15 Oct 2020

When moving to a new home or office, you might find that you don’t want your old furniture to follow you there. Getting rid of all the junk furniture that you might have lying around can be an incredibly difficult task for the average person, even when the whole family is involved in getting the pieces of furniture out of the building. Once they are outdoors, what exactly are you supposed to do next?

This guide to getting rid of old furniture should help you figure out the steps you will want to take to clear your home or office of the junk you don’t want, as well as how to find removal services that you can rely on.

Why does junk removal matter?

Since you have looked up this guide, you must have some interest in clearing junk out of your home or office, but it might not be clear exactly why it is such a big issue. There are two major concerns when it comes to furniture disposal: professional problems, like renting regulations and the wishes of the people who own the property, as well as personal issues, such as not being physically able to move heavier equipment and furniture out of an indoor space.

In many cases, leaving a home or office could require you to remove a lot of your furniture if you can’t take it with you, especially electronic devices that need to be wiped to protect company secrets or customer information. You don’t have to scrap it, but the owner might still want it out of the building in preparation for another company moving in.

On a personal level, there can sometimes be issues with trying to get furniture outdoors if you don’t have many people who can help, especially when dealing with heavy furniture pieces that need to be moved up or downstairs.

Removals or Scrapping?

Remember that removals don’t equal destruction: you are not under any obligation to actually destroy the furniture, but you might still have to remove it from the premises, even if it only goes into storage or gets passed on to the next person that uses that space. That being said, there are cases where destroying an item of furniture is preferable, especially if it is damaged and outdated to the point that it could be a hazard. An electrical entertainment center can be a good example.

Getting Started

The first thing you should do before trying to get rid of old furniture is plan. Before you do anything else, you need to know what you are throwing away, what you are keeping, and the overall scale of the removal situation. The more you know about your own needs and wants, the easier it becomes to communicate them to a removal service that might be willing to work for you. If you haven’t planned anything, don’t expect the process to be smooth and efficient.

It also helps to try and separate items you want to keep for the future. Furniture that you don’t want to throw away could be marked with some kind of sticker or taken into another room: the last thing you need is a removal company throwing away something that you were hoping to hold onto. Sometimes, you might even want to send the furniture to charities like the Salvation Army instead so that it can be passed on, rather than scrapped for no reason.

Planning

Also, try to plan out a timeline for how long it might take and make sure that you carry out all necessary preparations beforehand. Wiping junk computers and taking apart bigger items are two of the best junk removal tips in general, and they can speed up the removal services significantly. Some junk removal companies won’t even take furniture if it isn’t already taken apart, and you might have to pay more if you want them to disassemble junk furniture or other large items.

If you haven’t thought about it already, try to work if you will be throwing away all of your furniture. Junk removal services obviously remove junk items from your home, but you never know if some junk electronics or a particular set of furniture items could be worth a substantial amount of money. When you get rid of items like this, take a look at their current value: you might be able to keep them off to one side and sell them, sometimes even for more than you originally paid for them!

How do you remove heavy furniture?

The exact method you will use to remove your old furniture can vary heavily depending on the size, shape, and type of furniture in question. However, large and heavy furniture is often the worst offender, especially if the items were built in the room rather than carried in. Larger items might also be incredibly difficult to get up and downstairs. Of course, you can also keep them in storage, which is especially important if you are only required to physically move it out of the property.

If the furniture is completely worthless and you are happy to let junk removal companies handle it as-is, then you should make sure that your local scrap yards or waste management sites can take large pieces of furniture. Some will only accept an item that is broken down into smaller pieces or can fit within a certain size limit, whereas others might be fully open to a large item as long as it can be delivered properly. Remember: you aren’t just dealing with furniture removal companies, but the waste management group of your town or city, too.

Recycling everything you can is also a huge part of furniture removal. Getting junk removal services to haul away your unwanted furniture is great, but it might all end up in a landfill, especially if you don’t tell them to try and recycle everything. Setting aside all-recyclable junk or breaking it down into recyclable and non-recyclable parts makes this a lot easier. A recycling facility or recycling center might have certain rules on the materials that you can dump there, so read up on their restrictions beforehand.

How much does junk removal cost?

The fees you pay a junk removal company will often vary depending on the removals in question. The larger the scale, and the harder the work, the more the service will usually cost in general. This isn’t even taking into account things like dumpster rental, which can cost even more and won’t always be carried out through the same company. On average, it can cost around $75 to remove a whole sofa or more in spaces where it needs to be moved through awkward halls and doorways.

You can usually get a price estimate for the service by contacting the company’s customer service team or finding their email address to send them a message. The more you know about their pricing structure, the easier it becomes to ensure that you are paying the right amount and handling the situation properly. Still, estimates are just estimates, so try to leave some extra money aside just in case the junk removal costs more than you expected.

The distance that needs to be traveled to get rid of the furniture might also matter. Not all companies will carry out the disposal themselves, but those that do might have extra fees for being forced to take the unwanted furniture a long distance. Again, this varies based on the junk removal companies you use, so be sure to ask them.