Free Collection of Unwanted Furniture

 

Facebook marketplace

How: in the marketplace section, find the ‘create new listing’ button and complete the details. Set a fair price and post. If you don’t have one already, it helps to have a ‘complete’ Facebook profile. This includes a profile picture, a bit of information about yourself and some friends. It makes you more trustworthy when people come to collect any items.

Contact: chat to people via Facebook. You may get people haggling for a lower price so if you’re set on the one you decided, be firm but polite!

Payment: arrange payment yourself.

 

Facebook forums

How: find a relevant reuse forum in your area. Try keywords like Buy and Sell Newcastle/ second hand Exeter and make sure that you’re allowed to sell within the group. Some forums are strictly for free giving and receiving and you’ll be kicked out if you violate that! Assuming it’s allowed, post your item for sale with some pictures. Check the rules beforehand to make sure you can sell in the group and it’s not just for free or swap items.

Contact: check the comments of your post or your messages on Messenger – depending on the group’s rules.

Payment: arrange payment yourself.

 

Preloved

How: find the “place advert” button, select a category and complete details for your listing. 

Contact: chat to people via the email or telephone number you provide, or through the site/ app.

Payment: arrange payment yourself.

 

Shpock

How: on the app, tap your profile and follow the “add new listing” button. Complete the details and post.

Contact: people message you via the app/ website with an offer/ counteroffer and sometimes a message. Choose whether to accept the offer or not.

Payment: choose whether to accept payment via Shpock or organise payment yourself. Shpock can’t help you if something goes wrong with private payment.

 

Wallapop

How: find “list a product” button and fill in details. Wallapop doesn’t seem to be too popular in the UK yet but we are including for completeness.

Contact: chat via the app/ website.

Payment: accept payment via Wallapop after the exchange.

 

 

 

2. Charity collection – donate your furniture to charity

There are a number of charities that collect good quality, preloved furniture for free. This is a great option to consider because your items go to a good cause. However, any upholstered furniture (fabric sofas or armchairs, for example) must have fire labels attached or a charity can not accept them. Note: fire labels aren’t a problem if you’re giving away or selling to an individual, so if you can’t find a fire label, then consider the other options!

These are the main charities that collect furniture from your home for free.

• British Heart Foundation – go to their website, 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.
• Sue Ryder – visit their main site or contact your nearest store.
• Salvation Army – visit their main site or contact your nearest store.
• Red Cross – go their site and enter your postcode to see if there are any furniture and electrical stores near you. 
• Emmaus – find your local shop and arrange a free furniture collection via telephone or email .
• DEBRA – type in your postcode, check if your nearby store offers furniture collection and arrange one via telephone.

Large amounts of furniture

Do you have a lot of furniture to clear out? Shelter offers a full and partial house clearance service. Full is chargeable but a partial house clearance is free. The service collects furniture and electrical items in good condition. Check if there’s a Shelter shop near you and arrange a house clearance via telephone.

 

3. Donate furniture to someone online

If you want to give your furniture away for free but for whatever reason it isn’t suitable for a charity, then there are plenty of non-charity websites that can help you. The following ones are by far the most popular for free furniture donation: Facebook marketplace, Facebook forums, Freeycle, Freegle, Gumtree, Trashnothing, Nextdoor, LoveJunk and Olio.  Let’s look at each site one by one:

 

Facebook marketplace

How: this process is exactly the same as if you were selling it. On the marketplace section of Facebook, find the ‘create new listing’ button. Choose ‘item for sale’ and then complete the details. The important part is to set £0 as the price and include in the title and/ or description of your item that it is free and for collection.

Contact: People can message you through your Facebook account via Messenger if they’re interested.

 

Facebook forums

How: Find some local reuse forums. Try keywords with your town name, for example: Wandsworth reuse/ Stockport freecycle/ second hand Norwich. When you find one, join or request to become a member. Check the rules of the group before posting! These groups are run by volunteer admins so they will probably notice if you try and sell something on a free giveaway only page.

Contact: Sometimes people reply in the comments and sometimes they message you privately and directly on your Facebook account. This can depend on the group’s rules. 

 

Freecycle

How: find your town group within Freecycle. You are allowed to join more than one if you have a few nearby groups. Make an “offer” post and complete the details (title, general location, description, pictures and a couple of tags).

For a bit of extra help, we’ve written a Guide to Freecycle where you can find out how to sign up and use the site.

Contact: People reply to your listing on the site and you can organise collection via Freecycle. Note that there’s no app for Freecycle so any activity is done on desktop.

 

Freegle

How: Freegle works exactly like Freecycle. Just list an item in a relevant town group with a short description and some pictures. 

Contact: Speak to people via the site after they reply to your listing. There is an app for Freegle but it’s not very user-friendly, so we recommend just using the website from a desktop.

 

Gumtree

How: Go to the “sell” button. The first step asks for a category of the item you’re looking to get rid of so type in/ select “freebies”. Then complete the rest of the information for the listing, including £0 for the price.

Contact: depending whether you leave your email address or phone number, you’ll get messages from people interested in your listing.

 

Trashnothing

How: works just like Freecycle and Freegle. List your unwanted furniture plus pictures and a couple of lines describing it.

Contact: chat with people and arrange collection via the site.

 

 

Nextdoor

How: find the “for sale and for free” section and then the “post a listing” button. Set the price to free, complete the rest of the listing and post.

Contact: message people via the Nextdoor site or app and arrange collection.

 

LoveJunk

How: create a listing in seconds either on your computer or through the app on your phone. Make sure you have some photos ready. The most important part is to flag your item as reusable. When you post your listing, it goes live to waste collectors and reusers in your area who can bid to take it away. The free option is to match with a reuser, or you’ll have to pay a waste collector to dispose of it.

Contact: you can message a reuser before ‘matching’ with them and answer any of their questions. If you’re happy, match with the reuser and arrange collection. 

 

Olio

How: on the app, tap the “Add” button and then “Free – give away free food/ non-food”. Complete the listing and post. We’ve included Olio for completeness here, but right now it’s very popular on the food side but not necessarily for non-food items.

Contact: message through the app and arrange collection.

 

 

Extra Tips for giving away furniture online

There are a few things to do and keep in mind to make selling or donating your furniture as easy as possible:

• Genuinely good condition – perhaps obvious but your furniture should be clean (with no stains) and without damage or visible wear and tear
• Good photos – a good picture of your furniture, in good lighting, of the whole item, from some different angles and without clutter in the background can make a huge difference to somebody looking at your listing.
• Fire labels – remember that if you’re donating to charity, any upholstered items need relevant fire labels
• Provide a great story for getting rid of it – are you moving house? Redecorating? A genuine reason for getting rid of your furniture makes your listing more trustworthy
• Respond to enquiries fast – or if there are periods where you can’t reply, say in the description that you’ll respond when you can. 
• Be polite!

 

And some things to avoid

In general, try to avoid:

• Offering to deliver
• Sharing your exact address until the last minute (and if possible from somewhere you don’t live)
• Having it collected when you’re alone – see if a friend or family member can be with you when the person comes to collect

Stay safe!

 

Finally,

Thanks for reading! We hope you found this article about finding free collection for unwanted furniture useful. If you have any questions, drop us a message at [email protected].

If you like this, you might also like:

• How to Find Free Furniture Near Me – a complete guide to finding free furniture, including recommended sites, top tips and more.
• Furniture Removal & Disposal Guide – how to dispose of your old furniture from anywhere.