AITA for telling my mother that no one will buy her old couch?

This one has been a long-standing family issue and, frankly, I’m tired. So, I’m going to come to Reddit to settle the question if I’m the asshole for telling my mother than no one wants to buy her old couch and we should just take it to the dump.

Background – my mother has a 50 odd year old Lazyboy hide a bed. It’s old. It’s dirty. Someone had a nosebleed on it at one point in time, her cats have scratched it up, and it sags. She doesn’t want to pay the $25 dump fee and has instead thrown a tantrum until I listed it online for her. This is after being repeatedly told that the couch won’t be sold. We tried this before with an old (read: 30 years old) Lazyboy recliner. It sat in my garage for months before I finally just donated it to Goodwill and told her after the fact. The recliner was in good shape. The couch is not.

I’m the one in the family that sells things online (eBay, Mercari, Craigslist, and FB Marketplace). I’ve sold things in the past for her – namely, some fabric she wanted to get rid of – and it was a somewhat decent experience. I’ve even sold some end tables that she refinished. She doesn’t understand why her couch hasn’t moved in two weeks (she wants $100 for this thing. No, I’m not kidding) and thinks I did a bad job listing it. I gave it my standard number of pictures, a thorough listing, and contact information. This is how I’ve been selling things for years.

Today, during a phone call, I finally asked if I could just take the couch to the dump so I could get it out of my house. I wasn’t very nice about it. I referred to the couch as a "piece of crap that no one in their right mind would want". Yes, I offered to haul it off and pay the dump fee myself.

She lost it. She referred to selling it as a "shot in the dark" and "I just don’t have any faith". She’s "trying to recoup her losses" because she bought a new couch and "trying to save everyone back issues by getting other people to haul it off." It’s "perfectly fine because the hide a bed is clean". I’m "doing a bad job just to spite her". She "lets me sell things she gives me and I make a decent profit from it". I don’t make a profit from this – I take just enough to cover packing materials.

I pointed this out and told her that I’ve been selling stuff for years. I generally know what sells and what doesn’t. I also reminded her of the "kitten debacle" aka her attempt to rehome some kittens that failed spectacularly until my dad and I took it over.

To which she hung up and decided that we’re no longer on speaking terms.

Here’s where I might be the asshole: I referred to her beloved couch as a piece of crap, reminded her of a very painful failure of hers, and got a friend of mine to help haul the couch to the dump. My logic is if she isn’t talking to me, I’m not keeping her crap in my house.

So. AITA?

2 thoughts on “AITA for telling my mother that no one will buy her old couch?”
  1. NTA. Nobody would want that couch even if you posted it in under “free stuff”. However, don’t take unsalable items to your place anymore. Let her reach the decision herself. 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *