I was very glad Mr J's occupational therapist/referrer was on hand to lend a hand on this one, as it proved to be a classic old school heavy leather 3 seater sofa with no removable parts or cushions - and so the only way we were going to remove it from his living room to give Mr J more space, was to put a knife to the leather to get the padding out, and make the whole item lighter, smaller and a bit more manoeuvrable - but also to be able to look inside the frame to see if it would come apart.

I've never (literally) butchered anything before, but with a sharp knife in one hand and a lot of determination, it felt as if I could've been on the farm...thankfully without all the mess. Once we'd got all the padding out, it was apparent (in spite of there being many bolts) the frame was glued/nailed together (and not designed to come apart) and we weren't going to achieve much further destruction unless we took a saw or hammer to it - at which point we decided we could shuffle/lift the sofa through the doors, Mr J's hallway and into the lift.

Six floors later (thanks lift), we had it on the ground floor, and with one final heave we parked it outside the bin area ready for collection. Cue huge sighs of relief all round.