CHARLESGATE Blog

Secondhand Blessings: 4 Easy Ways To Donate Your Used Furniture

Written by Michael DiMella | Oct 7, 2016 4:00:00 AM

[This is a guest post.]

You’re decided the house needs refurbishing to bring the décor up to date, so you need to dispose of all of your old furniture including that wishbone chair replica that was once your mom’s. Or maybe you prefer antique furniture, so you can add an authentic antique wall mirror to your home to give it some style, if you need new pieces of furniture then you should definitely check out this furniture store. Other than renting a trailer and hauling the old furniture to the city dump, you’ve decided there’s still some life left in the various items and you’d like to donate them for someone else to use. Here are four easy ways to donate your used furniture.

Donate to Charity

There are likely scores of charities or nonprofits in your area that would appreciate having your donated furniture for sale in their showrooms. Consider Goodwill or The Salvation Army or even a church that is holding a rummage sale for your donation. Knowing that your furniture is being redistributed to citizens in need within your community should make it easier to say goodbye to the old furniture pieces you know so well. Donating your old furniture also makes way for a new set of furniture. You can easily save much by opting for furniture packages for your home. Just visit the site https://furniturefitouts.com.au/furniture-packages/ to know more.

If you have quite a few furniture pieces to dispose of, arrange for the charity organization to pick up the furniture from your home. And in most cases, because you are donating to a legitimate charity, the market value of the furniture can be written off as a tax deduction for that income tax year.

Hold a Yard Sale

People love yard sales. Every Saturday morning across the country, bargain-hunters are on the prowl. Notorious for never wanting to pay the marked price, a yard sign advertising “FREE FURNITURE” will bring these treasure hunters in like flies to honey. You have no idea how much demand there is for free recliners, the only way for one to find out is by having your own yard sale.

Chances are if you have a lot of furniture, you won’t move everything that you hauled out to the garage or onto the front lawn. If you need the space inside your home for new furniture with cord armchair that’s already on the way, it’s a good idea to have secondary storage space available so you can quickly move the left over furniture elsewhere for a short time.

Renting space at a storage facility like Decatur Self Storage for a short time gives you an immediate home for that excess furniture. Rent for a short-time period like 30 days should be relatively inexpensive. Once you’re secured the remaining used furniture out of the way in a storage facility, you then have the time to offer the items to various charitable organizations near you.

Use the Internet to Donate

The internet is a terrific source to locate people or institutions who will haul away your unwanted furniture. Craigslist, the huge internet classified-ad phenomenon, is probably the best vehicle to use for finding someone willing to drive to your house, load of up the furniture and take it away,

There is no fee involved in advertising on Craigslist. You simply list the items you have available in an ad and post it on their “free furniture” listings. Photographs, which you can also post for free, will help attract more interest. 

If there is no active Craigslist operation where you live, advertise your furniture on a social media outlet like Facebook. You never know who on your “friends” list might be looking for furniture for a vacation home to for family members in need.

Donate to a Community Theater

This is one sector that few people think of as needing or wanting used furniture, but theaters and community play houses do have a need for furniture to use as stage props.

All towns have a local high school or maybe a college or two that have drama departments. Contact them, describe the future you have and let them decide if some of your items will fit into any upcoming plays on their schedule. If they do, it’s always fun to go to a performance and watch the actors sit on your old sofa or the easy chair grandpa handed down to you.