<p>My D is willing to scrounge for all the furniture except a mattress. She wants new. Unfortunately a new, decent mattress is expensive. We are still looking.</p>
<p>Mattresses - </p>
<p>Almost anyone who lived in a dorm already has been sleeping on a used mattress. Maybe quite used. </p>
<p>If they've ever stayed in a motel they've also slept on a mattress used by others. </p>
<p>I understand the concern but if it appears to be in good condition the thing to do is invest in a plastic 'mattress bag' (or whatever it's called) that completely envelops the mattress to keep the small animals segregated from the sleeper.</p>
<p>My solution was to buy a cheap waterbed which I placed on the floor. It was cheap and very easy to transport between apartments (once the water's emptied - ha ha). Some landlords don't want waterbeds but I never had an incident and as long as a liner is used, they're pretty safe regarding damaging something.</p>
<p>Another option - an air bed.</p>
<p>We got my D an airbed as a temporary solution. This thing has a single chamber and is about the dimensions of a standard queen sized mattress. Very, very uncomfortable. Maybe there are better designs and models, but we won't try that experiment again.</p>