Out with the old

We’ve talked about getting a new [to us] couch for awhile now, but we weren’t actively looking.  So imagine my surprise on a lazy Saturday morning two weeks ago when Matthew announced he’d found an estate sale couch while browsing Craigslist.

Rather annoyed at the interruption in my morning, I agreed to go check it out with him.  One thing led to another, and we left the estate sale down an eighty dollar cash deposit, with the promise of a new couch as soon as we could get a truck to transport it.  I realized on the way home that we really could not get the new couch until we found a home for our old couch — this proved more difficult than I would have expected.

Craigslist, ReUseIt St. Louis (formerly FreeCycle), Salvation Army . . . nothing was working.  No one wanted to buy it at $85, and no one wanted it for free.  In the meantime, we moved the old couch out of our apartment (no small feat with two people, a second-story apartment, and a relatively tight staircase) and into the backyard, anticipating a quick turnaround with the free listing.

When that did not come to pass, and with rain looming in the forecast, we moved the old couch back inside.  Unfortunately, it would not fit in the basement door, so we faced the unpleasant prospect of moving it all the way back up to our living room.  In the end, we brought it partway up the front staircase, where it stayed for almost a week, sitting on end, with just barely enough space for us to squeeze by and get out the front door.  Fun times!

As much as I hated the idea, I was beginning to see how perfectly decent, usable furniture could  just end up in the dump.

In the end, we lowered the price on Craigslist to $35, and made a sale, provided we could deliver, which we agreed to, since we would have a truck anyway to get the new couch.  All the stars for borrowing a pickup truck and arranging for drop-off of the old and pick-up of the new finally aligned last Wednesday night, the night we got freezing rain . . . .