Donate Furniture Near Me

 

2. Gumtree

A classified ads site with a dedicated category for people to give their items away for free: the Freebies section. Gumtree is one of the most popular platforms for exchanging pre-loved items. Create a listing within ‘Freebies’ and people can message you if they want to come and pick it up for free. Include relevant tags in your listing to help people find your item.

 

3. Facebook marketplace

Facebook marketplace is a popular way to buy and sell things locally, and it also has a category for Free Stuff. There you can list your furniture for free. There can be a few false listings on Facebook marketplace, so providing a description and having a good profile help to make your listing more legitimate. Communicate via Facebook messenger with anyone interested in your item.

 

4. Freecycle

Freecycle is for online reuse and groups are organised by town. Find yours and create a listing. You can post in multiple groups if you are on the borders of a couple of towns. There’s unfortunately no app for Freecycle so you have to use a computer to post and communicate.

For a bit of extra help using the site, we’ve written a handy Freecycle Guide.

 

5. Freegle

Freegle works exactly like Freecycle and is just as popular. Search for your town group and post a listing. You can also see if there are any ‘Wanted’ posts searching for what you have to give away. There’s an app for Freegle which makes it convenient if you can’t always be by your computer to respond to messages.

 

6. Nextdoor

A social platform for neighbours, Nextdoor has a “For Sale & Free” section. Post your furniture here and make sure you label it as ‘free’. Anybody nearby in your town who likes your item can come and pick up for free. 

 

 

7. Charity donation

Of course, a very popular option is to donate old furniture to charity. They either sell their donations to fund their charitable purpose or pass it on to people in need. This is great – but any upholstered items must have fire labels still intact. Upholstered furniture includes sofas, armchairs, sofabeds and even dining chairs that have any fabric. It does not include for example dining chairs that are 100% wooden.

Without fire labels, charities can’t legally accept upholstered furniture. So, if you can’t find fire labels, try the donation options above. For charities you can donate to, see the next section.

 

Donate furniture to charity

The following charities operate nationwide and accept furniture donations. Most will collect your furniture for free if you get in touch.

• British Heart Foundation – type in your postcode and see if BHF can collect in your area. Complete the form by filling in all necessary details to arrange your free furniture collection.
• DEBRA – type in your postcode, check if your nearby store offers furniture collection and arrange via telephone.
• Emmaus – find your local shop and arrange a free furniture collection via phone or email.
• Red Cross – enter your postcode to see if there are any furniture and electrical stores near you. Call or email to organise collection.
• Sue Ryder – visit the main site or contact your nearest store.
• Salvation Army – visit main site or contact your nearest store.
• Shelter – do you have lots of furniture to donate? You can request a full or part house clearance from Shelter. You pay for a full house clearance but a part clearance is free. See if there’s a Shelter shop near you and call to organise a house clearance.
• Local charities – there may be smaller, independent charities near you also looking for furniture donations. A good place to find these is in your council’s bulky waste collection pages.

 

 

Increase chances of donation

Here are some top tips that will help make sure your item is successfully donated. 

1. 1. Your item should be in good condition, i.e. clean, working and in good repair. If it’s faulty, badly stained or otherwise unusable, remember that donation doesn’t mean free disposal of broken items. If somebody can’t genuinely use it again, consider furniture disposal options.
   2. Include a clear description – provide dimensions and if there are any minor defects, be transparent about it. People can decide beforehand whether they mind or not and this is lots better than turning up and the item isn’t as described. Providing a story in your description also helps! Are you moving house? Just had a baby so need more space? A genuine reason for getting rid of your furniture makes your listing more trustworthy and more likely to get responses.
   3. Take good photos from a few different angles and preferably in daylight. Try to catch people’s attention by marketing it well!
   4. Post on lots of sites – the more people that see your listings the better! It doesn’t hurt to post across multiple sites and see where you get responses.
   5. Respond to messages fast – if possible, be prompt. If there are periods of time where you won’t be able to check your phone or notifications, let people know in the description. And be polite when you do reply!

 

Keeping safe

Finally, stay safe while you donate your furniture, especially if you decide to donate to an individual.

• Avoid offering to deliver
• Try not to share your exact address until the last minute (and preferably from somewhere you don’t live)
• Have your furniture collected with somebody else present, a family member or friend for example

Good luck and happy donating!

 

Further reading

Thanks for reading – we hope you found our how to donate furniture guide useful! You might also like our Free collection of unwanted furniture guide, or our useful POPs guide for furniture.