One tiny ray of hope.

This winter has been ENDLESS.  I sit here in my cozy living room this morning and watch yet more snow fall outside.  It’s crazy windy and icy pellets are dashing themselves to death upon the windows.  Good.  Die, you little bastards.  It seems like forever since I’ve been able to go yard saling.  Sneaking out of the house in the early hours while the girls are still sleeping and the day is still cool…ever hopeful that the next pile of junk will unearth a hidden treasure.

I still have a couple of months left to get my yard sale groove back, but this week here in Bangor I found a nice reminder that better days are coming.  I saw a post on Facebook for an indoor yard sale on Friday.  Apparently it was a “everything but the kitchen sink” type sale.  From the paintings on the walls to the curtains in the windows, everything must go, starting at 9am.  I dropped Mad off at school at 8:10, ran some errands, got my iced coffee and was sitting next to the house at 8:50.  Upon entering the apartment building, one of the first things I saw piled out on the closed in porch was a couch.

We needed a couch.  And I mean really needed, not just me wanting a new one this time, either.  Our downstairs family room currently housed a couch and a love seat that had both seen better days.  I had been keeping my eyes peeled looking for a good deal, but as of yet, hadn’t seen anything.  So when I saw the porch-dwelling couch, I stopped in my tracks.  It looked like this…..

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Microfiber (which I love), 3 seater and overstuffed (which I also love), neutral color.  Before I even got a good look at it, I asked how much.  $20?  Sold.  The second I said I’ll take it, some totally rude guy totally tried to push his way past me, yelling that he’d buy it.  He may or may not have tripped on my foot something.  Oopsies..careful, fella, lots of junk out here.

The inside of this house was unreal.  Floor to ceiling stuff, from closets full of clothing, cupboards full of dishes, collectibles, tools..I couldn’t take it all in and ended up leaving with just two little ceramic bits that I love.  I told the woman that I’d be back for the couch and frantically texted Mark to make sure he could grab it with one of the trucks after work, since strapping it to the roof of my Volvo probably wasn’t the best idea.

Mark wasn’t super sure about the couch upon getting it home that night.  He’s used to my bringing home bizarre bits that I can’t live without and is very patient with the ever-changing decorating and furniture set ups in our house, but this one gave him reason to be concerned.   It needed a serious cleaning and it smelled.  What’s that, you say?  A challenge?  I’m so on it.

First thing I did was tear it apart out in the garage.  Nothing comes into my house without first being torn asunder to make sure there’s no creepy crawlies or critters or anything else that would make me take a flamethrower to it and chalk it up to a loss.  I’ve never heard of bedbugs in Bangor, but who the hell knows and if ever there would be a reason for me to torch my home, that would be it.  But no buglies, no tears, just a really nice couch that needed some serious elbow grease, of which I have plenty.

I brushed and vacuumed it first.  Then soaked the entire thing with rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle.  SOAKED IT.  Top to bottom, under and over.  Alcohol dries super quickly, so while it’s still wet I scrubbed the bejesus out of it section by section with a damp sponge.  Soak, scrub.  Soak, scrub.  Do this for about a year.  Let it dry.  Because you’re not using water, there are no water marks left behind on the fabric.  There were some darker areas and stains that didn’t come out on the first run, these I took care of with a damp sponge and my Tide Oxi (looooooove).  While the stains lifted, now I had water stains.  So I had to go over those areas again with alcohol.  This was about 2 straight days of scrubbing, rubbing, drying out and starting over.  But!  Totally worth it.

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Very soft and squishy, big enough for Mark to nap on and cheap enough for me to feel righteously thrifty.

Allyson Sorenson

About Allyson Sorenson

Bangor mom. BDN blogger. Volvo lover. Coffee drinker.