How To Take Apart a Couch To Throw Away

Moving a sofa is not just difficult in terms of weight, but mathematically tricky. In fact, you may be thinking “how do I get my sofa through a door?” because it seems nigh-on impossible.

The ‘Moving Sofa Problem’, a concept explored in 1968 by mathematician John Hammersley, was created to see what is the largest radius that can be fit around a corner. Because of this mathematical impossibility, it is most often easier to take your couch apart if you’re looking to throw it away. This means less manoeuvring, less weight to carry, and an easier time when trying to fit it in your car. But how do you dismantle a sofa?

There are a few different ways you could dismantle a sofa. You could quickly take the cushions off and cut through the entire wooden frame if you’re not bothered about creating a lot of mess or the final outcome – especially if you’re only looking to throw it in the bin. 

However, if you only want to dismantle part of your sofa, or make it smaller to fit in a tight space, then here are some of our top tips: 

Handy if you’re looking to lower your sofa or fit it through a door, removing the sofa legs can be quite easy. In many types of sofa, you can unscrew the legs directly which will mean you only have to find a way to get the sofa on its side and put in a couple of minutes of work. 

Some legs are screwed into the base which requires you to use a screwdriver to unfasten the screws enough to remove the leg. This can be done without any permanent damage and can easily be changed back should you want the legs back on.

To detach the recliner from the rest of the sofa, you can pull the cushions back and unfasten the screws that attach the unit to the other seats. This may take a bit of trial and error but, eventually, you’ll be able to pull the recliner from the end of the sofa. 

You can remove the footrest of most recliner sofas by extending it and unscrewing all exposed bolts and screws (if you can’t see them then slightly tilt the chair so you can see the bottom of it). Take the footrest of the hinges as well as any armrests you wish to remove. 

To separate the back of your recliner sofa, you should start by releasing the rear locking levers to loosen it – you can use your flat head screwdriver to do this. After this, you should be able to lift the back from the base of the sofa in order to easily carry and transport it. 

You may have a sofa that has cushions that are sewn onto the base and want to either replace them or take them off to refill the stuffing. Doing so incorrectly can cause a lot of damage to your furniture which results in costly repairs. However, although this process can take quite a long time, it is not too difficult. 

First, you need to lift the cushions up so you can see where they are stitched to the frame, then you can carefully cut this thread using very small scissors (nail clippers are also ideal for this). Pull the thread out using tweezers and then you should be able to pull the cushion away. 

Dismantling an arm from a recliner sofa follows a lot of the same steps as removing the back, finding the corresponding screws, and using a screwdriver to loosen them. In other models of sofas, the process is similar too but has the additional step of taking the staples out of the fabric and pulling it back to expose the arm frame underneath. Usually, you won’t need to cut any of the fabric or wooden frame and will be able to just pull the arms from the sofa. 

If you’re not sure you have the time, energy, or tools needed to take apart your couch to throw it away, hire our one-off sofa removal service.

You’ll be pleased to know we are highly experienced in all forms of furniture disposal, which is why we are regarded as the best professional waste collection company in London.

To book or receive a free, no-obligation quote, get in touch.