Will the couch fit through the door?

The openings

Measure the actual clear opening — jamb to jamb with the door open. Pulling a door off its hinges buys back another 1½–2″; the hinge-side trim is the true edge.

The tilt trick — why 38 > 32 sometimes works

A sofa doesn't walk in flat; it comes in tilted on end. Once vertical, the number that has to clear the opening is closer to the sofa's depth-by-height diagonal profile than its full depth — arms taper, seat cushions compress, and backs rake. That's how a 38″-deep sofa gets through a 32″ door: on its end, with a rotation at the threshold.

• Comfortably clears flat: depth < opening. No drama.
• Tilt territory: depth up to ~1.2× the opening — possible with the end-tilt if the hallway allows the rotation. This is where the verdicts say verify, because upholstery and arm shape decide.
• Physics has voted: a rigid piece much past that isn't coming through — it's coming apart, or it's going back.

Sectionals are the loophole: they arrive as separate pieces, each one narrower than the assembled whole. The 120″ U-shape that could never enter as one object walks in as three easy boxes. Sleepers are the opposite trap — the mechanism makes them rigid and heavy.

The three measurements that decide it

• The listed size is the assembled size. The BOX is bigger — when a vendor publishes carton dimensions, those are the numbers that meet your doorway. When they don't, the listing's "verify delivery" advice is doing a lot of work.
• The path, not just the door: a 36″ front door feeding an immediate 90° turn into a 36″ hallway is tighter than either number — the turn is a diagonal problem. Same for stair landings.
• Elevators are boxes too: cab depth and door width beat apartment-floor math every time.

Do it once, on the plan

Poché's doorway tool marks every opening on your floor plan once — then every piece you place or shop gets a delivery verdict against your actual doors. When the vendor publishes carton dimensions, the verdict is asserted from those; when it's estimating from the footprint, it says so plainly and tells you to verify. Honesty is the feature: a confident wrong answer costs you a restocking fee.