Having a Conscience is Stressful

Note:  I wrote this post a month or two ago and haven't posted it until now for some reason.  But I think I will now.

I'm frustrated.

Let me explain. See, we have this couch. Well, since we're gluttonous Americans, we have two couches. One of them is the new one that we use everyday and spent a bunch of money on recently because we decided we were big kids now and needed a real couch that wasn't purchased off of Craigslist. It's nice.

The other is the one we shunned to the garage because it was replaced by the new one. We tried to take it to Goodwill, but they wouldn't take it because our lovely feline roommates scratched the hell out of the corners. It's been sitting there for a few months as we try to figure out what to do with with it.

As you can see, it collects stuff, like ugly rugs, boxes of random shit, and cat litter. It's time for it to go. But where? The only place I know where it's NOT going is the landfill. It's still a perfectly good couch to sit on. It just has slightly shredded corners and some easily cleanable stains on it. Now, the stains I can clean. The corners, on the other hand, that is going to take a reupholstery job. But who's gonna do that? Not me. I guess we could try putting it in Craigslist for $20 with the tag of: "great couch! Just needs new upholstery!" Yeah, right.

So I went on the intertubes today to see if there were any furniture recycling places. I was looking for someone who would take it off my hands and maybe take it apart to find some use for all the textiles and wood that they can get from it. The closest thing I found was a green junk removal company that will take all the reusable stuff to Goodwill and sell the rest to a company that will burn it for electricity. Is that better than the landfill? Maybe. But seriously, do all end of life couches end up in landfills or getting incinerated? That's messed up.

Our next option would be to slap a couch cover on it and try to take it back to Goodwill. But if they take the cover off and see what's underneath, will they send it to the landfill anyway? 

Why am I letting this get to me so much? Landfills have limited space. That's why. I just feel like things should only go there as a last resort. But it sure does suck to have a conscience.

Being a conscious adult is so hard sometimes.


Now, like I've said above, this post was written by me in a fit of frustration a while ago.  Since then, we have cleaned the couch with with rubbing alcohol.  (Holy shit, that stuff works!)  And have put it up on Freecycle several times.  I've gotten several emails about it from there, but none of them have amounted to any real takers.  Tonight, we had some people come look at it and say they will come back tomorrow with a truck to pick it up.  We're not quite convinced they're coming back, but wouldn't it be sweet if they did?  Keeping our fingers crossed for a new life for our Craigslist couch!