Attempting to donate furniture to charity

Thanks everyone for your replies. The problem is that we bought 2 new chairs before disposing of the old ones, not realising that it would be so difficult to donate them. Lesson learnt! In future if we wish to update anymore furniture, will definitely try to donate/sell before buying replacements.

I tried to give away two leather two- seater reclining sofas, with fire safety certificate. Charities not interested so I put them on Freecycle. They were snapped up by a young woman who was moving into her first place on her own.
She sent me a big bouquet of flowers, chocolates and a photo of them in their new home as a thank you.

M0nica you said ‘none of us gets rid of anything without offering it around the family, furniture, clothes, household goods. When we set up home we were very happy to have everyone cast offs until we could afford to buy furniture of our own.‘

That’s great - if you offer things and people would like them, no problem. What I found unpleasant was the sneering implication that poor people shouldn’t be so picky as to want matching furniture or a flat-screen TV. Almost everything we had when the kids were growing up was second hand, but it was our choice of second hand, sometimes from junk or charity shops, very occasional hand-downs from relatives, and quite a few things we made or renovated ourselves. When you are very hard up, one of the very few ways you can hold on to dignity is by exercising choice.

Geekesse, when people act as you describe, it is horrible, I do agree, but, yes, I didn't meet that attitude.

My parents set up home in wartime and just after, and my grandparents, were never in a position to buy new furniture so secondhand is just the fabric of my life, even when we did not do it for economic reasons. I have been visiting auction rooms since I was a toddler and DH's grandfather was an antiques dealer and furniture restorer. Secondhand is in my DNA

Callistemon

Tat not that

Obviously autocorrect does not like tat either.

Just like this?

Are there still auction sales for furniture?
We have several pieces that we bought at auctions eg dining room table and chairs. We re-upholstered the seats. And a heavy dining room dresser.
The problem is that these large heavy items don't fit into smaller modern houses and are difficult to move. Like pianos.
People move house more often now than they did in the past.

Marydoll

I tried to donate a modern dining table in good condition, no-one wanted it because I wasn't including the chairs.
After I put it on gumtree for free, I was inundated with messages.
The gentleman, who took it, put it in his van and drove off without as much as a thank you! ?

Oh that's a shame Marydoll and very different from our experience when we gave away a glass dining table we couldn’t sell. It had two folding panels on the side which could be pulled out to make it into a round table. The people who took it turned up with the whole family and when DH showed them how the panels worked a little girl said it was the coolest table she had ever seen.

In our area, there is a charity called Project Colt...they train people to do upholstery and welcome items to use. Have you got something similar in your area, who would be glad of your chairs?

Try Market Place on facebook. Especially if you don't want any money for items, you may be lucky.