I'm not a morning person in the first place, and the day got off to a really
bad start when this morning, the missus awoke me from a deep sleep to
announce "Come on. Get up. We've got a job to do !" The job turned out to be
swapping the bed in one of our spare bedrooms for one at the daughter's
house. Now I have always loathed moving beds. The boxy bases never quite fit
in the back of an estate car both at once, and mattresses are ridiculously
heavy and have a mind of their own, particularly on stairs where they are
very floppy, and at tight restrictions where they inexplicably become so
stiff that they won't bend. Also, for something so soft, they have a
peculiar ability to scratch any wall that they pass within a foot of ...

But this all aside, once again as I got involved with moving the hateful
thing, I had to wonder WTF they don't stitch handles onto the 'short' sides
of a mattress ? It's all very nice having them on the long sides so that you
can position the mattress on the base, but when it comes to moving one from
A to B, the only sensible way is with it upright, and then there is nothing
other than the piping around the edge of it, to grab hold of.

I've been moving the bloody things for more than 40 years now, and I don't
recall ever having seen one with handles on the ends. Does anyone know of a
'real' practical reason for this ?

Arfa