Do you remember your first sofa? The one you bought for half price, borrowed from a family member, or saved up for when you moved into your first apartment? Furniture is part of our daily lives and usually follows us wherever we go. However, as our lives change, so do our needs. You might find yourself needing a bigger dining table as your family grows or wanting a new bed when the old one starts to creak.
Whatever your reason for upgrading, you’ll need to remove your old furniture before buying new stuff or suffer a rather crowded living space.
What To Do With Used Furniture When You Need To Upgrade
Donate It to a Local Charity
This is the best way to repurpose old furniture, extending the life span of chairs, tables, sofas, and TV stands by letting others make good use of them. Plus, when you donate furniture, you help less fortunate people upgrade their living and working spaces. Of course, this option is best for gently used, surplus, or unwanted furniture and won’t work for anything damaged or beyond repair.
Donating is also an eco-friendly way to get rid of old furniture, preventing it from ending up in a landfill where it will go to waste. Furniture often contains plastics and metals that can leach chemicals into the environment over time, so it’s best to keep it in use for as long as possible.
Nonprofit organizations that offer various donation drop-off points for used furniture:
- Furniture Bank Association of North America (FBANA)
- Salvation Army
- Habitat for Humanity ReStore
- Goodwill
Some donation centers will pick up your old furniture for free, while others may ask you to drop it off. You can also call local churches, libraries, and community centers to check whether they accept furniture donations and if they can pick up bulky items.
Recycle or Upcycle It
You can give your furniture new life by sending it to a local recycling center or upcycling it into something new. Many junk removal companies can recycle furniture by dismantling it and salvaging the best parts or selling it at a reduced price.
If you have metal chairs, cabinets, and other office furniture, you can take them to a local scrap yard for recycling. These recyclers can use aluminum, steel, or wrought iron parts to make new products while you put cash back in your pocket. Most wooden furniture is also recyclable; you can often take it apart, sand it down, and turn it into something new.
If you prefer to keep your old furniture intact, you can sell it online to used furniture stores or via platforms such as CouchCycled. You can even trade old furniture with neighbors using Freecycle, a platform that lets you swap unwanted household items instead of throwing them away.
Take It Out With the Trash
While reusing, recycling, and donating are ideal, some furniture items, like broken mirrors, frames, or water-damaged mattresses, simply have to go in the garbage. Always check with your waste removal provider before placing an old couch on the curb on trash day to make sure they accept bulky items. While most municipalities should take old furniture, you can always haul it to your local landfill or transfer station yourself if they don’t.
If you’re doing a full house cleanup or urgently making space for a new living room set, you can rent a dumpster to quickly get all your old furniture out of the way. Many private companies offer roll-off dumpster rental services, including delivery and pickup, to help dispose of old furniture without leaving your property. Rental prices differ depending on the size of the dumpster, so it’s best to estimate how much space your unwanted furniture will take up before contacting the company.
Find New Furniture at Home Zone Furniture
Once you’ve disposed of your old furniture responsibly, you will have enough space to buy something new. Whether replacing mismatched chairs with a modern sectional sofa or swapping stained carpets for a plush new rug, you can find your next upgrade at Home Zone Furniture. We offer a range of high-quality, solid-wood furniture built to last, ensuring you won’t need another replacement for a long time.
Explore our living room, dining room, and bedroom furniture range, or browse our accessories and décor for design inspiration. Feel free to visit us in a store near you or contact us for more information about our collection.