Where to find an inexpensive set of bed sheets and pillows in Brisbane?

February 18, 2009 2:22 AM

Where can I find an inexpensive set of bed sheets and pillows in Brisbane?

I'm only in Brisbane for 5 months, and I'll be traveling in Australia afterward so I won't be able to take the pillows, at least, with me. As a result, I don't want to spend much money. Where's the best place to go for cheap bedding in Brisbane?

posted by Dasein to shopping (8 comments total)

Shop around- try K-Mart, Myers (yes, even Myers) and Spotlight. If you really luck-out try the charity shops: St Vincent De Paul, Salvation Army and Smith Family. Boundary st. in West End has all these all shops. Also ask other backpacker people. Where are you traveling? They sell pillows in the supermarkets here. I can give you clean sheets I dont want back, but not pillows. Good pillows are Currency dude. You probably don't want the pillows I dont want.
posted by evil_esto at 2:37 AM on February 18

I haven't yet decided where I'm traveling afterward, but I have a backpack that's already stuffed, so there won't be space for pillows, but if they're cheap I don't mind abandoning them.

I'm going to be living near Boundary St. in the West End, so I'll look there if I can't find anything at Myers (Toowong and Indooropilly are a bit far for me to go, but I'll go there if I have to).

I really appreciate the offer of sheets. If I strike out I might take you up on it. In any event, we should have a meetup so I can buy you beer as a mark of my appreciation.
posted by Dasein at 2:53 AM on February 18

This isn't necessarily hugely practical, but if I were doing what you're doing, knowing what little I now know about sleepin' gear, I'd buy myself a nice solid-memory-foam pillow. (Not the cheaper kind that have a sheath of memory foam around a conventional-foam core.) Cheap shops almost certainly won't have them - heck, many proper department stores won't - but you can find 'em quite cheaply on ebay.com.au.

I suggest this because travellers often need all the help they can get in going to sleep (see also: earplugs), and because memory-foam pillows can be squished down into a surprisingly small dense lump, only to cheerfully expand again like a marshmallow in a microwave when released from their confinement. They usually seem to be sold in this "compressed" form, and if you keep the original packaging I think you've got a reasonable chance of being able to stuff the pillow back in there, whereupon it will take up little room in, but admittedly add significant weight to, your luggage. Or you can of course use bungee cords or something to tie the thing down into 125% of its original volume.

I realise that I sound like some sort of deranged memory-foam-pillow evangelist, here, but they really are great. They feel strangely flat when you first use them - and get even flatter as your head sinks in, which it will do distinctly slower if the pillow is cold - but they let you keep your neck straight as you sleep, which I've found that almost everybody prefers to the usual odd big-fluffy-pillow neck angle.

And the buggers last, too. We've had ours for more than five years now, and they still bounce back as well as when they were new.

I shall now return you to the care of people willing answer your actual question. Thank you for your indulgence.
posted by dansdata at 4:08 AM on February 18

I'd just go to Best & Less (there's one in the Myer Centre in the Queen Street Mall - third floor up I think) and grab some Bonds ones; it's been a while but I think they sell them in two packs for pretty cheap. I'm no pillow conneisseur (sp?) but I sleep on them; they do the job!
posted by springbound at 4:21 AM on February 18

I would look at the Direct Factory Outlet centre near the airport as they tend to have good deals every now and then. I once got a pair of converse for $12AUD. Very nice.

Also, years ago (not sure if it is still the case), there were a few outlet stores in Stones Corner which is on the southside. Mainly clothes but I'm pretty sure there was one or two that dealt in bedding and manchester. Just near the Stones Corner Hotel.

Good luck.
posted by micklaw at 5:21 AM on February 18

I would say that Target and Big W might also be good places to look. I can't remember off the top of my head where the stores are, but they're usually in the suburban shopping centres - Carindale, Indooroopilly, etc. There should be store locators on the respective websites.
posted by sektah at 6:13 AM on February 18

ikea logan is just out of brisbane, and ikea's always got lots of lovely cheap bedding.
posted by lia at 9:32 AM on February 18

Buranda Target is the closest to West End, but links to it by public transport from WE are probably not the most direct. Going to the city one (bottom of Myer Centre) will be the easiest to get to, and there are more stores to search through there (Myer, Best n Less, etc).

It may be worth trying the coles at West End - I know supermarkets occasionally get in cheap bedding on sale.

And off-topic: enjoy living in West End! I lived there for 20 years so know what a joy it can be.
posted by chronic sublime at 5:14 PM on February 20