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Jun. 24th, 2024 12:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
camwynLooking into the couch situation a little further.
1. I live in a third floor walkup. The Sabai couch will be shipping in multiple boxes if I order one, and according to various reviews I've seen, each box should be light enough for one person to get up a basic flight of stairs but will be much easier to move if I have some assistance. This is fine. However:
2. The Ektorp I have now will need to go downstairs in order for the new couch to be set up. I do not remember disassembling the couch before moving here from Hoboken; I think I just had movers transport it for me. I suppose for something like this I will need to hire someone from Taskrabbit or look around to see about college move-in-move-out services. It's the Boston area. There are a LOT of college students. Services like that exist, I'm sure, I just haven't looked for them before this. My alternative involves finding out how to take a couch apart and seeing if I can haul individual components downstairs.
I will now pause to remember the process of moving the Metropolitan NJ Red Cross out of our building in West Orange. We had a parking lot. We had a large dumpster. We had people who saw no problem with chucking suitably sized items out of the top floor windows into the dumpster in the parking lot; no one was parked near the dumpster, so if anything bounced or missed, no harm was done and we'd just have to tidy up before the dumpster could be emptied. This was brought to an abrupt halt after about half an hour because they had started chucking old, unusable CPR dummies, which caused something of a commotion at the elementary school next door.
3. Disposition of the couch. I bought this couch used in 2012. The Furniture Bank, New Life Furniture Bank, etc. accept gently used furniture items that fit in small apartments. While the place I had in Hoboken was on the small side, I don't think gently used encompasses 'used by one owner for an unspecified stretch of time, used by a second owner for twelve years, and two of the cushions have weird replacement filling'. I could probably get the slipcover of the main couch clean without much difficulty but the seat cushions bring me back to the feather issue from my previous post. Also, I do not have a car, and most of the charitable household goods places I've seen in this area won't send a pickup vehicle unless you're donating at least three large items. Best I can do is two and that's only if you stretch the definition of 'large' to include an ironing board. I'm going to see about contacting ReSupply Boston. I'll be honest about the couch's state. If they want it, great, we'll schedule something once I have the new couch purchase lined up and a delivery date to work with. If they don't, I'll be calling Capitol Waste, the company that handles my municipality's trash pickup, and asking about prices and arrangements for furniture.
4. Assembly of the couch. Not actually an issue. The reviews I've read from Sabai buyers indicate that Sabai is better about including tools than Ikea. I've assembled my kitchen table, my coffee table, my bookcase, and much of my bed frame (it was delivered partly assembled but without stain or varnish, so I had to do the furniture finish work first and then put the various half-made bits together).
5. Supplemental cushioning. If that couch back is uncomfortable at an 8/10 on the firmness scale I will need to supplement it in a manner that provides respectable lumbar support and relaxation. Right now I have multiple throw pillows and one lumbar pillow from Sabai themselves. If I have to buy another lumbar pillow it will probably be from CeCe's Wool or Boll and Branch, as I'd like to go for firmness, sustainable content, and American manufacture. I'll need an appropriate cover but God knows I have enough sewing material around here to come up with something suitable. I also have the last 24" x 26" x 5" of Joann-purchased seating foam, which I should be able to cut up into block-shaped cushions and put at the ends of the couch if needed. That'll again require making covers.
6. Payment. I have money in my savings account that can cover this. Kinda tempted to pay with my credit card, then immediately pay off the credit card account. Worth noting, Sabai offers payment plans through Klarna, whose interest rate is somewhat higher than my actual credit card's.
1. I live in a third floor walkup. The Sabai couch will be shipping in multiple boxes if I order one, and according to various reviews I've seen, each box should be light enough for one person to get up a basic flight of stairs but will be much easier to move if I have some assistance. This is fine. However:
2. The Ektorp I have now will need to go downstairs in order for the new couch to be set up. I do not remember disassembling the couch before moving here from Hoboken; I think I just had movers transport it for me. I suppose for something like this I will need to hire someone from Taskrabbit or look around to see about college move-in-move-out services. It's the Boston area. There are a LOT of college students. Services like that exist, I'm sure, I just haven't looked for them before this. My alternative involves finding out how to take a couch apart and seeing if I can haul individual components downstairs.
I will now pause to remember the process of moving the Metropolitan NJ Red Cross out of our building in West Orange. We had a parking lot. We had a large dumpster. We had people who saw no problem with chucking suitably sized items out of the top floor windows into the dumpster in the parking lot; no one was parked near the dumpster, so if anything bounced or missed, no harm was done and we'd just have to tidy up before the dumpster could be emptied. This was brought to an abrupt halt after about half an hour because they had started chucking old, unusable CPR dummies, which caused something of a commotion at the elementary school next door.
3. Disposition of the couch. I bought this couch used in 2012. The Furniture Bank, New Life Furniture Bank, etc. accept gently used furniture items that fit in small apartments. While the place I had in Hoboken was on the small side, I don't think gently used encompasses 'used by one owner for an unspecified stretch of time, used by a second owner for twelve years, and two of the cushions have weird replacement filling'. I could probably get the slipcover of the main couch clean without much difficulty but the seat cushions bring me back to the feather issue from my previous post. Also, I do not have a car, and most of the charitable household goods places I've seen in this area won't send a pickup vehicle unless you're donating at least three large items. Best I can do is two and that's only if you stretch the definition of 'large' to include an ironing board. I'm going to see about contacting ReSupply Boston. I'll be honest about the couch's state. If they want it, great, we'll schedule something once I have the new couch purchase lined up and a delivery date to work with. If they don't, I'll be calling Capitol Waste, the company that handles my municipality's trash pickup, and asking about prices and arrangements for furniture.
4. Assembly of the couch. Not actually an issue. The reviews I've read from Sabai buyers indicate that Sabai is better about including tools than Ikea. I've assembled my kitchen table, my coffee table, my bookcase, and much of my bed frame (it was delivered partly assembled but without stain or varnish, so I had to do the furniture finish work first and then put the various half-made bits together).
5. Supplemental cushioning. If that couch back is uncomfortable at an 8/10 on the firmness scale I will need to supplement it in a manner that provides respectable lumbar support and relaxation. Right now I have multiple throw pillows and one lumbar pillow from Sabai themselves. If I have to buy another lumbar pillow it will probably be from CeCe's Wool or Boll and Branch, as I'd like to go for firmness, sustainable content, and American manufacture. I'll need an appropriate cover but God knows I have enough sewing material around here to come up with something suitable. I also have the last 24" x 26" x 5" of Joann-purchased seating foam, which I should be able to cut up into block-shaped cushions and put at the ends of the couch if needed. That'll again require making covers.
6. Payment. I have money in my savings account that can cover this. Kinda tempted to pay with my credit card, then immediately pay off the credit card account. Worth noting, Sabai offers payment plans through Klarna, whose interest rate is somewhat higher than my actual credit card's.
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Date: 2024-06-24 07:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-06-24 08:02 pm (UTC)but yeah, the Bberg article talks about a number of things that I found off-putting when I tried to get information on various sites' couches. Not keen on made-in-China parts. Not keen on cheap-ass materials. Really not loving the idea of furniture that's inexpensive to buy and intended to be replaced in a hurry. Sabai's stuff is designed for durability and repair, and they offer a parts replacement program so you can fix something damaged or destroyed rather than getting rid of the furniture altogether. I can appreciate that. Also the part where their stuff is made in the Carolinas, Tennessee, and Michigan. Shipping and shipping weight are still an issue but they send their parts via Fedex Ground in individual boxes with no plastic packing materials, which is also nice.