Why do they make it so hard to donate furniture?

[bicker]

We have a wonderful dining room set -- walnut -- at least 30 years old. Table, chairs, hutch and china cabinent. It's in pretty good shape, no legs broken, not in need of being refinished or reupholstered, etc. It just doesn't fit with the style we want in our house any longer.

Why do they make it so hard for us to donate it?

Does anyone have any suggestions about how we can get this dining room set out of our house, without having to take off from work, or pay people to actually come take this expensive furniture away from us?

 

[christinadei]

go to www.freecycle.org adn sign up for the group in your area. YOu then send an email (it goes to the whole group) and post what you have to offer. I promise you'll get several replies. They normally pick the first email response they get. The person will come to your house and pick it up. That actually happened to us, someone offered a table and chairs and we needed it. Just yesterday we got a new (used) fridge. It was perfect because ours is just about to die and we don't have the money for another one. We don't normally get things from there, but t hose two were things we really needed that people needed to get rid of. So you can give things away or request things you need, or just watch and see what's offered, there may be somethign you need too!

 

[KirstenB]

Wish I lived closer to you--it sounds beautiful!!

1. Ask around work, socially etc if anyone wants it. I coach my dd's softball team, and I let the other parents know that I wanted to give away a sofa, loveseat, coffee table. Did they know anyone who wanted it? I was also going to ask around at church too, but one of the softball mom's knew someone who wanted it. They picked it up 2 days after our conversation, yay!!

2. I know you aren't looking for any $$, but consider taking out an ad in the newspaper. I bet a lot of folks would pay good $$ for walnut furniture.

Either way, if someone's interested, you could just let them know when it's convenient for you to have them come over and look at it.

Good luck!!

 

[RitaZ.]

Which organization did you try to donate it to? I know that over the years, most of these organizations that accept such donations have become very choosy in what they'll accept. Sometimes, they only have the truck driver and if he can't lift an item by himself, then he won't take it.

We got rid of a sectional a few years ago, it was in really great shape. The only thing wrong with it was a small yellow mark that my daughter made with a marker, I didn't try to remove it since we were getting rid of it. When I called the church that we used to donate to, I decided to tell the man about the mark, he said that he couldn't take it like that. I told him that they really should look at it because it was very minor and the sectional was in great condition. He said, "No, we won't take it". When I asked him why, he said that his clients wouldn't be interested in anything that wasn't pristine. WTH??? If you want pristine, you go to a furniture store and buy new.

I tell you, when DH and I got married, I would have loved to have anything like that sectional. I couldn't find anyone that wanted it, so we just pulled it to the curb and was picked up with the regular trash. A real shame!

 

[tar heel]

In our area, the Salvaation Army would pick it up in a second! All you have to do is call and arrange a pick up time. When we moved a few years ago, we gave a couple really nice pieces to Habitat for Humanity b/c it had a retail store and a couple other things to the Salvation Army -- all of it was picked up by those organizations' volunteers (Habitat)/employees (SA).

Have you called your local United Way office -- it may be able to refer you to agencies that take furniture? You also might consider calling your battered women's shelter directly b/c that is an organization that ALWAYS needs good-quality furniture.

 

[cynsaun]

What about the Disabled Veterans? I have left the items to be picked up on the driveway, and they leave a recepit when they leave.

Good luck!

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Do you have any charities that will pick it up for free--several Thrift stores around here do that..you book the date/time and they will take it.

 

[ChristmasElf]

What kills me is how picky these places are getting as well! I called Salvation Army to come and pick up 2 sofas and a dining room table and 4 chairs that matched the table. All were in great condition. The Salvation Army shows up and announces "we have too many sofas that are close to this color already, so we cannot take these" What?

I couldn't believe it! These are FREE people! Just take them and donate them to people that really need them. I hardly believe that people that have nothing, are desperate for decent furniture, are going to be upset about what color it is!!!

For the record, the color was a linen cream color. Nothing wild that would be hard to match. No holes, no stains, no sagging, just didn't need them anymore for the room they were in.

So I said, well do you at least want the table? He shrugs his shoulders and says "yeah, I guess we can take that" whatever.

Had my dh and son take the sofas to the curb, they were gone in less than 2 hours.

 

[Lisa F]

Try craigslist in your area.

 

[RadioFanatic]

I recently had the same problem - I can't believe these places are so picky - I understand if something is in bad condition - but when it's in good? I had a great dresser with mirror - no thanks and a washer/dryer - only 4 years old in great condition - nope we don't take those. YIKES! I did, however, get rid of a chair, sofa, love seat and two other dressers, thank goodness. the rest went into a dumpster I rented - I felt awful doing that, but I couldn't take it on the move.

 

[princess pooh]

I had a similar problem when we moved a few weeks ago. I tried the Salvation army and another charity (can't remember the name) but they were very picky. It turns out our mover knew a family that was moving here from Bulgaria and he took most of the furniture. The broken or really cheap stuff was left by the curb, and that stuff was all taken in a few hours.

Maybe you could put an ad in the paper and sell the dining room set? That's how my parents sold their set.

 

[Muffin]

I tried to get one of those organizations (can't remember which) to come get a sectional sofa. It was in good condition, the only reason I was getting rid of it was to change color schemes.

They said it would have to be reupholstered. I told them if I was going to spend the money to reupholster it, I sure wouldn't be giving it away.

I don't give stuff away anymore, I'll put it on the curb and someone always takes it.

Freecycle sent me a very nasty email telling me I was turned down because I was too far away from the city (I'm 6 miles outside New Orleans) and that the decision was final and don't try to question it.

I'll never offer to give anything to anyone again, I'd just as soon throw it away.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

I second the freecycle. You will have that set gone in minutes.

 

[disykat]

No one will pick up in our area either. Check out furniture consignment stores. We ended up selling our old furniture. They came to pick it up (for a higher % of the sell price), sold it, and sent us a check of our % after it sold.

I had wanted to give it away, but this way it actually did a lot of good. The business owner got money, someone got inexpensive furniture, it didn't end up in a landfill, and I got money I could turn around and donate.

If that hadn't worked, I was planning on putting up a notice on the bulletin board at the local community college that it was free to the first caller.

 

[soccerchick]

Try your local church or local church charities. They seem to be much more willing to take items than some of the others. They may know of needy people who don't register w/social services, etc. for a variety of reasons. My sis just did this. The group that came was so happy to get their stuff, esp. a sleeper sofa (which was quite comfortable, since that's where I used to sleep )

The curb will probably work well too

 

[CarolA]

I did very well with Freecycle. They came took and left.

I am shocked that they denied anyone since as far as I could tell there was no one moderating the thing. Maybe New Orleans is different then Nashville?

 

[LoveWDW]

I just found out about freecycle, maybe from these boards, actually. I signed up and have been enjoying seeing was is offered and picked up. Things really do seem to go very quickly. I have a microwave stand that I need to get rid of as soon as we remodel the kitchen and am going to offer that.

 

[cgcw]

I can feel your frustration.

We went through this with a water bed set and a set of bunk beds.

Salvation army came to get the bunk beds and left them because they were not put together. We had to disassemble them to get them out of the house. Had DH spent time reassembling them, they would have never been able to lift the set.

We ended up putting both items out for the garbage. I hope someone who really needed them picked them up. It turned my stomach to do that, but we couldn't find a place for them.

I did contact our church and township without any luck.

 

[swilphil]

We have a wonderful dining room set -- walnut -- at least 30 years old. Table, chairs, hutch and china cabinent. It's in pretty good shape, no legs broken, not in need of being refinished or reupholstered, etc. It just doesn't fit with the style we want in our house any longer.

Why do they make it so hard for us to donate it?

Does anyone have any suggestions about how we can get this dining room set out of our house, without having to take off from work, or pay people to actually come take this expensive furniture away from us?

I think your last question can tell you why many charities no longer pick up large items. While your table sounds stunning, people were using these places just to haul away their junk. I'm not at all surprised that charities are picky about what they'll take. I see what people put out on bulk item pick-up days.

 

[totalia]

I'm from Canada. In my city, you just call the Salvation Army and leave it outside the front door. They will come pick it up and you don't have to do anything else.

I dont know if you have something like that where you are.