For furniture removal and furniture disposal. How to get rid of old furniture, broken furniture, donating furniture and old furniture removal tips.
You are probably remodeling, redecorating your house or you just want a change, out with some old and in with some new, or you could just be getting rid of old furniture because you simply do not need it anymore and you could use the space.
And then you get to the point where you are thinking,” what will I do with this piece of furniture?”, it’s not like a piece of paper that you just crunch up and throw into a basket, it is bigger hence the dilemma on how to get rid of old furniture.
Luckily, you are not the first and will not be the last to get rid of old furniture and it is safe to say that people who have done it in the past have developed a process that gives you options on different routes to take. This article provides an informed guide on how to get rid of your old furniture whether they are good or bad condition.
What to Do with Broken Furniture You Don’t Want
You don’t want it and it’s broken so you cannot exactly donate it, the choice of what to do with broken furniture hasn’t been any easier than with a guide like this one.
With broken furniture, you essentially have three options; to dispose of it, recycle it or to make better use of it. To do either of them successfully you need the right guide.
How to dispose of broken furniture: Two Simple Options
To dispose of broken furniture you have several options which include throwing it away or recycling.
- To throw your broken furniture away you may need to bring in professionals to help you haul it off to a dump, there are professionals for this who can come over, pick your furniture and dispose of it and you pay them for their services.
You can also consider throwing it away yourself if you have a truck and there is a dumping site nearby, you can call to figure out if you can dump your furniture there and schedule a day for that.
- To recycle the furniture, you have to dismantle it and call any local recycle company around you. If you decide to dismantle it yourself, you should prepare to tackle the process with safety precautions.
How to refurbish broken furniture:
The reason why you would want to refurbish broken furniture is that you realized that it still has some value in it, you can decide to do it yourself or give it to furniture sellers. The great thing is that after you fix it up, you could sell it, donate it or even gift it to someone, it sure beats having to dispose of it and dumping it in some dump. The following are the steps to refurbish old furniture.
- Step 1: Assess it for the value. The last thing you want to be doing is spending time and money on something that you are only going to eventually throw away in some trash or dump as the case may be, so the first thing to do is to determine that the furniture actually has value by asking the right questions. Is an antique or not; usually it is better to leave antiques to be handled by professionals.
- Step 2: What materials and treatments do it have, different materials should be treated differently; wood, metal, fabric and so on. Along with this, you will have to make a mental note of the current state of the broken furniture and determine what it needs.
- Step 3: cleaning the furniture. Cleaning will give you the chance to get rid of stains, scratches, marks, and dirt build up before you start to repair what is broken.
- Step 4: Fix broken parts. You may need glue for this, you may need to weld, you may need to replace hinges and the sorts which you would have figured out from the last step. At this stage if the furniture is an antique or it requires difficult processes to fix it, it is advisable to see a professional handle it but if it is something you can take on as a DIY then you get to save on some extra cost.
- Step 5: Apply finishes. It could be painting, cleaning, spraying depending on the material of the furniture and the right treatment.
After refurbishing you can decide to sell or donate the furniture.
Office Furniture Removal: How to Get Rid of Office Furniture
Usually, you end up with unwanted office furniture for different reasons, either the office decided to move or they did a revamp of the place leaving you with more than a handful of furniture to dispose of.
There are different options available for getting rid of old unwanted office furniture which involves donating it or making some money from it by selling it.
1. Donating office furniture:
Furniture you no longer need in the office can be donated to those who need it, that way someone is being helped out. Although to donate any furniture, you have to make sure that they are in good condition. The good thing about donating office furniture is that it comes with its own benefits; the satisfaction of helping out or governmental benefits like a tax write-off which can be found here.
- Donating to family and friends: Check for furniture pieces that close family and friends may need, usually when you have someone just starting out their lives or just going to college they may be in need of cheaper places to get furniture. If you have someone like that, you could easily donate it to them. If you aren’t sure who to donate your office furniture too, you could bring it up in a gathering or ask one or two relatives and/or friends about it.
- Donate it to charity: There are different charity organizations that will be more than will to help take some of your old office furniture off your hands as long as you are willing to give it up to them. You can contact them and have them take it off your hands, nonprofit organizations like Goodwill. To get information about the right place to donate your office furniture you could get in touch with ‘the IRN” or ‘The Furniture Trust’.
2. Selling the furniture:
Another option for dealing with office furniture you no longer need is to sell it and make some money off it. Usually when you are selling you begin with those close by which will be employees before moving to sell to other people. Therefore, for sales, you have the option of either doing a local sale around you or selling it online.
- Local Sale: a local sale involves selling to people within your vicinity, this may involve other businesses around the area, employees willing to purchase them, some furniture dealers and so on. Selling it to a third party: Another market for your office furniture is third party, perhaps another business may need your furniture.
There are different avenues to find said market to buy your furniture, if your office is moving, the new business moving in could decide to buy your furniture rather than move with theirs or just buy it as an addition to what they already have, you could put an ad in the paper or contact businesses around you. Having a local sale means that you may have to source for the buyers by yourself.
- Selling them online: Getting someone to buy your used office furniture does not have to be difficult as you could easily sell them online to platforms that specialize in that like, Craiglist, Cubicles, Route 66 Furniture, Chairish, Furnishly etc. these are just a few places, there are a plethora of them available for you.
Benefits Of Donating Furniture
Even though you know that you could sell your old furniture and get some money, sometimes you just rather donate it and that could be the best option because not everything is about money, right?
There are so many reasons why you may rather choose to donate your old furniture rather than sell it or just throw it to the dump, because someone else may need it and what’s the harm in putting a smile on a face?
Donating furniture can be done in different ways, you can give it to friends, to family, to total strangers or give it to nonprofit organizations that will help you find the need to give it to, it doesn’t have to be a problem.
If you have an intention of giving it to family or friends, you simply have to ask them if they need it or if they knew someone who would, and if you prefer to give it to strangers there are ways to get to them too.
Traditionally people would just dump their furniture on the street and someone who needs it would come to pick it up, but you can’t just dump furniture on the street anymore, there are rules and regulations to that. Therefore, in order to reach needing strangers by contacting charity organizations.
There are different reasons why you should decide to donate your furniture
- To show an act of kindness: Even though you may not have a need for your furniture, there are people out there who do, people who can probably not afford to buy it if you decide to sell. That act of kindness goes a long way to put a smile on the face of someone.
- It is free: If you had decided to sell or to dispose you may have to invest some amount of resources into making that happen. Either pay for it to be disposed of, paying for hauling, having to look for where to dump it, looking for buyers which may involve time or money whereas when you decide to donate, all you have to do is contact the decided organization or individual and it will be taken off your hands.
- You can get some tax advantages from donating: it helps to have the means to get a little of the tax load off every once in a while and donating to a recognized nonprofit can help you get that. Just make sure you read about the terms from the IRS and you will have to make sure the donation is made to a recognized charity organization and that you are given a receipt for your donation.
- It can be remade into something else: the receiving party may be able to apply creativity to make your old furniture into something else, you may have otherwise thrown it out but it can become a valuable piece of someone’s furniture.
- Reuse is environmentally sustainable: Reusing things is a sustainable way to make use of available resources because waste is avoided by making maximum use of the resources.
At the end of the day, donating your furniture may just be the best option, but just because you are donating does not mean you give out furniture in terrible condition as most organization would prefer furniture that would only need minimal work to get in usable condition.
Top 10 Sites and Place to Sell Furniture Online
When you decide on selling your furniture, doing it online may just be the more convenient option for you because unlike having to do it locally it takes a lot less effort to sell your old furniture online.
Basically, websites, where you can sell old furniture, need you to register, and then upload an ad for the available furniture which will include a picture of the furniture and a means for prospective buyers to try to contact you.
Selling your furniture online opens you to a wider market that is not restricted geographically and that is a good reason to pick it as your preferred option. There are different sites where you can sell your old furniture online, each one a little different from the other and here are suggestions on where to sell your furniture online.
Best Sites For Selling Furniture Online
Craigslist:
Craiglist is likely one of the first options that come to mind when you think about selling your used furniture online because of its high popularity. The best things about selling your furniture on Craiglist is that it is free, you do not have to pay fees, it is simply just a medium for you to reach out to buyers around you by putting up your ad in a section of your geographical location and wait until interested parties ask questions. Craigslist does not help you handle any part of your sale, you are in charge of it from start to the end even up to delivery.
Facebook groups:
Facebook is currently the biggest social media where you can sell things on, used furniture included. You can create ads, use Facebook groups and you can use your status to advertise the furniture you have for sale, that way you can easily attract buyers.
Krrb/Apartment Therapy:
Although newly re-branded by Apartment therapy, Krrb is an interesting place to sell your used furniture if they can be considered stylish to attract interest. On this website, you have to register shops where you sell your desired items for free. The items are discovered by buyers and transaction is conducted. Even though the listing is free, having your items found by buyers require credits that help you boost it up to the front row, these credits are bought.
Chairish:
Chairish is a great app for selling your furniture especially if you have great taste because the people that shop on Chairish are more into modern and mid-century design themes. If you have a lot of items to sell, then you may want to consider Chairish as they allow you to list any amount of items for sale on the website at no cost.
If you are the kind of seller who has an eye for special and high-end furniture and that is what you want to sell, you may very well love Chairish as it is known to have sellers and buyers with a great taste in quality items.
Etsy:
if you need anything to convince you about selling your furniture on Etsy you wouldn’t have to search long and far before you see success stories of people that have made great sales selling on Etsy. Selling on Etsy is easy as you need to register, open a shop and start uploading items you have to sell, how much they cost and your preferred payment method. Selling on Etsy incurs taxes which are automatically deducted and you pay a fee of 6.5% of your sale. The great thing is you can sell almost anything on Etsy.
AptDeco:
AptDeco one of the successful online furniture markets is a great place to sell your old furniture for different reasons one of which being that furniture sold on the site gets sold out fast and of course you want your furniture snatched as early as possible after you put it up.
Selling your furniture on AptDeco might be more ideal for you if you have vintage furniture that you know are worth something, and if you do not want to handle the delivery of the furniture because when you make your sale, AptDeco sends officials to pick up the furniture and have it delivered to your buyer at only a 29% cost.
Kaiyo:
Selling your furniture on Kaiyo is quite easy as you have professionals to handle every process for you, all you have to do is register and list your furniture. A professional is sent to your location to assess what was included in the listing, upon satisfactory the furniture is priced and the listing is verified. You have to pay about 60% of the money from the sale.
Sotheby's Home:
Although on the high end, Sotheby's Home is a site to sell your furniture if they are high-end furniture because you can’t just sell any furniture on Sotheby's Home. They only accept known brands and the process include registration, a staff coming to inspect and catalog the furniture and placing a price based on market logistics. You can store your furniture in the warehouse while you wait for the sale from which Sotheby's Home takes 50%
Top 5 Ways to Get Rid Of Furniture Locally
You could choose to get rid of your used furniture locally, either by disposing of it or by selling it out.
1. Hire a furniture removal service:
there are professionals that will help you dispose of your used furniture. This service sometimes includes haulage depending on the professionals you employ. The fees they charge will depend on the company and on the amount of furniture you have to dispose of and also if they are going to be hauling it themselves. The good thing about using this kind of service is that you have everything handled for you neatly, unfortunately, on many occasions, you cannot really say how much it will cost until they come around.
2. Haul it yourself to a dump:
if you have decided to dump the furniture and you have a truck that can carry it, you may want to do it yourself. This option is more convenient for medium-sized and small-sized furniture but the feasibility of it working out will depend on where you live. You will have to call to find out if you could dump the furniture at the dump sites around you, some of them do not collect large items and are selective on the materials they accept. Although this is already cheaper than using a removal service, you might want to ask if there are days when you can go and dump off your furniture for free or at a reduced cost.
3. Recycle the furniture:
Recycling is an eco-friendly way to get rid of old furniture locally because the materials can be put to making other things and you can even get paid for it. This option is preferable if the furniture you are trying to get rid of is damaged and if you wouldn’t want to donate it. If you are moving, consider this a way to make a little extra change to help with the expenses of the move.
4. Donate it:
make someone smile by donating your old furniture to them. You can do this directly to those around you or give it to available nonprofit organizations that cater to things like this. Donating your furniture is absolutely free, the benefactor or the organization would come and pick it from your doorstep, not to mention that you can get some tax benefits when you donate to recognizable charity.
5. Sell it:
Another way of getting rid of old furniture locally is by selling them, you would be surprised the number of people around you that are willing to pay for the furniture you no longer need.
Going about the sale locally involves putting it out in the open for people to know which can be done through a newspaper ad, telling the public what you have to sell or a signpost if you decide to use a garage sale, expected market are family, friends, neighbors, thrift store owners, college students, new families and so on. Other channels to sell your furniture locally is through the newspaper, hosting a garage sale on a day with clear weather, selling it to an antique store, and involving a used furniture store. With a used furniture store, they are likely only going to pay you after they have sold it but an antique store should pay immediately.
The Benefits of Selling Furniture Locally
Selling furniture locally is sometimes viewed as more difficult but not necessarily with the help of apps and websites that can help you connect to local buyers.
Less risk of scam:
if you are worried about online scams where you may not be able to redeem your goods nor money then selling locally may be the best option for you. Selling your furniture locally means that it is easier to track the buyer in an advent of scams.
You are growing the local community: selling your used furniture locally is an eco-friendly way to grow your community.
Whether you are selling in a garage sale or at a thrift shop or a consignment store because your prospective market is locals you are growing the business community by providing locals with furniture and providing businesses with goods to sell.
It’s a good way to meet people: selling your furniture is not going to be a friend-making scheme but if you are selling locally you would at least meet one new local and if it is something bigger like a garage sale then you meet more people.
You get paid fast:
one thing for sure, if you are selling locally you get paid faster since there is usually a face to face meeting.
What To Do With Old Broken Furniture Instead Of Getting Rid of The Furniture
Sadly, your favorite piece of furniture is not going to live forever, accidents happen and sometimes it gets broken but the good news is that there are ways to put a broken furniture to very good use. In fact, it will help to see it as an opportunity to get your creative juices flowing.
You can decide to do these things yourself or take it to a furniture shop and have them execute your ideas, if you are going DIY ensure to use the right tools and safety gear when necessary.
- Repair them yourself: there are some easy furniture breakage that you can repair yourself and there is no need to pay extra money or dispose a furniture for that purpose. You can get the needed tools, usually gums, fasteners and so on and fix the broken parts.
- Change the Upholstery: sometimes that is all you need to have your old furniture looking good again. Take your time to pick out of fine selection of fabrics you have available and you will not regret it.
- Convert drawers to wall shelves or picture frames: if you have the structural parts of drawers broken and you do not want to change them and continue using them that way, you can re-purpose the drawer section and use them as wall shelves or as a DIY picture frame.
- Spray or paint over old furniture: after furniture gets broken and you fix it, you may start to see the joins at the point(s) it was fixed or there might be a clear difference between replaced parts and other old parts. Spraying and/or painting is a great way to give your furniture a new look.
- Convert a broken dresser into a bench; if the top of your dresser got broken you may want to consider losing it all together and making it into a relaxation bench
- Make earring holders out of broken picture frames or out of parts of broken furniture. This can also go to creating hanging racks.
- Convert a broken table into two reading desks: a long table that has been broken at the top platform can be converted easily into two reading table by cutting them in half and attaching the cut sides to the wall to leave two legs and the wall as the support for each of them. You can convert an old desk or vanity table to an old night stand. Night stands are slimmer and do not need as much width as a desk or vanity table would. You could re-purpose and salvage the good side by converting it into old night stands.
- Convert old dining chairs to a French bench: this way you can get to give your garden a new look at a price close to nothing, all you have to do is change the sitting boards or join them depending on the style of what you already have.
- Use the back rest of broken chairs to make hangers: the back of your broken chairs can be converted to hangers for clothes or as a towel rack to use in your bathroom.
- Convert an old and broken kitchen stool into a coat hanger: When you have the legs of your kitchen stool broken you do not have to throw it away altogether. If the legs are slim, then you can convert it into a coat hanger by cutting the legs short, attaching the sitting board to the wall and letting the legs serve as hangers for your coat.
- Convert broken ladders into wall shelves: you do not have to throw out your old ladder when you could use an extra shelf in your house. Convert the ladders to shelves where you can put books or souvenirs.
There are different creative ways to use your old broken furniture that will make it valuable again, either by DIY means or by using a furniture expert.
Alternative To Furniture Removal
Top 5 Sites for DIY home projects
When you want to undertake a DIY home project that will help you find cheap alternatives to beautifying your home while using what you already have, sometimes you may be at a block for ideas.
With the right DIY websites, you can carry out DIY projects that will help you get creative by providing you with amazing ideas on what you could create.
This is a list of top DIY sites where you can be sure to stay inspired and find ideas on what projects to carry out around your home with your available resources.
- Country Living: Country living is a site dedicated to providing DIY ideas that will serve to revamp the home. The ideas are richly creative put up and edited by a team of qualified professionals to bring creativity that actually works. This website is one to find so many ideas about how to improve your home with DIY projects, so much to have you hooked.
- This Old House: This old house is not just a site for DIY ides, it is a brand about anything you need to know about your home. With several TV programs and a magazine, there is a lot of information offered that will help your home be a better place. The DIY ideas covers every inch of your home, even the one you think you can hardly find solutions to, from the basement to the sun room, when you browse ideas on this old house, you stay inspired. The company has won an EMMY award for its TV show regarding how helpful it is.
- DIY: DIY Joy is a DIY website that features original and helpful DIY content that will turn your home into a beautiful place. With season themed ideas, arts and crafts and home decoration ideas and tips you will keep your creative engines busy and running with DIY Joy.
- DIY & Crafts: getting good DIY projects and ideas can sometimes be difficult and not very possible because you might end up starting a project to realize that you actually need professional help, to save the stress of sorting through to find the good ones, DIY n Crafts helps to collate the best and useful DIY blog posts around the internet and gives it too you so that you don’t have to go searching, they already did that for you. The website covers different home projects and subscribers are also encouraged to submit leads on good posts as well.
- Do it yourself: since 1995, this website has been dedicated to make it easy for customer to find solutions to little home repairs and mishaps by featuring projects that handle difficult problems in easy DIY ways. The website has achieved notable recognition by having over 10 million visitors monthly and being listed as one of the best websites in the world. If you are in search of a website to give you solution to fix things around the home, look no further.
With these five DIY sites, you will not have to bother about a loss of ideas for DIY in your home.
Another Alternative To Doing Furniture Removal: Refurbish The Furniture
When your old furniture starts to break your heart by breaking or becoming obsolete or redundant, we are often plagued about whether to let it go or to refurbish it. Which of them may be the smarter idea for you, and does refurbishing offer opportunities that changing it doesn’t? the following are reasons why refurbishing your old furniture is actually a good idea:
1. It is cheaper:
Buying new furniture can be expensive and when compared to refurbishing there is a lot of difference especially when you get to do it yourself. Refurbishing is easy on your pockets, offering you the opportunity to save money that would have otherwise been spent on getting a new one.
2. A chance to be creative:
A chance to be creative once in a while should be welcomed, it keeps the mind inspired and gives a sense of fulfillment after the job has been done.
The idea of being able to convert old furniture into something with a new purpose is one of those chances to be creative that getting new furniture will not award you. It is a project you can undertake as a stress relief or to get your mind off things or just to get your creative juices flowing.
3. It is Eco-friendly:
When you refurbish a piece of old furniture rather than throw it away, you are reusing which is a sustainable way to live and make sure that resources are not wasted. Why waste a piece of furniture and make a new one when it still has reusable parts, and right now sustainability is a tool to engineer the world towards longevity.
4. You do not have to let go of memories:
After a while of use, memories are formed and attached to certain pieces of furniture. Maybe a bench where you used to sit and talk to the love of your life or your favorite nightstand while growing up.
These things are often difficult to let go of and if you are a hoarder you will find yourself keeping them in a corner of your house to serve as home to dust and spiders. If you have to throw them away, you are losing physical evidence of the memories you hold dear, while if you get to keep it then you can hold on to the memories a little longer. Refurbishing the piece of furniture is a way to honor it and have it last as long as you can.
5. You can preserve the value:
With furniture, technology changes, style changes, use of materials changes all these are evidence of value to an era. While furniture may be old, it can still be a valuable antique that bears evidence to a certain creative era and so to refurbish it could be a way to apply that creativity and keep it alive. Just be sure to apply the right means when it comes to refurbishing antique pieces.
This guide provides extensive information on what you may do with your old furniture so that it doesn’t have to just be a burden in your home.
Old Furniture Removal | Hire Our Junk Removal Company
Hire A Junk Removal Company Who Offers Furniture Removal Services
Importance Of Hiring A Professional Removal Service Company
Being conservative in cases of financial commitment is beneficial. We all want to save money, cut down expenses but on rare occasions such as the removal of furniture you need to remove the laden of packing off your shoulder. Let's highlight some benefits that come with hiring a professional removal company.
Professionalism
This is an essential reason for hiring removal companies. These are well-trained hands which have been in the business of moving furniture for years, so they are conversant with the gimmicks of moving different items of furniture. You don't have to panic about your item that is susceptible to breakage, they have been trained in all these aspects.
Storage Capacity
Most removal companies have storage spaces for your item which is a big bonus for you. In a situation where you don’t want they shipped over to your new place yet, there is an excellent storage space for your furniture. You will get your furniture just as it has always been.
Time Management
If you’re considering moving to a new place, it takes time to get yourself prepared from packing, moving, transporting and unloading. Asides from all these you will have to disconnect your cables and internet connection, to buy time for this you will need to hire a furniture removal company. They save your time by working at a faster pace. When you give them a, they work closely with it. Movers know the importance of time Management which is part of qualities that dignifies them as professionals.
All in all, you can save time and more by hiring a furniture removal company to come pick up the old furniture you no longer need. Some companies also pick up fair conditioned furniture to donate to a local community non-profit company.
We offer same day furniture removal and furniture disposal. If you have old broken furniture we pick up a wide variety of thing including junk furniture you no long need.
Guide: Furniture Removal - How To Get Rid of Old Furniture - Furniture Removal and Disposal Tips and Alternatives