The Ultimate Furniture Removal Guide for London
Furniture Removal London - the Ultimate Guide
Are you looking for advice on Furniture Removal and disposal in London? If so, welcome! Here is the perfect guide for you!
From reuse and retailer take-back options for furniture removal to hiring a man and van waste contractor. We even cover your local council service options to dispose of your furniture. This is your easy to read go-to guide to furniture removal and disposal in London. But if you're in a rush, follow this link to find cheap furniture removal near me now.
- What is furniture removal?
- Types of furniture
- Furniture removal - price guide
- Man & van - paying a licensed man & van contractor to remove and dispose of furniture
- Furniture removal for free - reuse
- Charity donation - furniture
- Retailer takeback - what furniture companies remove old furniture
- Civic amenity sites - taking your furniture to the local tip
- Council furniture collection - using your local council service
1. What is furniture removal?
Let's get straight to the basics! Furniture removal is the collection of unwanted furniture from a property for the purposes of disposal or reuse. It encompasses large items such as beds, sofas and wardrobes, to smaller pieces and can be a deceptively difficult task! Maybe you are having a refurbishment or moving house and have old furniture items to get rid of. If so, this is the guide for you.
2. Types of furniture
There are two types of furniture:
1. Household furniture
Household furniture incorporates any large or bulky items of furniture like sofa, beds, and wardrobes. Essentially anything that you would struggle carrying solo. Alongside smaller items like coffee tables, ottomans and chairs.
2. Office furniture
Office furniture is no different to household furniture, it's just in an office! It can also be recycled and reused just as household items can be. For detailed information on how to get rid of office furniture, check out our office clearance guide. For office furniture removal, platforms like Facebook Marketplace and Gumtree work well. There are also options to donate, or even repurpose and reupholster office furniture into something new! So before you throw out your chairs and filing cabinets, think of what those items could become with a bit of TLC.
3. Furniture removal - price guide for London
The table below shows the range of typical prices charged by licensed man & van collectors to remove different items of furniture. The data is based on thousands of examples of furniture removals undertaken in London through the LoveJunk waste removal marketplace. Prices exclude situations when items have been collected for reuse which are lower.
Table of Furniture removal prices 2022
| Furniture Item | Low | High |
| Armchair | £15 | £50 |
| Small sofa | £20 | £50 |
| Large sofa | £30 | £80 |
| Sofa bed | £35 | £70 |
| Chest of drawers | £15 | £50 |
| Fridge | £15 | £65 |
| Mattress | £20 | £50 |
| Double bed | £40 | £80 |
| Single bed | £20 | £70 |
source: LoveJunk marketplace average prices in 2022
4. Man & van - paying a licensed man & van contractor to remove and dispose of furniture
If you are short of time and looking for the most convenient form of furniture removal or perhaps have a few items to go at the same time, then you probably need a man with a van. Man and van rubbish collectors will drive to your property, load up your items into their truck, and take them away for disposal.
There are hundreds of man & van rubbish clearance businesses out there, but not all of them will be able to collect your furniture on the day that you contact them. LoveJunk uses marketplace technology to match you to the nearest and cheapest licensed waste collector with the capacity to collect your items.
Btw, when choosing a waste carrier, alwways check that they are licensed and properly insured. Unfortunately, the waste removal industry is renowned for cowboy operators who charge cheaply rather than properly dispose of furniture. This is why there is such a problem with items winding up in a field or layby—in other words, fly-tipping. According to Defra, over 1 million fly-tipping incidents were reported by councils in England in 2021. LoveJunk makes sure this has all been done for you! We only allow licensed and insured waste collectors to use the platform
5. Furniture removal for free - reuse
There are many options to remove furniture for free. Here we explore some of the best ideas for saying ta-ta to that table!
a) Give away your furniture to friends & family
The first and most obvious is offering furniture items to friends and family. "One man's trash is another man's treasure", so they say! It's always good to give the people in your immediate network first refusal. You just never know who might have been eyeing up your chest of draws for the past few years.
b) Send your furniture to a local car boot sale
If no one shows interest in your network, there is also the option of taking your furniture items to a local car boot sale. Who doesn't love hunting for second-hand treasures! Some of the biggest and best are Capital Carboot, Battersea Boot, and the Princess May car boot sale located in Stoke Newington.
c) Donate furniture to local theatre groups
Donating to local theatre groups. Amateur theatre groups often need furniture donations to build sets. So this is an ideal choice for donating pieces that would otherwise end up in landfills.
d) Use social platforms to give away furniture
There is also the option of using a social platform for furniture removal. The major reuse websites are Nextdoor, Freecycle, eBay, Freegle, Facebook Marketplace, Gumtree, Auctioneer, and of course, yours truly, LoveJunk.
The main difference between LoveJunk and all the other online platforms is, quite simply, speed. The typical response time is less than 3 minutes, and same-day collection is standard.
Lastly, donating to a local charity is a fantastic way to get rid of and more importantly reuse unwanted furniture, more on that below!
6. Charity donation - furniture removal in London
In the UK, it is reported that we send over 50% of reusable furniture to landfill every year. This not only has an enormous impact on our planet but is also extremely costly. Research from our friends at the North London Waste Authority state that 22 million pieces of furniture are discarded each year. A terrifying percentage and one that we at LoveJunk are determined to help improve.
Reports from the British Heart Foundation - who do an incredible job of encouraging reuse - say that 30% of adults throw away household items that could have been donated, sold or reused.
The following charities all accept furniture donations in London as well as other parts of the UK. Bear in mind that many of these furniture reuse charities are also registered as collectors on LoveJunk, so if you'd rather not ring around to arrange a collection - an easier solution is simply to list on LoveJunk and let the nearest available one find and come straight to you.
| Charity | Address | Phone |
| Age UK | Unit 21, West 12 Shopping Centre W12 8PP | 080 0077 8751 |
| Barnardos | 414 Brixton Rd, Brixton, London SW9 7AY | 020 7274 4165 |
| BHF (Wandsworth) | 153-155 Wandsworth High St, London SW18 4JB | 020 8712 5350 |
| British Heart Foundation (Brixton) | 36 Acre Ln, Brixton, London SW2 5SP | 020 7160 6210 |
| British Red Cross (Battersea) | 11-12 Bramlands Cl, Battersea, London SW11 2NT | 020 7228 3820 |
| British Red Cross (Fulham) | 260 North End Rd, Fulham, London SW6 1NJ | 020 738 56071 |
| Cancer Research UK | Butterfly Walk, 7, Camberwell Green SE5 8RW | 020 7701 2500 |
| DEBRA | 17-23 Woolwich Rd, London SE10 0RA | 020 8858 5194 |
| Emmaus (Brixton) | Fairfax House, Overton Rd, London SW9 7JR | 030 0123 2001 |
| Emmaus (Lee High Road shop) | 332 Lee High Road Lewisham, London SE13 5PJ | 020 8852 5365 |
| Emmaus (Poplar shop) | 175 - 179 E India Dock Road Poplar London E14 0EA | 0208 854 3426 |
| Emmaus (Plumstead shop) | 226 Elmley Street Plumstead London SE18 7NN | 0208 854 3426 |
| Oxfam | See all London stores | 0300 200 1252 |
| PDSA | See all London stores | 0800 917 2509 |
| The Salvation Army | See all London stores | 020 7367 4500 |
| Sense | See all London stores | 0300 330 9257 |
| Shelter | 123C King St, Hammersmith, London W6 9LG | 020 8563 2388 |
| Sue Ryder | 1 Market Pl, Bermondsey, London SE16 3UQ | 020 7394 8384 |
| YMCA | 214 Elephant and Castle, London SE1 6TE | 020 7703 7963 |
| Betel UK | 8/9 Chorlton Cross, Manchester, M21 9AQ | 0161 860 6312 |
7. Retailer take-back - what furniture companies remove old furniture
Take back schemes are initiatives that encourage retailers and manufacturers to help reintroduce products into the manufacturing cycle. Simply put, they enable customers to sell their old furniture back to the retailer.
IKEA, which has championed this initiative from the start, offers their customers vouchers for up to 50% of the item's original price. The move is part of the retail giant's sustainability drive to become climate positive. Below is a table showing the retailers that offer either a take-back scheme or sustainable removal services.
8. Civic amenity sites - taking your furniture to the local tip
There are many civic amenity sites in and around London. Civic amenity sites are also known as Household Waste Recycling Centres. They accept many different kinds of waste including furniture. For more info check out our list of rubbish tips in London including location, map & opening times.
HWRCs can get really busy in peak hours. Some have even started to introduce a booking system to reduce queues. Generally, the quietest time to visit is early morning or late afternoon on a weekday. Weekends should be avoided.
9. Council furniture collection - using your local council service
Most local councils provide their residents with a collection service for unwanted furniture. Although relatively cheap, the major downside to the council collection service is convenience. Understandably, many collections take weeks to organise. Below is a table showing how much each London council charges for bulky waste collection. For more information, read our London council bulky waste collection service guide.
And Finally…
Thanks for reading! We hope you found our ultimate furniture removal in London guide useful. If you’re looking for safe and speedy furniture removal and disposal, we definitely recommend using the LoveJunk marketplace. We may be biased, but we know you'll find your cheapest, greenest collector in seconds. For any questions, please don't hesitate to get in touch!
PS, are you moving house?
In this blog, we've focused on furniture removal in London with a view to disposal, but if you are looking for information on moving furniture from A to B, we recommend using Really Moving to make this process easier. We all know that packing up your belongings and moving them from A to B safely and securely can be very stressful. They offer money-saving tips and guides for moving home as well as costs.
Here are some other articles that you may find interesting!
- How much to pay for a London sofa disposal
- Rubbish collection guide
- Bulky waste disposal options in London
- 10 Eco-friendly Ways to Dispose of Furniture in London
- How to dispose of your Christmas tree for FREE in London
- Ultimate Guide to Freecycle London
