eliza :o

compilation of some good shrimps ! 🦐

BUT

Hint – it's NOT because it makes your bedroom look like a frat boy's first apartment who spent all his money on a giant TV (also on the floor) and a ps5 and one sad mattress on the floor. (Although this is also a good reason, to avoid being that guy, it is not the actually important reason.)

The reason is this:

You will get mold or mildew under your mattress if the mattress doesn't have air circulation happening underneath it. Air circulation is possible when the mattress is lifted up off of the floor with a bed frame, or if you have a floor mattress, when you regularly roll the mattress back up off the floor.

Do not just dump a mattress on the floor and leave it there.

You are a warm sweaty body lying on a mattress at night and all the sweat, moisture, and oils will get trapped between the mattress and your floor if there's no circulation. If you have a floor/tatami style mattress, you actually have to be frequently rolling that back up and moving it for the same reason.

Traditional floor mattresses get put away (taken off the floor) after sleeping, which brings in the necessary air circulation!

don't give yourself a moldy or mildewy mattress – those things are expensive.

The cheapest options are:

buy the cheapest frame you can find when you buy a mattress

or buy the super basic frame that comes with the mattress as a bundle offer

find a used mattress frame somewhere for free or cheap. Facebook marketplace, buy nothing, used furniture stores, estate sales, moving giveaways, whatever.

DIY a mattress frame if you have the time, energy, knowledge, and can find supplie

Buy a floor mattress you are committed to regularly rolling or folding up to provide air circulation

I never really realised how much difference it makes until I went to England and realised that here the change of seasons is an obvious, visible, physical change in the world. Like, everything REALLY IS orange and foggy in autumn! In spring there are flowers EVERYWHERE, so much more than any other season, and the trees really do have all blossom and no leaves. Even if it doesn't snow, in winter there's frost all the time and the trees are bare and the sky is visibly greyer all the time. You don't need to be told "this date is the first day of spring", you can SEE IT (although this is getting way messier and less precise due to climate change).

By contrast, most places in Australia the seasons we're taught feel like arbitrary categories - and is it any surprise considering they're colonial constructs? Orange-leaved autumn and blossom-covered spring is a cartoon stereotype with no relevance on a continent where ALL NATIVE TREES ARE EVERGREEN!! Snowy winters are a joke in the desert, and even sunny summers don't ring particularly true considering that much of the country is in the tropics, where summer means monsoons - not that I've ever seen the concept that WE HAVE A MONSOON SEASON taught at an Australian school.

the 4 season model as you and i know it is a european invention, though 4 season models aren't unique to europe! most notably china has the same type of season subdivision.