DEAR ABBY: Several years ago we bought a used sofa at a garage sale. It is now falling apart. A friend of mine in the hotel business offered me an almost new sofa bed from a room that was being redecorated. It matches the colors in our game room perfectly. My wife said, "You can't bring hotel furniture into the house. Yuck!"
My logic is this: Why can't our kids sleep on a hotel bed in our house if our other houseguests are using the kids' rooms? We would use our clean sheets, and they sleep on the sofa beds in the hotels we stay in. My wife will sleep in a hotel bed that 100 percent of the guests sleep in, but she doesn't want a bug-free sofa bed that about 5 percent of hotel guests have used in our home for occasional use. Am I cheap, or am I married to a clean freak? -- WHO'S BEEN SLEEPING IN MY BED?
DEAR WHO'S BEEN SLEEPING: Not knowing you better, I can't say whether or not you're cheap. But your wife should know that many people buy used hotel furniture, and selling it is big business. The sofa bed could be cleaned and sanitized and the mattress replaced. (Inquire about it at any furniture store that sells sofa beds.) But don't push your wife into taking it or the person who winds up sleeping on it could be you.