Moving Milestone #1 - Selling the Couch

As I am feeling overwhelmed about the work yet to do ahead; it might be useful to reflect for a few moments about how far we've come. It became pretty clear early on that the best thing to take to Italy was nothing or at the very least, as little as possible. Thus began the process of purging, in both a physical and psychological sense. Most of our extraneous possessions and furniture were pretty easy to let go of. With the help of Craigslist and a 4 hour sidewalk sale, I had an extra $200 and little recollection of what I actually sold or gave away. In fact, it was hard to tell that we were missing anything at all. The couch, however, didn't leave so easily.



Just look at it, a lovely tan color, at any time full of friends, always ready to support my napping habits, just wide enough that Josh, Charlie and I could all comfortably sleep the afternoon away together. The couch was the only "real" piece of furniture that we had (or ever owned for that matter). It was the first joint purchase that we made after Josh completed graduate school and we were a "dual income family" again. The $900 we spent on it was an agonizing purchase that involved dragging Josh around to sit on and test countless models and colors before we found our (my)dream davenport. That, by the way, did not include the optional stain resistant treatment or delivery, each of which we sprung for in the end. Since our tiny apartment didn't have much floor space, the couch served as an extra guest bed, a dining room table, an office and movie theatre.

The couch, you see, was very central to our peaceful Philadelphia existence. This collection of wood, stuffing and fabric, complete with tufted buttons represented something for me that I was surprisingly attached to and very sad to leave behind. I listed the couch for $500 on Craigslist and found a buyer that I thought could provide a good future home for such an important part of our history. They were a cute artsy couple that had potential to be mindful of crumbs and provide a roomful of equally well designed furniture to provide accompany my beloved couch. I won't lie, I shed a tear before they came to take it away. I also took a picture for posterity, after all, you only have one first couch.