FB Reminder: I am away on vacation right now. This post has been scheduled ahead of time.
I won’t be moderating comments until end of August 2009. Thanks for your patience!
Not that my mother has scabies right now, but she contracted them from the Days Inn in New York, and my brother has also gotten scabies before.
My mom was so cute the other day, she cut out a newspaper article on scabies and mailed it to me with a note about what medicine to use if I get scabies. Thanks Mom….?
She could have emailed it, but she is so technologically challenged.. it’s easier to write and mail me a letter.
So now, I am naturally thinking of buying a travel sheet with a sewn in pillow cover.
Call me paranoid, but the thought of scabies or these little worms burrowing into your SKIN and itching all night, laying eggs gives me the heebie jeebies.
And I mean, let’s face it.
It’s kind of gross to sleep in a bed that tons of other people who may not be as clean, or as lice-free have slept in.
So what’s the deal then?
I’m thinking of buying a travel sheet and pillow case. It is a fabric sewn together like a sleeping bag, and protects against dirty beds. They can also be used as sleeping bag liners and protect the sleeping bag from sweat for example.
The travel sheets that I want, are going to protect from:
- harsh detergents
- lice
- bedbugs
- allergens (animal and dust mite dander)
- unclean bedding
And trust me, you don’t want me to tell you about each of those in detail. I read all about it, and it kind of gives me a body shiver.
Travel Sheet Terms
Pillow Pocket: a pocket sewn to the travel sheet that you can insert a pillow into.
Fold Over Top Sheet: A fabric flap that covers the top of the blanket
Pore Size: the space measured in microns that is in between the fabric threads
Chemical Sensitivity: hotels really use powerful detergents and bleaches to get rid of all bodily fluids left by previous er.. sleepers. Some of the fragrances are very strong, and if you’re sensitive to them like I am, you have to protect your skin from those irritants
What to look for in a travel sheet:
* Pore size below 10 microns
* Breathability and comfort
* Pillow pocket and fold over top sheet
* Quality (something that can be washed constantly)
* Zipper not Velcro, snaps or buttons
* Should be able to be hot water and hot air dried
* Affordability
You’re soooo paranoid
Yeah.
But at least I’ll be coping with my paranoia of sleeping in hotel beds with a travel sheet that will protect me from all of the above crap.
You do NOT want me to tell you what are in hotel beds on a regular basis, especially the cheap hotel rooms we try to stay in. Unless you stay at the Four Seasons.. you cannot be sure it is clean, trust me.
I also travel a lot, so this is justified in the sense that I am going to be using it a lot.
What about pillows with sweat stains embedded into them?
Oh and I also bought a travel pillow that squishes down! I can use it on the plane and also in hotel rooms to sleep on instead of using their pillows.
(My God, I feel like going to start seeing the FBI following me everywhere too with my level of paranoia)
This is the Medium-sized one I bought from Mountain Equipment Co-Op (MEC).
The small felt too small to be comfortable, especially since it is doing double duty in hotel rooms as well.
Which travel sheet did you buy?
I ended up buying the Allersac from a local guy who runs the business.
$60 for the single-sized person travel sheet, which may seem expensive.. but I am going to be using this sucker forever.I guess you could stick 2 people in there, it’s quite roomy.. but it might get a bit tight
BF tried looking for a cheap alternative to a travel sheet, but we couldn’t even find it in the bed & bath stores around here, and the ones sold at places like Mountain Equipment Co-Op, are usually silk or some other material without a lot of information on whether it keeps out the bed bugs.
I am okay with MY bed bugs, but not with hundreds of others’ bedbugs… if you know what I mean.
The travel sheets in silk, are meant to keep you warm when you’re out camping, with very little bulk. Not the best material for hotel room sleeping, however….
And we thought about taking a plain cotton sheet and just stitching it together, but we couldn’t find the proper size bed sheets to do the work (in the right softness and thickness) without spending $30 a sheet.
Maybe if we went to discount bath stores… the other problem is also that we don’t have any sewing skills or a sewing machine to do neat stitches and hems, as well as to put in zippers.
C’est la vie.
- How do I travel so light?
- 10 Long Trip Traveling Essentials
- What I have to look into, before booking a hotel
- Cooking while on vacation
- How to pack for a business trip (formal + casual)
