How to Make a Bed Less Creaky

Tighten all the bolts on your bed frame. Loose bolts allow movement of the components, which can cause creaking.

Wax any wood-on-wood joints with a hard wood furniture wax. Regular paraffin wax also works to lubricate wooden joints.

Apply WD-40 to all joints on a completely metal bed frame, or to joints that consist of two metal parts joining together on any bed frame.

Dust some talcum powder on all the joints if the squeaking continues after you have tightened and otherwise lubricated the bed.

Pull the staples out of the bottom cover of the box spring and remove it, or cut off the old cloth with scissors. Apply WD-40 to all of the joints where wood rubs on wood in the box spring. A squeak can hide in the box spring rather than the frame. Staple the cloth covering back on the bottom of the box spring. If you had to cut the covering off, measure the box spring, buy a new piece of box spring muslin from a fabric store and staple it to the frame.

Rotate the mattress or flip it if the creak seems to come from the mattress itself. Other than changing the position of the mattress, there is little you can do except replace it if the creak is contained in the mattress rather than in another component of the bed and is impossible to live with.