Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Getting rid of a sofa

Room & Board has called to say my new sofa is ready.  Now, how do I get rid of my old sofa?


1.  Rumor has it that furniture deliverers will, if provided with a generous tip, take away the old sofa.  I called R&B to ask, and of course they officially said no.  How do I find out what the unofficial answer is?  I put a question on Yahoo questions ("Will Room & Board delivery take my old sofa?") and received one answer: Give it to the Salvation Army.

2.  The Salvation Army is a pickup machine.  You dial an 800 number to schedule a pickup.  However, they don't do stairs, and I'm on the third floor.  (Goodwill doesn't do sofas at all.)

3.  Find someone to take my sofa downstairs so the Salvation Army will take it away.  The problem is, who?  I don't want to impose on my friends.  Pick up a couple of day laborers and only give them 10 minutes of work?

4.  Give it for free to someone in my building.  No takers.  (I also asked for volunteers to carry the thing down the stairs so the Salvation Army could take it.)

5.  My neighbor's housekeeper takes used household goods.  However, she didn't want a whole sofa.

6.  My neighbor's Little Sister needed a new sofa.  Once again, not this one at this time.

7.  A colleague is planning to move into her own apartment.  However, that's not for a few more months, and there's nowhere to store it.

8.  Put it on craigslist "free items."

9.  Put it on freecycle.com.

Those last two didn't pan out, but in the process I saw "moving/labor" on craigslist.  Found a dude who said he could do same day pickup and hauling, would charge me $50.  At this point, I'm desperate, so I tell him I'll call him when I get home.
And then I get home and craigslist has paid off (or maybe it was freecycle).  A guy named William had just left me an email about the sofa, proactively pointing out that he has a truck (per the ad, I did require that they bring one). He said he and a buddy would be over in an hour.  A sweet young guy.  It turns out he has a loft in Jack London Square and is throwing a big party; he want somewhere for people to sit and/or sleep.  That's a perfect use for this indestructible but not the most attractive sofa.  He and his buddy were super-pro at negotiating and navigating how to get an enormous sofa out my door and down two flights of stairs.  I complimented him on his comfort with the whole thing, and he said he used to have a band, that he could pack and lift and load anything.  My sofa has the perfect new home.