Bed making tips???

[pamelake]

I have a 25' Tradewind with a double bed in the center... I have yet to find a way to make it up that is easy and looks good. Any ideas? What kind of a cover works? Do you leave it made up? Thanks for any tips you might have! Pam

[CaddyGrn]

Hello!

If I recall how your Airstream is likely configured... your double bed makes up into a couch (gaucho) on one side of the trailer with perhaps storage on the other? If so I would think the first question would be how easy is it to walk through to the bath? If you find it easy to get through, I would be "lazy" and leave the bed made up into a bed. As you have a couch and living area in the front. Whether to leave it up or not is generally a personal preference. In my experience folks at rallys often make up the beds (back to a couch) because of "tours" of everyone's trailer or visiting groups around cocktail hour.... Making the beds when you have only one side to effectively work from is a pain. Other than a lot of reaching, fiddling, fussing, etc. I don't have a easy solution. Lots of folks use a nice down comforter and make their beds and have little decorator pillows, etc. Mostly that is a personal choice/style decision.

We have a vintage Bambi and essentially have little choice if we want to use the interior for anything other than sleeping. So I make our beds up each day most of the time. My biggest problem is storage for blankets, sheets and pillows.

Hopefully some creative types will chime in and give us some great ideas!

[Minnie's Mate]

We make our bed daily for the reasons CaddyGrn mentioned. We do a fair number of rallies each year and when not at a rally, I am happy to give a tour and we want to be prepared.

You might consider a sleep sack. They look like a good solution from the photos I have seen. In fact, we are considering getting on for the times my Mom joins us and sleeps on the sofa. One source for them is this website: https://www.buydreamie.com/?MID=706999. Not sure if this is the one most people use or not, but it looks like it would be fast to make and un-make each day.

[cclarkego]

Hey, I sleep in a Sleep sack, I am about to get into it in a minute while hopefully all the night owls are working on my contest. They are the best, one side up for winter, other side for summer. Easy? If a person who went into a coma can do it, anyone can. Trust me on that one. The only problem is trying to keep it to yourself from the animals......

Carol

[kevin242]

We also hve the center double and for comfort, we removed the gaucho cushions and put in an actual double mattress. We leave it in place all the time. Too much work going from gaucho to bed everyday. It narrows the aisle to the bathroom, but so what - we can still get there and it's not a "heavy traffic area" for us. For appearances - a nice comforter, pillows and bed skirt does fine.

Having it in place all the time is convenient for afternoon naps and makes a good place to read as well. We have the front dinette so there is room to visit and eat with the side bed made up.

[Isadora]

We have the center double also, and after a few times of making the darn thing every night and then turning it back into a gaucho by day, I decided who the heck needs all this work when we are supposed to be having fun? So now we leave it made up al the time. Not inconvenient to get past it, the aisle is a little narrow but not bad.Not room for two people at once so there's no passing, but only a minor prolem.

[cclarkego]

I have to solution. After getting stuck in the hallway about a million times when I wanted to go in one direction and the dogs had already lined up to go in the opposite, we would meet in the middle and have a discussion about which one of us had to back up. Guess who usually won? Then one day I thought, "What if you make it into a 2/3 size bed?" That way the bed never really has to be put away and there is oodles of room for the big Labs and I to dance around together in the hall. Looks quite cool, like a day bed and all my friends say, "What a nice cozy reading room you have.........." I will go take a photo for you. Stay right here.

[sharbours]

We leave ours made up into a bed most of the time. We put a full size fitted sheet on the cushions, then lay the blankets on the top, with the edge of the blanket against the wall. We don't tuck the blanket down along the cushion on the wall side. Sometimes we'll leave the blanket hanging around the sides of the bed, other times we tuck it under the cushions. I try not to worry about it too much - we are camping, after all!

Here's the only picture I have that shows most of the bed. I actually have a maroon blanket that fits the color scheme better; it must have been in the wash!


Sharon & Sean Harbour

[Grand Master]

I personally think it is easier (and neater) to slide the gaucho in every day. I use a fitted bottom sheet and leave it tucked in the back side (wall side) all the time. I pull the fitted sheet over the the front board you use to pull out the gaucho at night. In the morning I untuck the aisle side sheet corners and simply roll (or throw) the sheets and blanket against the wall. You push the gaucho in and the bed is made in under one minute.

I will challenge anyone to make up a regular bed any faster.

As an added bonus, it opens up the trailer and provides a neat appearance. No rumpled bedding.

[cclarkego]

But wait now, look how inviting this looks. Makes you feel like curling up with the cat and taking a nap. Let's see if I can get the picture in here.....

[Isadora]

Since we have a memory foam pad on ours, it is really inconvenient to turn it into a gaucho by day. No place for that pad to be.

[cclarkego]

There is a four inch thick foam eggcrate on mine from the hospital, it all still fits and the bedsack too....

C

[85MH325]

For folding beds, the Travasak is King. I've got two of them for the B-van.

Roger

[pamelake]

Thanks for all the ideas!

I wish I was using mine enough right now to have an opinion about what works best for me.... right now I mostly use it as a guest room, so leaving it open works. But it is a pain to make and hard to access the storage underneath.

I guess if I decided to keep it opened permanently, I could rework the storage.

Now off to buy some pretty bedding!

Pam

[sharbours]

Please post your storage solutions - I do hate having to practically lay down on the floor to get into a cabinet under the bed. So, I end up storing infrequently used items there, like ratty old towels for covering picnic table benches, citronella candles, rain boots, etc. I'd love to get more use out of them! I wonder about a pull-out bin of some sort...

[bolerama]

Hi Pam, I don't have the same layout as your trailer, but I have found that for home and for the Airstream a fitted sheet and a down duvet with a duvet cover work well. Down duvets work well in all temps (the range here is 100F to -40F). The covers come off easily for washing. Duvets are so light, you just fluff and let them settle nicely on the bed, so they are so easy to make...plus for the cost of a new cover, you can change your decor easily. Unless your bed is really in your way, I'd go for leaving it in sleeping position...always ready for a good nap! Here is a picture of my duvet cover. I used this for our first 2 summers. I was never in love with it, so this winter I bought a new, funky, 60s-inspired fabric cover. Can't wait to put it on in the spring!