Moving day is closing in already, which implies that you are at the right time to declutter your home. The stress is, you have too many collections of furniture that you no longer plan to move with you.
Moving to another part of the country and don’t buy the idea of moving furniture you no longer love to your new home? Do you have dressers that no longer fit your style any longer? Or maybe your furniture just won’t fit the space in your new apartment.
No matter your reason for moving, it sounds like the right time to stick with the old saying: remove the old and bring in the new. While it is best to get rid of unwanted furniture before your move, finding out what to do with furniture you don’t need can be tough.
What is the actual procedure for disposing of large furniture? Here are a few options you have:
1. Organize a Yard/Garage Sale
Performing a garage sale is the best way to lower your bulky belongings you are moving and still save some cash into your purse. A yard/garage sale is ideal when you have excess items to sell alongside your old furniture. But you will need enough time to arrange the event correctly, advertise it, and make it colorful.
Set aside the furniture items that you don’t plan to move and clean them up so they can look nice.
After that, look for the prices of second-hand furniture in your area to obtain an idea of their current market value.
Arrange all the goods that you don’t need anymore including your furniture for a yard/garage sale. Immediately you are ready, you can also try online platforms like Nextdoor, LetGo, OfferUp, and Craigslist to increase the chance of getting buyers.
Consider the following steps to achieve a successful yard/garage sales purpose:
- Select the right time to hold your yard/garage sale: Bright Saturday in the first weekend of any month has been observed to yield the best outcome for yard/garage sale events.
- Advertise your event: Let the news of your event spread around your neighborhood and beyond; inform your colleagues at work, neighbors, and friends about your yard/garage sales. You can even post it on different online platforms to increase the publicity of your garage sale. Feature an ad in the local newspaper and place signs in strategic locations in your neighborhood about one week to the event.
- Get your items ready: Put your items in the best condition before the event. Clean and polish as necessary to make them more attractive to the buyers.
- Make your venue safe and inviting: Get the location for the Garage Sale ready to be safe and inviting. Search the area and get rid of obstacles and dangerous stuff. You can hang balloons and play some music to beautify the place.
- Provide a good deal to your buyers: Ensure you provide a good deal to your buyers for the yard sale items. Offer discounts for purchasing several items and even reduced prices for the items you are eager to get rid of. You should also look into giving smaller belongings for free to people who have purchased your costly items. For example, you can give books that you no longer want, to the person that bought the bookshelf.
- Be prepared to negotiate: Remember that your primary objective is to dispose of your old furniture and other domestic belongings you no more need. So, be prepared to negotiate the offer price since profit is not your main target.
2. Sell It Online
If there are few months left before the big move, try selling furniture that you nicely used. Ensure you take clear, well-brighten photos of your furniture pieces and post them on different online marketplaces.
Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist are some of the popular sites. In your listing, share pictures and descriptions of any wear and tear that are on the furniture so the buyer can know during pick up.
This transparency level make facilitates a faster sale since buyers know what to expect when they physically see your furniture. Lastly, ensure you price the stuff fairly.
A quick search for comparable stuff and price normally help to price your furniture right. If the price for your furniture is too high, you may not have many bids for them, if any. Do you own expensive furniture? If yes, you may want to look into selling it via a consignment shop.
If you do not have enough time, time may restrict you from finding a buyer before your move. Try other techniques to get a good home for your furniture. As long as your furniture items are in good shape, you have many options to try selling them before the Moving day.
- Clean the furniture items you plan to sell to look nice
- Research the worth of used furniture in your area, and then find the price too
- Organize a moving (garage/yard) sale to try to sell the entire household belongings you are not moving with you, like the furniture pieces.
- Sell your furniture items online. Craigslist seems like your best location, and you can also use OfferUp, NextDoor, and other innovative mobile apps to sell your furniture locally.
3. Donate Your Furniture to Charity
You can dispose of unwanted furniture and at the same time support a worthy cause. If no buyer or a friend is willing to grab the furniture you no longer want, you can put your old furniture to support a worthy cause.
There are lots of charities and non-profit organizations that will be glad to grab those old furniture pieces in your hand, as long as it is in good shape.
They can sell the pieces and use the money to fund their charitable course or give it out to those in need. Charitable organizations that take donated furniture (and may even come for the pickup) include:
- Goodwill
- The Salvation Army
- The National Furniture Bank Association
- Vietnam Veterans of America
- Habitat for Humanity Restores
- The United Way
- Donation Town and many others
Perform a Google search to locate a charity in your location that provides furniture pickup service, contact them, and fix an appointment. There are local organizations like homeless shelters and missions, theater groups, schools, and so on, that may also be able to make good use of your furniture, call them to find out if they need any of your nicely used pieces and if they can come for the pickup or you will have to drop the items off yourself.
- If your furniture is too old for charity, you can send it as a donation to a local animal shelter as they will possibly accept the pieces for their residents to rest in.
Note: As you donate furniture to charity, a receipt will be provided for the value of the furniture items. Keep those receipts for an easy claims deduction when you file your taxes. It will either save some money into your pocket when you reach your next refund or cut the actual amount of your tax paid.
4. Giveaway Items to Family and Friends
In a situation where you couldn’t sell some of the items you no longer want, you should find out your friends and family members who might be willing to take them. Take photos of the item and send it out to them by mail or WhatsApp.
You will probably find a person who will be happy to have them. Even though this method doesn’t earn you money, it saves you the cost of moving stuff you no longer need. Also, your new home will not be cluttered with unnecessary items.
5. Get Rid of Your Old Furniture in an Environmental-Friendly Way
If you don’t find any of the options above effective for you, then you won’t have another choice but to dispose of your old furniture in an eco-friendly way. Don’t just abandon your old furniture on the side of the street as it may be your residence, thus risking a penalty for improper disposal of furniture.
If you are confused about what is allowed and not, ask your neighbors or call your local waste management company to obtain more information. You may need to transport your furniture to the nearest landfill or hire a furniture removal company.
6. Speak with the Waste Management and Scrapyard Managers
When your furniture can’t be sold for some reason, and no one is willing to take them off your hand even for free, the next available option is to try to trash it. However, the majority of waste management companies don’t accept oversized belongings.
So you will need to make sure that the waste company will accept your large furniture item before you start dragging them out to the road.
You will have to carry the large piece back indoors if it is ignored by the collectors. The policies of different waste management companies vary from one place to another. In some locations, they accept almost anything except electrical appliances. In some places, you will have to contact the waste management company and arrange a time to pick up your large items.
The majority of waste companies will charge a minimum of $50 to take care of large pickup. There are other locations where you will be asked to purchase and attach a special tag on large items to make them acceptable on a regular collection day. Such tags are often cheaper; a $10 tag will enable you to get rid of most large items, such as mattresses or tables.
7. Haul it to the Dump
When there is no positive outcome from all the above-mentioned methods, you can now transport your old furniture to the landfill by yourself. Based on the rules of your location, your old furniture will be received by most landfills for free, or charge a small fee for it. If you don’t have a vehicle to perform the task, you can pay a transport service to help you transport the unwanted piece to the landfill.
Note: Make sure you ask your moving company if they offer furniture moving services or if they would want to drop the furniture you no longer want to a donation center, scrap yard, or thrift shop before they proceed to your new home with the rest of your belongings.
Conclusion
Now that you know the best ways to dispose of your furniture during a move, you can easily pick out the best solution for your old furniture pieces and not transport damaged or worn belongings, things you don’t like or need anymore, and items that don’t work well in your new home.
Your moving will be on the cheaper side and also easier to complete when moving without furniture. Either way, it is a great idea to first speak with your furniture moving company and find out if they offer free furniture removal service.
