Why is it so difficult to give furniture away?

My friend's aunt past away and the charity shops refused all of the good furniture and white goods, but took the clothes. The family were going to hire a skip to dump the items because they didn't know what else to do with them and they had 3 days to vacate the rented house. I sent an email to the Salvation Army who were so glad of it all and actually came with their own van to take it away.

If an old pine/teak or oak dresser is painted in black Matt paint it looks completely different. My youngest son is buying his house and will complete end of the month. He was looking at an oak dresser for £800. I offered him a dresser we had spare and he did not look impressed but I showed him a picture I found on internet of same style dresser just painted Matt black and he said he liked that. He's now going to paint the old dresser Matt black and saving himself £800. I'm taking that as a win. I have a G plan table and chairs and we just upholstered it in a lighter colour. The table does not have a mark.on it because I always used a protector under a tablecloth. The chairs look fab now too. I don't like waste even though I could afford to buy new. I prefer good quality even if old fashioned. I offered my son an old I might wait until he has renovated the dresser then offer an old oak chest of drawers for his spare room, maybe he can Matt black paint it too.

Free Cycle every time. I am amazed what people will take. Old TV sets, collections of CDs & tapes, three piece suites, etc. I have disposed of vertical blinds, curtains.
The gratifying sense of helping students, families in need is worth taking a photo and putting it on Free Cycle. I suppose it depends on what part of the country you live. It is also difficult for people to organise transport to collect larger pieces.

If the furniture is brown and not antique - then it's considered old fashioned .
Some friends of mine used to paint old brown furniture creating a shabby chic look and made a profit .
An enormous rent hike made then close their shop .

At the moment , I'm stuck with a hideous brown sofa set which is not fireproof .
It was refused by the local charity shop .
I've tried everything to get rid of it .
I'm going to pay to have it taken away .

I've been trying to give it away free - people show some interest but then fade away, or worse, arrange to collect and then simply don't show. The people yesterday were awful, very late, took the two chairs I was offering without thanks, and then quite aggressively demanded "the other four'. I said that I had indeed listed another set of six, which had been taken, but the one they had responded to was for two chairs. They left, but I felt quite scared for a moment or two.

We gave my mother's mid century furniture to Sue Ryder where they auction it off, but this was more than 10 years ago so I don't know if they still take it. BHF took our large pine dining table when we moved and I think that other charities do the same.
I'm actually still using a mid-century dining table and chairs myself, as well as a sideboard.
The local authority will take furniture away, for a price, there's not much else you can do with sofas and chairs unless they are fireproof.
I have a lovely 19th century dwarf bookcase which cost us quite a lot but I know that I'll get virtually nothing at auction so it is sitting in our garage.

I find even on freecycle some folk can be so picky.! - its free for goodness sake.😐

I have a large brown leather tetrad sofa, which had dark green seat cushions and dingy-looking back cushions. It fits perfectly in my living room and is large enough to be an emergency bed. I did not like it as it was, ugly but then I realised that I could upgrade it to look lighter

I bought new firmer seat cushions and made pale oatmeal covers and then I got rid of all the supplied cushions, to be replaced by 3 large bright feather cushions. The re-furb was pricey but what a difference it made. I now love that sofa and so do my AC

I also had two dark brown taller plant stands with a shelf lower down, I almost took them to the tip but bought chalk paint and wax and upcycled them. Three years on and they still look lovely

My dds do have a lot of our/my furniture given from the time they bought their own homes and still in use.

Furniture is big and unless a charity knows it will sell they would have to pay to dispose of it. It's not always that young people are fussy, my children have had second hand stuff, but with smaller houses, will it fit in. Made up furniture doesn't fit I to a car as would a flat pack, if someone had to hire a man with a van they will set cost of that against cost of flat pack, if flat pack is not much different which would fit them.
Yes people get made homeless and need stuff and usually when a plea comes people do offer. But if you are giving away a sofa in Inverness and the poor woman needing stuff now is in Exeter that's not much good.
Freecycle is often a good way or local Facebook groups, if charity shops can't take them, or local community groups who might know of someone in need.
People are saying ercol doesn't go but you do see them being sold. On antiques programmes, so may be worth trying antique shops or auction houses

@Chocolatelovinggran, I have noticed that modern plates and bowls are much larger than vintage ones. A modern tea plate is the same size as a vintage salad plate. I wonder if this is contributing towards the obesity problem.

It is illegal for charity shops to sell secondhand upholstered furniture withoiut a permanent fire safety label.

1) Try ebay
2) Get a house clearance company in
3) Put it in an auction
4) A number of charitites take furniture, Emmaus, certainly do and we have a local charity that furnishes homes for people who have been homeless, or fled violence or for other reasons may be given asomewhere to live but nothing to put in it. The British Heart Foundation alsohave furniture shops dotted round the country.

www.dunelm.com/info/about/mattress-and-furniture-recycling

www.dunelm.com/info/about/take-back-scheme

Gosh paddyann, all my furniture is far older than four years.

I would think of four year old stuff as practically brand new, and wouldn’t dream of replacing it.

(This isn’t intended as a criticism, just an observation how we all have different ideas, the same applies to clothes, I have stuff years old that I still wear and think is ok, but others would have ditched yonks ago).

When clearing my brother's flat it took 7 attempts to get rid of a rug. so many time wasters. I have some vintage items which could go on show at a museum but i can't even get a reply to the messages I've sent. I've tried ebay and the buyer did not read that items were for collection, facebook marketplace is only about 10% success. Charities are extremely picky - would not take a virtually new bed as it had a tiny mark (less than the size of a 5p piece) underside of the mattress.

When we bought new light oak furniture to replace our dark oak we struggled to get anyone to take it, despite the fact it was immaculate. Eventually a charity took the bookcase. But we had lovely display units which could be split up and a table and chairs which noone would take. Charities said they weren't suitable for small houses or flats. We ended up breaking them up and paying the council to collect them. Broke my heart.

I noticed the size issue also in relation to china-my wedding set (52 years old) has smaller plates and bowls than those sold today

Probably another reason that fuels the obesity crisis nowadays, we have bigger portions to accommodate the bigger pieces of china.

In an army family and without money, I had bought most of my furniture and carpets at £2 an item at auction after our marriage. It was functional ( and some of it better than the orange nylon army carpets which we had had in an army quarter

20 years later, a posting required letting the house. The estate agent wanted to know how I could bear to leave the beautiful antiques in a house for rental

That's the way the roundabout moves

I bet the good quality furniture comes back into fashion in the future- there won’t be the skilled people to make it though- the IKEA tat looks nice enough but not good quality. Had to give away a beautiful neutral coloured sofa which cost thousands and hadn’t been used - perhaps people aren’t as stretched as they claim to be.

Calendargirl

Gosh paddyann, all my furniture is far older than four years.

I would think of four year old stuff as practically brand new, and wouldn’t dream of replacing it.

(This isn’t intended as a criticism, just an observation how we all have different ideas, the same applies to clothes, I have stuff years old that I still wear and think is ok, but others would have ditched yonks ago).

Same here. There's nothing in our house which is less than about 20 years ago. I'm currently sitting on the sofa of our three-piece suite, which we 'inherited' from my inlaws nearly 30 years ago. We had it recovered, but they bought it when they got married - 69 years ago!

Have you tried offering on trashnothing.com ? Similar to Freecycle and people offer everything from furniture to magazines.

Where I live there are areas of extreme social deprivation. When I had the horrible task of clearing my mother's house the Red Cross and several local charities were all very happy to take any furniture, plus kitchen equipment, household linen, curtains, etc. One charity trained unemployed people to refurbish old and damaged furniture. There are so many homeless people and domestic abuse victims setting up home that desperately need everything they can get.

Younger People don’t want good quality …. they want modern ….and modern changes every 5-8 years or so. So they buy new …cheaper furniture , and don’t lose much sleep when they get rid in time for the next modern trend Simples!

Gumtree has worked for me. I got £30 for a nearly new IKEA single bed, also had a taker for some free basic office furniture.
And Emmaus took a huge modern oak wardrobe.

If its old fashioned no matter what the quality people don't want it. A friend of mine's parents died and he tried to get Emmaus to take it. It was a no. The wardrobes were bought in the 50's! Old fashioned furniture just clogs up space in recycling shop . I think Marketplace is an option but again people are fussy.