---
title: "Mattress Bags for Moving: Sizes & Use | AG Moving&Storage"
description: Buy a mattress bag on three numbers, and the middle one is the one that fails. Sizes for every bed, what a mil really measures, and when to skip the bag.
image: "https://agmovingservice.com/og-image.png"
---

# Mattress Bags: Sizes, Thickness and What They Actually Protect Against

You buy a mattress bag for moving on three numbers, and the middle one decides whether it works: width, depth, length. Plenty of mattresses now stand 11 inches or more while the cheapest covers still open to 8 inches of depth, which is why so many households arrive at the truck with the plastic already stretched thin at all four corners. This is the buying decision, the order the cover goes on, and how to keep the bed dry, written for a Los Angeles or Orange County household packing this week.

Sealed and ready: tell us what moves

[Get a quote](https://agmovingservice.com/contact/#quote) [(818) 391-8215](tel:+18183918215)

By[Sandy Uali](https://agmovingservice.com/about/) Owner

October 21, 2026

![Paper-craft illustration of a green folded-paper mattress standing on end, half covered by a translucent paper sleeve pulled up from the bottom](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/4dt76agm/production/12a2f0fbd6ca772673dce1016c1e3296c80f485c-1264x848.jpg?w=1264&h=843&fit=crop&auto=format)

## At a glance

- Buy on width, depth and length. Depth is the middle figure in a size written as 60 by 8 by 90 inches, and it is the number that fails.
- Standard covers come 39, 54, 60 and 78 inches wide, all 90 inches long. The 78-inch cover takes a standard king and a California king.
- Cheap 1.5 mil covers open to 8 inches, while Casper builds The One at 11 inches in every size and Saatva sells its Classic at 11.5 or 14.5. Measure your own bed.
- Count one cover per piece, since a queen on a foundation needs two.
- The vent holes are deliberate. Never tape a cover shut for a spell in storage, and never bag a mattress that is even slightly damp.
- If a store is delivering a new bed, it usually has to offer to remove the old one, so that mattress may need no cover.

## Measure the bed before you buy the bag

Measure three things before you buy anything: the width of the mattress, its depth, and its length. Suppliers print all three in a single string in that order, so Uline's [mattress bag range](https://www.uline.com/BL_158/Mattress-Bags) heads that column "COVER SIZE W x D x L" and most other sellers label theirs the same way.

**A mattress bag** is a thin polyethylene sleeve, open at one end, that keeps grit, driveway water and hand marks off a mattress in transit. **The gusset** is the folded side panel that gives that flat sleeve its depth once it opens out, and it is the middle figure in the size. **A mil** is one thousandth of an inch, so the thickness numbers on the packaging are film thickness and nothing else.

Against real beds, the width column does most of the work.

- Twin at 38 inches wide and twin XL at 38 by 80 both take the 39-inch cover.
- A full bed at 53 inches wide takes the 54-inch cover, usually labeled double.
- Queen at 60 by 80 takes the 60-inch cover, an exact match on width with nothing to spare.
- King at 76 by 80 and California king at 72 by 84 both take the 78-inch cover.

Length is generous on every one of them, because the standard covers are 90 inches long: a queen leaves 10 inches of tail to fold underneath, and a California king, the longest bed on that list, still leaves 6.

Depth is where people get caught. Casper builds [The One](https://casper.com/products/casper-one-foam) at 11 inches in every size it sells, and Saatva offers its [Classic](https://www.saatva.com/mattresses/saatva-classic) at either 11.5 or 14.5 inches, so a 1.5 mil cover opening to 8 inches clears none of them. The bag still goes on, since polyethylene stretches, but the stretching concentrates at the four corners, and a thin corner is the first thing to meet your door frame. Put a tape measure against the side of the mattress and write the height down.

## How thick a bag to buy, and how many

How thick to go is usually settled by the depth of your bed rather than by durability. In a standard range the 4 mil covers open to 12 inches on double, queen and king, against 8 inches at 1.5 mil, with the twin an exception at 10. On an 11-inch mattress that conveniently puts the fit decision and the toughness decision in the same place. Anything past 12 inches needs a pillow-top cover instead, and those open to 15 or 18 inches.

Then count pieces rather than beds, because the mattress takes one cover and the foundation or box spring underneath it takes its own. For example, a queen on a foundation in the main bedroom plus a twin in the second bedroom comes to three covers, not two. Order them the week before packing starts, since a Saturday morning hunt for a 78-inch cover is a miserable way to begin a move day.

One warning about warehouse suppliers: they sell these covers by the roll, 100 at a time in the thinner gauge, so treat their tables as reference material and buy singles.

## Bagging the bed on move morning

Bag the mattress on move morning rather than the night before, and work in this order.

1. Strip the bedding the night before and leave the mattress bare in open room air.
2. Stand it on edge against a wall on move morning, with one person at each end.
3. Slide the cover down from the top and work the corners in by hand rather than hauling on the film.
4. Fold the loose tail under the foot end and tape that fold to itself, without sealing the open end.
5. Carry the mattress, not the plastic. A bagged bed is slippery, and grabbing the film is how a cover tears at the top corner.
6. In the truck, stand it on edge against the wall and let it be strapped there, or lay it flat on top of the load, last on, never on the deck underneath everything else.
7. Take the cover off the same day at the new place, unless the bed is going straight into storage.

Two things not to attempt, whatever the internet suggests. Never fold a foam mattress to negotiate a stairwell post, because the core is what you are bending. And never try to re-roll or vacuum-compress a bed that originally arrived in a box, since the compression machinery that managed it the first time lives in a factory.

Our crews put a thick moving blanket over the plastic on anything with a long carry or a tight turn, and blankets, wrap and tape come on the truck on every [furniture moving](https://agmovingservice.com/services/furniture-moving/) job at no extra cost. Plastic against the fabric, padding against the world.

## Keep it dry, and keep it off the concrete

Keep the mattress dry before it ever goes into plastic, because foam, quilted panels and innerspring covers all hold water and a bagged bed has nowhere to give that moisture back. The [EPA's guidance on household mold](https://www.epa.gov/mold/brief-guide-mold-moisture-and-your-home) puts the drying window at 24 to 48 hours and says nothing grows without moisture in the first place. That is the entire rule: dry bed, then plastic, never the reverse.

The vent holes are the manufacturer's answer to that problem, so leave them open. Consider a mattress standing in a Long Beach garage through a June marine layer, taped shut in film: it cannot dry, and by the time somebody opens the bag the drying window closed days ago. Keep the bed off a bare concrete slab as well, on a pallet or a folded blanket, wherever it has to wait.

If the bed is going into [storage between addresses](https://agmovingservice.com/services/storage/), mention it when you book, because our crews collect it, keep it padded for the entire stay and return it on redelivery day. A mattress that goes in dry is the one that comes back the same.

## What a mattress bag will not do

A mattress bag protects a surface, and three other jobs get expected of it that the product was never engineered to do.

1. It will not stop the mattress bending, because film contributes no rigidity whatsoever. A foam queen folded around a stair post is being folded regardless of its packaging.
2. It will not stop bed bugs. **A mattress encasement** is a zippered cover that seals a mattress or box spring on every face, and it is a different product that stays on the bed for months.
3. It will not carry the weight. Casper lists The One at 76 pounds in queen and 94 in king, and a sleeve measured in thousandths of an inch is not a handle.

## Getting rid of a bed you are not taking

Getting rid of an old bed usually costs nothing, and it may need no cover at all. In California, a retailer delivering a new mattress generally has to offer to remove your old one at no additional charge, and has up to 30 days to collect it, so ask for it while you are scheduling and get it written into the order. A delivery crew arriving without the pickup on their paperwork usually will not take it. The retailer's own terms say when they can refuse a mattress, so ask about that on the same call.

No delivery scheduled? The Mattress Recycling Council operates free drop-off locations across the state, and its [California page](https://byebyemattress.com/recycling-programs/california/) lists them. Each site publishes its own list of what it will and will not accept, so read that page — or call the location — before you load anything. Your city's sanitation desk is the other call to make, because many cities run a bulky-item collection that covers a mattress if you book it far enough ahead.

Do not leave it at the curb on spec, because that is how a free problem becomes an expensive one.

## Tell us the bed sizes when you ask for a quote

Tell us the bed sizes and which floor they sit on, because both change the plan. A California king negotiating a switchback staircase in an older apartment building is a different proposition from a twin on the ground floor. Knowing which one the crew is walking into is how we settle the hours and the headcount before anybody lifts.

Our [packing services](https://agmovingservice.com/services/packing-services/) page sets out what a full or partial pack covers, and [what a move costs](https://agmovingservice.com/moving-costs/) explains how crew size and hours turn into the figure on your estimate. A standard [local move](https://agmovingservice.com/services/local-moving/) is 2 movers with a 24-ft truck as the baseline, with any extra hands quoted with the job, and the written estimate caps the bill.

Call [(818) 391-8215](tel:+18183918215) with your bed sizes and dates, or [send the details through](https://agmovingservice.com/contact/#quote) and a written figure comes back. AG Moving&Storage works across [Los Angeles and Orange County](https://agmovingservice.com/service-areas/), including [Long Beach](https://agmovingservice.com/service-areas/long-beach/), licensed as USDOT 3610341, CAL-T192465 · CA 602741 and MC 1525501. See [who we are](https://agmovingservice.com/about/) if you want to know who is carrying the bed downstairs.

## Frequently asked questions

### What size mattress bag do I need?

Buy on three numbers: width, depth and length. Standard covers run 39, 54, 60 and 78 inches wide and 90 inches long, so the width of your bed picks the bag and the length looks after itself. Depth is the one people miss. Plenty of beds stand 11 to 14.5 inches tall and the cheapest covers open to only 8, so put a tape measure against the side of the mattress before you order.

### Is a 4 mil mattress bag worth it over 1.5 mil?

Usually yes, and the reason is depth as much as toughness. In a standard range the 1.5 mil covers open to 8 inches, while the 4 mil covers open to 12 on double, queen and king. On an 11-inch bed the thicker bag is also the only one that fits without stretching at the corners, and thicker film survives a stair nose and a truck deck better.

### Will a queen mattress bag fit a California king?

No, and width is the reason. A California king is 72 inches wide and every queen cover is 60, so you are a foot short. Length is not the problem, because a 90-inch cover clears an 84-inch bed with room to fold under. Buy the 78-inch king cover instead; it takes a California king and a standard king both.

### Can I leave a mattress sealed in its bag in storage?

Leave it covered, never sealed, and never bag a mattress that feels damp. Moving covers usually ship with vent holes for exactly that reason, and taping the open end shut closes the only route moisture has out. If a bed has been anywhere humid, give it a day of open room air before it goes into plastic.

### Does a mattress bag stop bed bugs?

No. A moving cover is a thin sleeve, open at one end and easy to tear, and it comes off the day you arrive. The product for that job is a zippered encasement that seals the mattress and the box spring on every face. You buy it separately and leave it on the bed.

## More from this series

- [How to Pack a Kitchen: Backward From Dinner](https://agmovingservice.com/blog/how-to-pack-a-kitchen/)
- [Free Moving Boxes in Southern California, and When They Cost You More](https://agmovingservice.com/blog/free-moving-boxes-socal/)
- [What It Actually Takes to Pack a Southern California Home](https://agmovingservice.com/blog/what-it-takes-to-pack-a-socal-home/)

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