Free Couch For Sale

Last week we had new living room seating delivered. Now it was time to get rid of the old reclining couch that had served us faithfully for many years.

The furniture deliverers carried the old piece downstairs to the communal basement and set it against the wall in our parking area. My main goal was to keep the couch out of a landfill. It was solid but had some cosmetic issues; the foam cushions were a little saggy, and the upholstery needed a good cleaning. I researched prices for used couches, then chose one on the low end and posted it on Facebook Marketplace. After 24 hours the only responses I got were from spammers who wanted fishy personal information. I quickly deleted their messages. 

Every time I walked down to the garage to go somewhere or throw trash in the can the couch was there, a reminder that something needed to be done with it.

After a friend of Tony's told him that in his recent experience not even thrift stores were taking upholstered furniture, we talked about it and decided to offer the couch for no cost. Sunday night I changed the information on the ads a couple of hours before I went to bed. Only one response came in, and I started feeling frustrated. I don't know if it just took a while for people to see my posting, or if it was because many people were off for the Martin Luther King holiday on Monday, but in the end I had somewhere between 50 and 60 people inquire about the couch. 

When we were getting ready to move I had gotten rid of quite a few things via Facebook Marketplace and came up with a pretty good system. Each time I offered the couch to someone I gave them a limited amount of time to respond. Many never responded back before the deadline (which I understood; I don't sit by my computer all day) and I moved on to someone else. 

The first person who I actually thought would show up messaged me back 20 minutes later to apologize that his plans for the day had changed. The party after that gave me a cell phone number. We exchanged a couple of texts, then he ghosted me.

By this time it was late afternoon and I was getting discouraged. The next individual seemed really committed, and we even arranged a pickup time. An hour later he messaged me, apologized, and said he was bummed but his roommate didn't want a couch like that in the house. I thanked him and moved on.

The next person I contacted said the couch would be for her son, and he wanted to know why we were getting rid of it. My explanation must have satisfied. Ten minutes later, her next message said that the son had just been Covid quarantined and wouldn't be able to come and help load it (and by the way, Son didn't live with them and hadn't been at the house for weeks). I told her that I was sure Tony would be able to supply the necessary muscle.

This afternoon I got a text from the woman telling me she and her husband were on the way. They showed up right at the time they said they would in a pickup truck with a trailer hitched to the back. I opened up the garage door, the husband backed the truck in. Five minutes later the couch was loaded and strapped down, and the people drove out of the garage and on their way.

Five years ago today: Gettting Rid Of The Temptation