I’ve decided to get a new couch. I’m pretty sure I’ll go to one of the big name stores and have it delivered.
I’m just curious how much they’re going to charge me to heal off the old one. The couch itself is in bad enough shape that the Salvation Army wouldn’t take it. (Cats are assholes)
I’m kinda curious about this too. We will be getting new furniture next year I suspect. Depends on remodeling stuff.
Didn’t even know that they might haul the old one out.
Getting along in years, and my friends are too. I’d rather not ask for help getting the old stuff out and the new stuff in. To complicate things, our driveway is not friendly to anything bigger than a pickup. May have to offload from a delivery truck into my truck to get it up the drive.
Negotiate it as part of the purchase price, i.e. ‘and for that price, will you take away my old couch for free?’
Another vote for ‘see if they’ll haul off the old one as part of the deal.’
Also, if your locality provides curbside trash pickup, see if they also have the occasional day where they pick up oversized items like that.
My town will haul off up to three big items per year for free; after that, they charge for it. I have to request the pickup ahead of time, and it has to be on the one day a month that they send the truck around my side of town. Maybe your city/county/town has something like that, maybe they don’t. But check into it.
lots of stores as part of the incentive to buy will haul away your old item.
so say you want it done.
Shakes, if you are in Dallas, proper, they do bulk pickup once a month, I think. If you are in Richardson (and I have this idea you are up north somewhere), they pick up once a week, and couches are no problem.
Craigslist has haulers, sometimes just a guy and his truck. Don’t know if it’s cheap, but there are plenty to choose from (at least around here).
Try Freecycle. Follow the link and see if there is a group in your area. Members offer stuff they want to be rid of and other members take it if they need it. You may still need to get rid of it yourself, but this way, it might not cost you anything.
Bob
We got rid of our old sofa (yes, cats are assholes and cat pee is stinky) by taking advantage of the large item pickup process in our area (greater Los Angeles). One website submission was all it took. They emailed me to let me know when it was going to be picked up and all I had to do was get it out to the curb. My husband was well enough to help with that back then. More recently I got rid of a peed on mattress the same way, a friend’s teenage son was helping me out with chores that day and helped me get it out of the house. So see if your municipality has anything like that for large item pickup.
When clearing out my late in-law’s house, I used 1 800 Got Junk. I had a lot of stuff to get rid of that the Salvation Army wouldn’t take, and that didn’t sell in the estate sale, and that we didn’t want to keep. I had to pay by the truckload. It was worth every penny (about $600 per truckload, and they pro-rate it).
I’ll agree with asking if the store will haul away the old one or just seeing if your city will pick it up (for free or even if they charge $20). Most likely one of those will be the case. After that, most cities have some kind of ‘spring/fall cleanup’ where you can put all your crap on the curb and they’ll come get it. In my city, they’ll take anything pretty much no matter how big it is.
Otherwise, just put it out in the curb with a sign that says ‘free couch’ and you might be surprised at how fast id disappears. Put it out when you know it’s not going to rain (or snow) for a few days and it’ll probably be gone in 2 or 3 days. If nothing else, the junkers might take it for the springs.
Also @enipla, most cities have some kind of mini-dump where you can take this kind of stuff all year. If you have a pick up truck, I’d just take it there and be done with it.
Get a quote. In writing.
I have disposed of many a couch in my day. And I’ve always hauled them away to the dump myself. It used to be free of charge (dropping them off at the landfill), but the landfill charged me $15 for the last one. Times are a changing.
I echo the comments about checking to see whether there’s a free removal service. My local council provides a free fortnightly household waste collection
Make sure you check on the details of the pick-up. It makes a big difference if they’re agreeing to take the couch from its current location in your house or just agreeing to pick it up from the curb.
Oh, I know. Thing is, my neighbor and I had a hell of a time getting the current one in the house. And it’s not as heavy as the types we are thinking about. And now, I’m 10 years older…
I’m finally at a point in my life when I feel it’s OK to pay for other folks to do stuff for me. I’d never dreamed of it 20 years ago.
Before you haul it to the curb, unscrew the feet and sell them on Craigslist. Seriously. Four matching furniture feet (in decent condition), depending on your area, might fetch upwards of $10-$30 for the set.
Hell, unscrewing the feet just makes it easier to get it out the door. It’s a trick most people don’t know. It’s a fast way to make the couch a few inches narrower.
If you live near Columbus, OH, call some fraternity at OSU to pick it up. They like to set fire to furniture out on 15th Ave when OSU wins a game and basketball season is coming.
Take the couch apart, some of it will be easy, the rest you can pull apart with a pry bar or a screwdriver. Then take it piece by piece and deposit it in trash containers over a wide area. Since the cat’s DNA is traceable, you may have to get rid of the cat.
Wait…wait…oh, god, I’ve been watching waaaay to much Forensic Files.
However, you can take a couch apart and take it in sections to the dump if you’re truck limited (and cheap to boot). It’s more effort than I’d care to make, but it’s doable.
burn it.
with fire.
It’s pretty unlikely they will pick up the old furniture these days do to the threat of bedbugs. They would have to send a second truck for pickups, and they don’t like to do that.