The sofa in the photo below was originally bought a few years ago for 99p. This scan of a negative is the only photo of it I can find. In it my daughter is holding a TV remote that disappeared shortly after the shot was taken.
On the whole the sofa had done well, but unfortunately had outlived its use. A throw was struggling to hide the torn upholstery so a brand new sofa was acquired. One that was also a bed. Rather than hire a van or skip to get rid of the old one, I thought it would be a good idea to take it apart.
My tools of choice were a survival knife, a wood saw, a pair of pliers and a screwdriver. But these things are made very well indeed. It took me a good few hours to get the sofa into five large bin bags. While deconstructing I found few interesting things. Including it’s date of manufacture. The 29th of August 1979.
Structually the sofa was pretty sound. The wear and tear was mainly cosmetic. And although reupholstering might have given it another 40 years, it could have cost £1500 before you’ve even chosen the fabric. Besides, what we really needed was a sofa bed.
I was reminded that sofas are great collectors. They lure you into a false sense of security, then pick your pockets. This one was an old hand at it. Over the years all kinds of items had been secreted within the labyrinth of creases. All in all, I found 74 objects inside its bowels.
In amongst the items… A TV remote, seven pencils, two pens and one crayon, a spoon, a drawing of a unicorn, a date label, a cracker joke, three lego weapons, some fake pearls, a gold plated metal model of the Orient Express, a laser pointer, a solar powered torch, a My Little Pony, a tiny doll’s hairdryer, some fairy legs, a large LED, a small metal Buddha, a fake gem, a plastic gold coin, some gaming pieces, a pair of socks, a VGA to lightning connector, a wooden elephant, a plastic high heal shoe, 1 marble, 2 hair clips, 6 hair bands, 50p in small change, a 5 cent coin from Singapore, A Ninjago trading card and a cardboard cupcake.
Most these things have accumulated over the last 5 or 6 years. Quite the time capsule.
Don’t throw your old sofa away until you’ve take a knife to it.
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