The story is told of a man who had a move planned when he was suddenly told by his boss that he had to be out of the country. He arranged to pay some friends to move him.
The move was going well but they got to the sofa. No matter how hard they tried they couldn’t figure out a way to get the sofa out the door. They muttered something about how this was probably some sort of masochistic test he left for them.
They spent some time trying, then finally decided it would fit out the window. As his apartment wasn’t too high up they got some ropes and carefully lowered the sofa out of the window to the sidewalk below. Then they finished the move.
The time came for the man to return. His friends were all waiting in his new apartment waiting for him to wonder how they had gotten the sofa out. As the evening wore on and he did not ask one finally blurted, “Aren’t you going to ask us how we got the sofa out of your old apartment when it wouldn’t fit through the door?”
He answered, “Oh, I just removed the legs.”
I remember an occasion when we were trying to get a large chest-of-drawers up the stairs. DP and his friend were struggling to get past the second stair when his friend’s wife said, “Take the drawers out!”
Rumour has it that Governor Cooper is going to shut down the state. After all, there have been two deaths!
I considered the windows, and measured them. It wouldn’t have fit.
I am informed that there are commercial versions of box springs for theis situation, but my solution, tedious though it may have been, did not cost me anything but some screws and staples.
Parenthetically, I had the couch situation you describe. In a basement living room, a couch that was to be removed could not be oriented or manipulated to go out the door and stairs combination.
This was a puzzle, because the couch had previously entered the room through that path.
I couldn’t figure it out. Eventually I determined that the ultimate fate of the couch was to be disposed of, so I destroyed it with a sledge-hammer. After that, it could fit through the door.
I still don’t know why I couldn’t make it fit, (and yes, I know about the legs, and about removing the door, and about removing the door facing as well). We couldn’t solve the topological puzzle, but I did find a solution.