<p>After reading a thread about the two, I realized I didn’t really know the difference between lofting a bed and just using bed “risers”?</p>
<p>A lofted bed is higher than a top bunk. A dresser, desk and other furniture can fit under it.</p>
<p>The definition does sort of depend, though. My school refers to beds as lofted if they’re higher than the normal height, even if the bed is lower than a top bunk (but, say, high enough that jumping up would be difficult). That’s because in one of the largest dorms, the beds are made to be raised or lowered to any height, so many students choose a height that’s high enough to fit the dresser under but not much higher.</p>
<p>Lofted beds are placed on other furniture, of varying heights. The UW-Madison Residence Halls web pages has a “lofting guide” for each of its dorms, with pictures of the 4 or so different ways to loft their beds. Some are bunks, others variations of putting the bed legs on desks, bookshelves, part of a bed… the current furniture was designed for lofting (you can do a higher/lower loft version by flipping it over, the head/foot boards have two possible heights). The only decision I faced freshman year was right or left side of split down the middle room with “bolsters” the length of each bed (they made all the furniture moveable now, except for some dorms with built in dressers).</p>
<p>S’s lofted bed came with a detachable shelf that hooks over the bedrail. It’s about 6" wide by 15" long but it’s flat. There’s no rim around the edge to keep things from sliding off. Does anyone have any suggestions about how S could modify it to at least keep his alarm clock from falling off? Whenever he rolls over in bed, the covers hit it and the clock goes flying!</p>
<p>How about museum putty? Bed Bath & Beyond should carry it, especially on-line. We here in SoCal use it to safeguard our little breakables in the event of earthquake.</p>
<p>How about attaching the clock with velcro.</p>
<p>A quick and dirty fix would be to take pieces of duct tape, fold them into little tubes sticky-side out, and duct tape the feet or the bottom of the alarm clock to the shelf. He could duct tape the back of the clock down, too, if he wanted.</p>
<p>Thanks for the suggestions! I sent him a roll of velcro tape that I think will do the trick, but I’m trying to convince him to unloft the bed, too. I made the bed for him when he moved in and it was such a chore that I’m sure he’ll never change the sheets if he has to struggle with tucking things in!</p>
<p>LOL, tuck things in? change sheets? My S had a lofted bed his freshman year. I know for a fact the bed was never made once after I did it on move-in day. I’m pretty sure the sheets didn’t get washed either (good thing they were a dark color) because at the end of the year when he came home and I asked “where are the sheets?” He said …I threw them away!<br>
Of course my S’s room at home always looked like something had exploded in it too…could barely see the floor.
He and his roommate thought the lofted system was great because the beds could be a big ol’ mess but were high enough off the floor that nobody ever really noticed.</p>
<p>You should put the alarm clock out of reach. That way, it would be impossible to snooze it and go back to sleep.</p>