What Has Your Sofa Seen During Its Lifetime?

Well, that’s the question, isn’t it?

We actually got our sofas just after Little Man was born. I remember commenting that for the first two or three weeks of his life he must have thought that only sofa shops existed in the outside world, as every time we took him out and he woke up, he found himself in one! So ours are around three and half years old now, though in that time, they’ve seen a fair bit of activity and have mainly had to deal with the kids leaping all over them.

Ours has had our beloved and departed dog snuggle down on it, has seen the Husband and I rack up hours worth of movie and TV watching (most recently our favourite Game of Thrones), had the kids diving all over it and littering the cushions all over the floor (every.single.day) and had countless toys pushed down the side of it. Countless. Oh, finding Yoda down there one day was a huge personal victory – Yoda is very small, not easy at all to find! I feel that The Force guided me.

So it was with interest that I heard that a Yorkshire handmade furniture manufacturer has looked into the lifespan of an average sofa, totting up the figures on how long it will last, how many people have sat amongst its cushions and what it has seen over the years….

Distinctive Chesterfields

Apparently, the average sofa should last at least 8 years with regular use. Asking people how long they had owned their sofa, the results were as follows:

• Less than 1 year: 19%
• 1 to 3 years: 25%
• 3 to 5 years: 19%
• 5 to 8 years: 17%
• 8 to 10 years: 9%
• More than 10 years: 11%

With ever changing trends in the interiors industry, it seems that people are looking to change their furniture more often than a sofa’s lifetime before wearing out suggests. I know we fall into this, as we’re likely to change ours in two or three years time, as I do like to refresh things from time to time.

When asked, “For how many hours each day do you usually sit on the sofa?”, the responses were as follows:

• Less than 1 hour: 26%
• 1-2 hours: 24%
• 2-3 hours: 20%
• 3-4 hours: 12%
• 4-5 hours: 7%
• 5-6 hours: 3%
• More than 6 hours: 8%

Hmm, which category do you fall into here? I sit on ours from 8-10pm each day, yes I am that predictable!

Looking at the average lifetime of sofas in the UK as 4 years old and considering how much time we spend sat on the sofa, Distinctive Chesterfields have decided to tell your Sofa’s Stories: here’s an estimated look at what your sofa has seen or heard during its lifespan.

• 232 movies watched and 4380 hours total of TV time.
• 1 quite stressful house move.
• It has seated 284 visitors but also been jumped on 1548 times by your pets.
• 167 spillages but only 3 permanent stains.
• £17.60 in total found among its cushions and 11 lost socks.
• 1 new TV and 3 new blankets.
• 178 books read on its cosy seats.
• 192 arguments between couples and 215 cries, but 845 cuddles.
• 78 hangovers and 161 naps.

Yes to the spillages and I strongly suspect I’d exceed the number of books read! Ah, I like the sound of lots of cuddles, though, and a nap? Oh, to dream!

What about your sofa?

Disclosure: This is a collaborative post

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