I’ve always enjoyed the act of organizing, cleaning. There is a peace that my brain finds in my hands moving deftly to put papers in their place, stack magazines by genre, line books up neatly on their shelves by color or size. Clutter sets me on edge, makes me uncomfortable. There is a certain pride I have in having everything neatly in its place when people come to visit, and often when someone comes over I will apologize for the house being “under construction” or messy. I guess other people take comfort in the fact that my house often looks “normal” – papers out, shoes in the hallway, jackets thrown on the back of chairs.
If renovating a house has taught me nothing, it has taught me to accept the state of the house. Combining the furniture the man and I owned with what we inherited of my German grandmother’s – Oma – has been the biggest challenge. The man and I have always been drawn to antiques, furniture with a history. And when my uncle Dieter offered to give me everything of Oma’s, I jumped at the offer. Not surprisingly, though, the early 20th century furniture of Oma’s didn’t match the Ikea furniture of my early 20s.
Craiglist has been my best friend, and with spring cleaning in full effect, I’ve started posting some of our old furniture. Last spring I was able to sell two dining chairs and a filing cabinet, but was never able to sell our couch. After five different revisions of the ad, trying to catch the attention of people surfing the listings for a good buy, I finally posted an ad that described what the couch really was.
Loving Couch To be Adopted by New Home – $300
Selling my loving, comfortable, huge, Ekeskog Ikea couch
This couch took care of me when I fell down an escalator and could only sleep flat on my back, held me as I cried because of a sad movie or the loss of a loved one, and seated friends and family for get togethers, gab sessions, and game nights.
My couch is no longer needed though. She has a smaller replacement and needs to find a new, loving home to go to. She is a pretty girl in good condition. The pictures don’t do her justice. Her cover is fully removable and washable (and I’ll make sure she is spic and span prior to pick up). Because of her large size, she takes up way too much room in my basement and needs to find her new home ASAP.
I really was reluctant to get rid of it. That couch had been through a lot with me. In a house full of antique beds, dressers, prints, and books, all with their own stories, my couch had its own story. And now it will have a new one.
It always strikes me as silly the things that I am sentimental about, but the spring cleaning continues. As we plan a garage sale, I’ve added soup bowls that I used as a little girl, my first set of copper bottom pots, and travel mugs that I used in high school, to the piles of artifacts of my past life that I’m parting with.
My couch was a adopted by a woman who has relocated to Pennsylvania from North Carolina to take care of her ailing parents. She has another adopted couch that will keep mine company. She is building her own home, just as the man and I are trying to build ours. When it came to haggling over price, she offered me about $100 less than I had asked in my posting, and after a few minutes I gave it to her for $50 less than she offered. Knowing that the couch was needed made me feel better about it. And now it will have a new history.
And the spring cleaning continues.
Restoring Life 