The Best Places to Sell, Donate or Discard Furniture

Get­ting rid of fur­ni­ture can be a tedious job. It’s hard to know the best places to sell your fur­ni­ture, let alone what to do if you want to donate or dis­card it. We’re break­ing down all your options to make it easy on you. But first, some background.

On aver­age, Amer­i­cans tend to redec­o­rate their liv­ing spaces every two to five years. That adds up to a lot of fur­ni­ture being hauled in and out. All that fur­ni­ture has to go some­where, and if it does­n’t end up col­lect­ing dust in the garage, it tends to get tossed out. Over 9 mil­lion tons of fur­ni­ture end up in land­fills each year, and that num­ber con­tin­ues to grow. But as a soci­ety, we’re becom­ing more aware of how house­hold waste con­tributes to cli­mate change and sus­tain­abil­i­ty; it’s just that more often than not, we don’t include fur­ni­ture in our efforts to cre­ate less waste.

As we update our homes and try to stay on trend, we tend to for­get the impact that toss­ing out fur­ni­ture has on the plan­et. The solu­tion? Be more thought­ful with what you throw out and how you do it. At Apt­De­co, we think your home should evolve as often as you do, and believe there’s a sus­tain­able way to do it. So whether you’re look­ing to donate, sell it or toss it, here are a few ways to make the most of your pre-loved fur­ni­ture.

Sell it

If your fur­ni­ture is in good shape and you’re look­ing to redec­o­rate, sell­ing your fur­ni­ture is the best option. In our opin­ion, Apt­De­co is one of the best places to sell fur­ni­ture. Resale mar­ket­places are becom­ing more pop­u­lar, mean­ing peo­ple are poten­tial­ly look­ing for the exact item you’re hop­ing to offload, mean­ing you can cash in quick­ly! Var­i­ous online mar­ket­places offer dif­fer­ent ben­e­fits and draw­backs, so it’s impor­tant to pick one that works best for you.

If you’re look­ing to do as lit­tle work as pos­si­ble to get rid of your item (dis­as­sem­bling, hag­gling, sched­ul­ing), Apt­De­co is your spot. You can sell your fur­ni­ture to ver­i­fied buy­ers, have our deliv­ery team pick up and dis­as­sem­ble the item for you, and deal with sched­ul­ing and pay­ment com­plete­ly online. The ser­vice also includes a free pric­ing tool that helps you deter­mine the best price for your piece based on age, wear and brand name. When we say has­sle-free, we mean it. We also focus on top brands and vin­tage finds, so the qual­i­ty of what you’ll find on the site tends to be high­er. Try it out. It only takes 2 min­utes to list!

Oth­er fur­ni­ture mar­ket­places we can get behind?

Chairish — for your antiques and one-of-a-kind items. If you have a tru­ly unique item that needs to be appraised then this is a great place to sell it.

Face­book Mar­ket­place — sim­i­lar to Craigslist, Face­book Mar­ket­place is very do-it-your­self. You can sell your items quick­ly and find some seri­ous deals, but be pre­pared for hag­gling and lots of back and forth.

Let­Go — you’ll find a lit­tle bit of every­thing on this site. While Apt­De­co tends to focus on fur­ni­ture and home decor, you can sell every­thing under the sun on LetGo.

Donate it

If your fur­ni­ture has had some seri­ous wear or you don’t have the time to wait for it to sell, donat­ing is the next best option. Thank­ful­ly, there are plen­ty of places to give your pre-loved fur­ni­ture a sec­ond life. Our top rec­om­men­da­tion is Hous­ing Works. Hous­ing works is NYC-based, and they offer to pick up fur­ni­ture for free, which let’s be hon­est is 90% of the bat­tle. In the San Fran­cis­co Bay Area, Bay Area Furniture Bank will pick up unwant­ed fur­ni­ture that meets their criteria.

Sal­va­tion Army will also pick up large items for free, how­ev­er, their ser­vice is well-known so there can be a long wait at times. Good­will is also a great option if you’re look­ing to donate your fur­ni­ture. Unlike Sal­va­tion Army and Hous­ing Works, there is a fee for pick up, but it’s still a great option if you’re look­ing to donate!

Discard it

Last up? Dis­card­ing your fur­ni­ture. We’re sure you’ve walked out­side and seen a mat­tress or sofa perched on the curb. This is always an option, but there are a few things to know before you go this route. It’s the least eco-friend­ly option since your items will get tak­en straight to the land­fill, but we get it, some­times you have no choice but to pitch it. If you are stuck in this posi­tion, here are a few ways to make the most of dis­card­ing your items.

If you have more than one piece of fur­ni­ture to get rid of or need to offload your fur­ni­ture quick­ly, try enlist­ing the Jun­kLug­gers. They’re a removal ser­vice com­mit­ted to recy­cling and donat­ing the items they pick­up, help­ing to keep items out of land­fills. There’s a fee to use the ser­vice, but they’ll take care of remov­ing any unwant­ed items so you don’t have to do the heavy lifting.

Have no choice but to leave it on the curb? Add a note on your item let­ting passers­by know that it’s free and work­able. You can also send a pho­to to a local ‘street finds’ Insta­gram account so they can spread the word to locals in the area.

For NYC Metro, try Curb Alert or Stoop­ingNYC.

For Philly, try Stoop­ing­PHL.

For the San Fran­cis­co Bay Area, try Curb Alert SF

This gives the piece a chance to avoid the land­fill, and if you live in a big­ger city chances are some­one might want it.

From here, depend­ing on your address, there are cer­tain col­lec­tion dates that will apply to you. If you don’t want to deal with fines, be sure to Google your col­lec­tion day. Spe­cif­ic items have rules (ex: mat­tress­es should be wrapped because no one wants bed bugs). For more infor­ma­tion about trash­ing large items, fol­low these links for NYC, Philly, and SF Bay.

The bottom line

As long as your fur­ni­ture is in decent shape, see if some­one else can use it. Whether that’s donat­ing it to one of the places list­ed above, or sell­ing it to make a quick buck, you’re help­ing that piece of fur­ni­ture avoid the land­fill and let­ting some­one enjoy your item just as much as you did.

Good luck!