. To embrace the disorder that comes with them, and to love others despite the mattresses in their living rooms.