This thing is farking huge. Help me get rid of it.

August 22, 2005 12:18 AM

Help me get rid of some furniture.

My parents gave me a 300 lbs oak entertainment center when I moved into my new place, a third floor apartment, a year ago. My sister's ex-boyfriend, a HUGE ex-army guy, pretty much carried it up the stairs by himself. The stairs up to my place are barely wide enough to fit the thing through on it's side. We had most of it wrapped in foam for the trip up and down, and it still got scarred in a few places.

The thing is nice, but it takes up far too much space in a small apartment, and it's time for it to go. I'd like to sell it and I've tried via CraigsList, but when potential buyers were told that they'd have to help me get it back down the stairs, they balked. I can hardly move the thing across the carpet, and I don't have any huge ex-military friends handy.

I'd like to sell it this week and get it out of here. Any creative suggestions on how to get it out, and what to do with it?

posted by SpecialK to home & garden (5 comments total)

Since you didn't spend anything on it to begin with you could simply give it away for free under that CraigsList posting category. I've discovered that people suddenly have all kinds of energy to haul things down three flights of stairs if they don't have to pay a dime for it.
posted by quadog at 12:28 AM on August 22, 2005

Again, it would involve giving it away, but you could try freecycle.org. There may be a member near you willing to lug it down the stairs.
posted by londonmark at 1:11 AM on August 22, 2005

Does it disassemble?
posted by buzzman at 1:21 AM on August 22, 2005

Last summer I had to deal with a similar situation.

I was cleaning out deades of detritus and debris from a derelict cabin, and one of the things I had to deal with was a monolithic entertainment center made of crappy particle board. Think of the lowest quality Ikea constuction, just with four times as many pieces. The thing weighed upwards of 350 lbs. It had obviously been flatpacked before being put together, but there were no screws or bolts olding the thing together (glued pegs). Since it was headed for oblivion anyway, I ended up busting it apart with mauls, axes, and prybars into manageable chunks. You don't want to do that. It was a pain in the ass.

If it has any exposed fastners holding it together, by all means, remove them if it looks like their presence is holding the thing together.

If this doesn't seem to be possible, get a hand truck. There is a particular way to apply a hand truck to move filing cabinet/entertainment center sized things.

Say, for instance, you want to move the thing laterally, looking at the thing from the front. Slip the hand truck's lip underneath it on the leading edge. Stand on the opposite side, and push the top of the hand truck forward a bit, to pick up the leading edge. You should now be able to move the thing forward with little effort.

I've used this method to move full filing cabinets by myself, and I'm a really skinny guy. It works best moving things in the direction of their longest edge, pushing on the shortest edge.

When you get to the stairs, take it easy, take it slow, and take it with a hand truck. Sounds like you live in an apartment of some sort. You should be able to borrow a hand truck from your super/landlord.
posted by blasdelf at 1:52 AM on August 22, 2005

make sure to post on craigslist that you can't help get it down the stairs
posted by radioamy at 3:48 PM on August 22, 2005