Hammocking folks all over the world have fallen in love with hammock camping. We’ve discussed the benefits here. It’s of course, no wonder that people want to move their beloved hammocks indoors. That requires one of two things: 1) fixing your hammock directly to your home structure via hooks on the walls or ceilings, OR 2) a free standing hammock stand. “Free standing” means it doesn’t require staking or otherwise anchoring into the floor or ground.
For indoor hammocking, permanently installing hooks in your walls is a great solution (we’ve done it ourselves)…. As long as you never want to move your hammock to another room and don’t mind patching holes when you sell your home or move to a new apartment. For our purposes, a free standing hammock stand is a much better solution. Let’s discuss the benefits:
Moveability
With the right hammock stand, you can sleep in your hammock overnight, then your teenagers can easily move it into the rec room for video games. From there, it can go to a quiet corner for reading, napping, or dog-snuggling. How about to the deck or back porch for some vitamin D? With a stake-free stand like our lightweight Cricket Hammock Stand, moving from room-to-room is no problem.
Travel
When traveling, a hammock stand is super handy for sleeping OR sitting. You never know what kind of bed you’ll get at hotels or Air BnB rentals. For guaranteed comfort, we recommend bringing a hammock stand that packs up small, and can easily be set up indoors. This is also a great option when there isn’t quite enough bed space but you don’t want to spend money on an extra hotel room. Then, during the daytime, take your stand to the beach, park, or picnic. We stayed at an Air BnB over Thanksgiving that didn’t have enough seating in the living room for our large group. Luckily, we had our Cricket Stand with us. We set it up so everyone could participate in the conversations and games.
Guests
Got company over the holidays? Set ’em up in a hammock and they might not want to go home! You can pull your portable stand out from your linen closet, and have it set up in ten minutes or less. Use it for sleeping or extra seating during game time. A hammock stand indoors is also great for kids’ sleepovers. And if your stand is portable enough, you can put them outside when they get too noisy! 😆 (Weather permitting, of course.)
What to look for in a free standing hammock stand
There are many free standing hammock stand options on the market. Of course we’re biased, but we feel our Cricket checks all the boxes!
Packability
How small can your hammock stand get when disassembled? Can it slide under a bed, or easily fit into your linen closet? It is preferable to have a packable hammock stand that fits into carry-on luggage and doesn’t take up much valuable space in the back of your vehicle. Cricket has been on many flights in our carry-on and is TSA approved. Don’t confuse “portable” hammock stands with “packable” hammock stands! Portable means it is possible to get it from Point A to Point B. Packable means it is easy to do so.
Strength
In the past, one had to sacrifice strength and sturdiness for packability. The strongest hammock stands were giant, heavy, bulky things. With Cricket, you no longer have to choose. She holds 500 lbs of weight, yet weighs less than ten pounds. Cal and I love taking our Cricket on trips and hanging together in the hammock while we watch the sunset, an outdoor concert, or a movie at a friend’s house.
Indoor/Outdoor Friendly
The best bang for your buck is a hammock stand that can easily live indoors or outdoors. You don’t want a stand that will rust or break down when exposed to the outside elements. You also, don’t want it to wreck your floors or take up too much space inside. Cricket comes with non-marring rubber feet for indoors, and 7075 machined aluminum feet for outdoors. She is perfectly content inside or out.
You Oughta Be Hammocking
YOBO stands for “You Oughta Be Outdoors”… but as long as you’re inside, you might as well be hammocking, right? We are happy to have created a hassle-free way to do so. You can learn more about Cricket by clicking here to see specs and reviews or seeing her in action on YouTube.