Furniture is something that most of us end up keeping for decades. We get a ton of use out of it – we take care of it, we love it, but eventually, we just can’t keep it. There is always going to be a point where we have to get rid of it, as much as that can be a pain for us.
With spring cleaning season approaching swiftly, a lot of us have started to consider what sorts of things we’ll be getting rid of. It’s tempting to hold onto everything, to try to pass it down to our children or even grandchildren, but more often than not, that’s not something that they will realistically want.
Our main point here, though, is that while it can be a challenge to declutter, it will be quite worth it once it’s all said and done. The tricky bit is that part in the middle – the actual getting-rid-of-things part. How are we supposed to actually throw out furniture that we’ve gotten enough use out of?
Beyond that, though, how can we make sure that it doesn’t go to waste? That’s a pretty big deal, right? It’s hard to say that pieces would be better off rotting in a landfill than being in someone’s home. Honestly, it’s part of why parting with furniture can be such a challenge. A lot of us just hate the thought of things going to waste.
This raises the question, then – what can we do to ensure that our furniture is recycled or refurbished somehow? One instinct may be to try to take it to a thrift shop or something akin to that, but let’s face it: that can be kind of a pain. Unless you’ve got a big truck that’s ready to cart off a ton of bulky stuff (or unless you’re willing to rent a moving van), transport itself can be a bit of a pain.
With that in mind, today we’d like to look at this question and answer it as best we can. There is plenty of academic research to help back us up on this, too, which we hope lends some credibility to our case! If you’d like to learn more about the options available to us if we don’t want to just toss out furniture pieces once we’re done with them, then you’ve come to the right place.
What do we Mean by “Recycling” in this Case?
On gut instinct, it might sound kind of weird to use the word recycling in this context. After all, the phrase tends to conjure up images of big factories or plants where plastic or wood products are sent to be broken down and melted together somehow. The mantra “reduce, reuse, recycle” can come in handy here, though.
Largely, the way that we can recycle furniture is by reusing it. This could be in the form of simply passing it along to someone else, which is probably the simplest way. Unfortunately, depending on the current state of the stuff you’re looking to reuse, that might not be immediately possible. Not to mention the whole transportation problem arises again.
Refurbishing is quite popular in those instances, and it’s hardly a surprise. Of course, your enjoyment of something like that will largely depend on how much you enjoy do it yourself (DIY) projects as well as how willing you are to take an afternoon to do that sort of thing. Admittedly, it’s just not everyone’s cup of tea, and that’s totally okay.
The last method that we’ll be touching on today in terms of what we mean here is that you can also take furniture apart to use the base pieces in other projects. The leg of a chair could be converted into the leg of a table, as just one very basic example. We have tons of options and flexibility here, but at the end of the day, it will largely depend on what you’re feeling up to doing.
All of this obviously raises a question, though – do we have to worry about accomplishing all of this on our own? At first glance it might certainly seem to be the case. Thankfully, though, there are options if we would rather bring in some outside help. After all, a lot of us are working adults with families, and it can be hard to justify spending the weekend working on big projects like this.
Furniture Removal and/or Recycling Services: What are they?
The main way that we can handle removing old pieces (and junk) that we don’t want is to have a removal service come in and take it for us. Note – this isn’t the same as our normal trash pickup here in Sydney. You can find that sort of information on this page, along with a list of what can’t really be taken by those typical rubbish services.
What are we meant to do with the other items, then? You’ve probably already guessed, but for the most part, we’ll be having external services come in to help us. There are a ton in the area, thankfully, including most of the surrounding suburbs near us. Locating one is usually as simple as just typing “junk removal near me” into your preferred web browser.
The question is, then, what these services actually bring to the table. Why would we want to hire them? After all, it will cost money to have them remove our rubbish or old furniture pieces. For the most part, the benefit is that we don’t have to perform the labour ourselves. Allow us to explain.
As we’ve mentioned a few times thus far, recycling and refurbishing projects like these can be a lot of work. Of course, that will depend on the type of furniture that you’re working with to a certain extent – consider how old it is, how used it is, and what would need to be repaired or fixed. All of that will play a role in how difficult the job will be.
Chances are that you don’t really have time to fuss over these sorts of projects, or that you’d just prefer to use your precious hours to do something else. That’s where hiring a junk removal company can come in handy, of course. Thankfully it’s pretty simple to do, too, so there won’t be much stress involved!
How it Works
When you’ve decided that you want to bring in a company like this, you may be wondering how that process actually works. As we mentioned above, it is pretty easy, but you can check out site like ridly.com.au to get an idea of what you’re working with. Typically, the first step is going to be to call the company or write them an email to start the consultation.
Naturally, that will look a bit different depending on your circumstances. If you have a ton of old appliances versus some tables and a bed frame, you’ll get a different price quote and potentially a different time frame as well. At the end of the day though, the important thing is that you’ll get an up-front estimate of what the costs will be.
This can help you to plan things out as well. Since they’ll be able to offer an approximation of how long it will take (based on what you tell them as far as everything they’ll need to be taking), you can use that to schedule around the service. Most of the time it should only take a few hours at the maximum.
You won’t even necessarily have to be there as it happens, which is pretty nice. Obviously, it will be up to your own discretion there. With that said, though, it’s certainly a plus that you can schedule it and “forget about it,” in a loose sense of the phrase.
Essentially, what we mean is that if you want, you can set the appointment and not worry about it from there. The service providers can handle it from there. The only thing that you may want to consider doing is labelling the item that you want removed, just to ensure that there isn’t any confusion.
Recycling and Reusing
Now, let’s briefly discuss how the recycling and reusing aspects come into play if you do decide to go with an external service. To a certain extent it will depend on which company you go with, so do make sure to keep that in mind. If it’s a deal breaker for you, ask up front what they plan to do with the pieces they remove.
Ideally, they’ll have some sort of refurbishment or recycling plan and be able to lay that out for you. This is a great way to help folks in your community who are in need and to do your part to protect the environment. The less that ends up in dumps the better, and by recycling wood components, we can save a few trees as well! It’s a win-win all around really, right?
