People often need to keep a couch or other piece of furniture in storage for a while, and if you have the extra room, it is nice to save them some money by storing it for them.

What would you do if you told your friend that she could keep her couch in your garage for two weeks, but then she refused to pick it up for over three years?

That is what happened to the homeowner in this story, so he finally just threw the couch away, and years later when his friend found out, she got very upset.

AITA for throwing out my friend’s couch after it sat in my garage for 3.5 years, even though I said she could only store it for two weeks?

In 2019, a friend asked if she could store a couch in my garage. It had belonged to her late father, and they were clearing out his house.

I said no.

Why would she even want to have the couch in there?

My garage is small. One car and barely any extra room. It isn’t insulated, it leaks, and squirrels basically have squatter rights. I don’t store anything there on purpose. I also told her that people always say they’ll “pick it up soon,” and then never do. Somehow the person doing the favor becomes the villain.

She kept pushing. I offered options:
– Rent a storage unit
– Get a U-Haul, take the couch home, and have her kids drive up and get her car
– Leave it at her dad’s and take the risk

Her niece even borrowed a trailer to bring it to me. All that, just to keep it out of her siblings’ hands.

She wore him down.

I finally said yes, but I was crystal clear. Two weeks. After that, I could do whatever I wanted with it.
She said absolutely. Her kids would be there that weekend to pick it up.

They never came.

I called a few times that first year.

“Oh yeah, we’ll come get it.”

Crickets.

She’ll use any excuse she can think of.

In one of my “please get your couch” calls, she said, “I’m a Sagittarius. We’re not good at this stuff.” I’m still not sure what that has to do with picking up your couch. I tried again in year two. Same story. After that, I gave up. She never once brought it up on her own.

Around year three and a half, I had construction work happening. The crew backed a trailer into the garage and accidentally crushed the couch. When we looked closer, it was already moldy and torn apart by squirrels. The workers felt bad. I told them not to worry. It had been sitting there for years.

No need to mention it at all.

We even discussed whether I should tell her. Everyone agreed there wasn’t much point. She hadn’t mentioned it in over three years. So I didn’t. Fast forward to this year, now year six. I mention I’m cleaning out the garage and she casually says, “Oh, I need to come get that couch.”

Me: “It’s gone. The squirrels got it.”

Her: “What?”

Me: “Yeah. The garage isn’t insulated. They love it in there.”

Her: “I had no idea.”

Me: “You did. You just forgot. And I said two weeks.”

She has the nerve to get upset?

She hasn’t spoken to me since. Unfriended. Full stop.

Meanwhile, I lived around that couch. I broke my toe on it. I had to work around it constantly. I paid to have it hauled away. It took up space I didn’t have for three and a half years. The first time she brought it up was in year six.

So I’m really asking:

Should I have told her back when it got ruined, even though she hadn’t asked about it in years? At year six, should I have just said “sure, come get it” and played along, even though I doubt she would have? Or was this always going to end the same way, no matter what I did?

AITA?

She was never coming to get that couch, and this person went way above and beyond by letting it sit for so long. Losing this ‘friend’ is a small price to pay.

Let’s see what the people in the comments have to say about it.

Yup, no loss here.

This was always going to end poorly.

This commenter says he did nothing wrong.

He was way more tolerant than he should have been.

She is way beyond rude.

He should send her a bill for the storage too.

I don’t see any way this woman has a leg to stand on when it comes to being upset about this.

If you liked that story, check out this post about a group of employees who got together and why working from home was a good financial decision.