At some point, the brand-new furniture you were so happy to get will be broken beyond repair. Maybe you hit it too hard, maybe it’s outlived its shelf life, or maybe an accident just happened.
Regardless, no piece of furniture lasts forever.
Broken or damaged pieces of furniture can be tricky to get rid of. Depending on why they’re broken ,not everyone may want to have them. You can’t just leave them lying around on your front porch forever, too.
At some point, you’ll have to get rid of your broken furniture, but how?
Before you decide to just dump them in a landfill (which is actually one of the worst options you can take), read on to see how you can properly dispose of broken or damaged furniture.
Maybe you’re moving out, or you just want to replace that old shelf that’s been hanging around in your house for years. Regardless, you don’t want it anymore; it’s slightly damaged, but it’s not that damaged.
The landfill would be a bad place to dump a piece of furniture that can be used after a few repairs here and there. Someone could benefit from your old wardrobe, and if you’re not gonna use it anyway, you might as well find someone who can.
If you don’t personally know anyone who wants to take your broken furniture off your hands, you might want to consider giving it to a charitable organization. They have the resources and connections to make sure that donations are received by people who need them.
Suppose the broken furniture is really banged up beyond any repair. In that case, there’s not much sense in donating it, but maybe the materials can be broken down and used for something else.
Materials like aluminum, steel, glass, and even wood can be repurposed once the initial furniture has served its purpose. Your old television will have lots of parts inside that can still be used for other appliances, too.
If you can’t recycle some materials yourself (like metal which would need to be converted into scrap metal first), you could take a trip down to your nearest recycling facility.
But the most significant benefit of recycling is in how much you’ll be helping the environment. The less waste gets dumped into landfills, the better it is for everybody all around.
For broken furniture and appliances with metal parts like televisions, antennae, and air conditioners, scrap recycling facilities will be happy to take them off your hands.
They’ll also pay you for it because they get to convert the metals into different things they can resell to others.
One thing to consider with this option is that you’ll need to have a reasonably large vehicle to transport the broken furniture in the first place. If there’s no nearby scrap facility at all, you might have to drive long distances. Otherwise, this wouldn’t be an option at all.
Another thing to think about is how many pieces you’ll be bringing. Depending on the quantity, you might need to make multiple trips.
Selling or trading is a great way to dispose of your broken or damaged furniture while getting something in the process.
With platforms like eBay, Amazon, and even Facebook Marketplace, looking for a place to sell or trade your goods is nowhere near as hard as it used to be.
You might think that you have no more use for a beat-up chair or television that’s been sitting around in your attic for years. Still, you’ll be surprised at how many people will be willing to trade their stuff for it.
There are plenty of stories online of people starting out with useless stuff until they kept trading and trading and eventually ended up with more expensive stuff.
The world of trading is vast, and you know what they say, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”
You could also visit your nearby furniture store and ask if they want to take your broken furniture off your hands. They might have the resources to repair and resell it too.
Some items can be dragged out onto your front porch, where they can either be bought or just outright taken. Either way, that would be an excellent way to dispose of some furniture.
However, junk removal services really only work for small- to medium-sized pieces of furniture. Depending on where you live, curbside dumping may also be restricted or even prohibited. For bigger pieces, you might need to contact professional services to take them off your hands.
The good thing about hiring junk removal services is that they know their way around carrying big pieces. This means that you minimize the risk of getting bumps and scratches all over your house and your porch.
Dumpster rental services allow you to roll your broken or damaged furniture in large dumpsters. They then take the contents of the dumpster regularly. This kind of disposal method is easy and stress-free, and you also get a regular dumpster to throw your other things into!
You don’t even have to be home when the pickup happens. As long as the dumpster is in a visible and accessible place (it usually is), the dumpster rental company will do all the work of unloading the dumpster for you.
There’s also no time pressure involved, unlike in Facebook or Craigslist sales. You decide when you want to get rid of your broken or damaged furniture.
This kind of option is best for major home cleanouts where you’ll be dealing with multiple pieces of furniture that you won’t be using anymore.
There are plenty of ways to get rid of broken or damaged furniture safely and quickly. You should always consider practicality, convenience, and of course, the environmental effects of disposing of old stuff.
Hopefully, you now have a fair idea of some options you can take when disposing of your old furniture.
