Why is it so difficult to give furniture away?

We had to pay for someone to clear my Mum’s house when she went into a care home after exhausting all other avenues. Quality g plan and similar furniture we couldn’t give away.

I used to have ercol brown windsor furniture, cost an arm and leg. I managed to give the dining table and 6 chairs away. The dresser was impossible and I had to pay £50 in 2006 to have it taken away.

Ever since we/I have bought modular light coloured oiled oak pieces, still ercol or Danish but they would fit anywhere in any house and if there is excess one day, then the AC would want them

Lesson learned, the hard way

It's weird isn't it. Why are people so fussy.
I'm the same and have far too much.
I posted a few things on gumtree for sale and sold 2 old radiators. The rest is still here and I doubt I can give it away
On the other hand I am looking for an old kitchen unit for my workshop. Do people give these away?

I usually find that things go on Freecycle / Freegle (FB is very erratic!).
But try looking on your council website / asking on FB / googling - there are a number of charities who take furniture (admittedly fire safety is an issue) and re-purpose it. We have a number locally, but they can take a bit of finding.
Emmaus have a number of branches around the UK.

I am quite a fan of freecycle / freegle, but you do have to be careful. I always say 'if I have not heard from you by xxx, I will re-post' as some express interest then drop off.

Recently I found an upholsterer who teaches classes. He took an old chair to use for teaching / to gift to a student.

Definitely freecycle If you have a Salvation Army or heart foundation they take furniture and usually pick up (well they do here)
Try putting any small items outside your back gate everything goes within minutes if I do that 😂

I recently downsized seriously. I found the Salvation Army very good, but the BHF very sniffy! Emmaus was good too.

Fenwicks in Newcastle did vintage furniture a few years ago and the price of secondhand Ercol and GPlan was eye-watering! However, like others, I’d been forced to give my own GPlan away some years earlier!

A friend recently sold her Mum’s house and asked the young couple who bought it if they’d like the dining room furniture left in (GPlan and free). Despite having nothing but a bed and a IKEA sofa, they said they’d rather have an empty room!
Frustrating, isn’t it?

Our church has a storehouse for furniture so they would know what folk want. Apparently there’s always a shortage of beds! As they’re not selling items they’re exempt from fire safety labels I think.
I understood British Heart Foundation Will take electrical items.
So try local churches/charities?

Newquay most charity shops take electrical items ours does we have a tester trained up amongst the volunteers

I find a lot of younger people do not want secondhand furniture, they want all brand new. When we got married in 1977 we grabbed anything people offered us as did most of my friends.

We had our kitchen updated a few years ago and a friend said her daughter and husband were on a very tight budget as they had overstretched themselves on buying a house. She said all they had in their kitchen was a sink!

Our worktops were in excellent condition and were much bigger than her kitchen so they could have cut them to size. I offered them and she said she would get back to me. They were in a neutral colour so would have gone with anything. The daughter never got back to me so I asked my friend if she wanted them and she said they weren’t really her thing so she had persuaded her husband to buy new worktops for her.

Why is it so difficult to give furniture away?

Current trends minimal sleek - not Brown Victorian, maybe?

We've had the same trouble with both mothers furniture when they went into Care homes. In the end we went to a small market town with a niche Antique shop that jumped at the Clearance offer we paid a small amount for one and in the other they found pottery that they actually paid us for. Yet the Ercol and G plan was not as popular.
In our region, you can phone the Council and they send a group of people who refit flats for the homeless they even took a freezer and fridge without electrical checks.

I've had success with Freecycle - and with leaving things on the edge of my drive.

A lot of people who would welcome second hand stuff have no transport, or money to arrange it, so any offers to deliver locally help.

Strangely, I've found that dismantling larger items helps, too, maybe because they can be picked up and carried away.

Freecycle has worked for me, and you could put one piece at a time outside the house with a sign saying " please take". This was the way that my daughter and her husband cleared their junk filled house purchase .
Another daughter has a lovely family dining table and chairs donated by the grandparents of friends - vintage ercol - which looks great and is a perfect ( modest ) size for a small dining room.

Have you tried the British Heart Foundation? They recently took a large and very heavy solid dark oak sideboard, which TBH I wasn’t sure anyone would want.

We have had similar problems getting rid of good quality furniture of elderly relatives. I think it is so sad. A relative who ran a care home had lots of G planfurniture in a shed. Eventually, with the blessing of her boss, I sold it for her on Ebay and the proceeds went into their funds but she wasn't allowed to do it officially. Why?? When a relative died most of her furniture went in a house clearance. Surely there are young people somewhere who would appreciate good quality goods.
I agree though about leaving things outside. I once left an old, but working, sewing machine outside my mothers house. I was going to put it in my car to take to the skip. As it disappeared I put the instruction manual out the following day. That went too!

A pet gripe of mine especially as we are supposed to be in the middle of a financial crisis for many people. I tried in vain to give a cot bed away on Freecycle, eventually it went to the tip. I can't give away a vgc sofa bed which currently retails for £400. I took me months to sell a Stokke high chair which had hardly been used by our grandchildren.

Witzend

Have you tried the British Heart Foundation? They recently took a large and very heavy solid dark oak sideboard, which TBH I wasn’t sure anyone would want.

I was going to mention this charity, they have collected furniture from us in recent years.

lilypollen

A pet gripe of mine especially as we are supposed to be in the middle of a financial crisis for many people. I tried in vain to give a cot bed away on Freecycle, eventually it went to the tip. I can't give away a vgc sofa bed which currently retails for £400. I took me months to sell a Stokke high chair which had hardly been used by our grandchildren.

Surprising, isn't it.

Our upcycling centre will take some furniture but not mahogany, even more modern items.
We used to rub down and paint old furniture if we couldn't afford new and my God-daughter shabby-chics old furniture now.

Teak G plan used to sell for a good price on Ebay.

It's not just frustrating, it's bad for the planet that so much good stuff cannot be recycled and ends up at the tip.

I think that is is often difficult to marry up those who want to gift something and those who need it because furniture is so bulky, with concerns about safety and so on. It's much more awkward than donating clothes. We do have a specific place to donate baby equipment where it can be checked and passed on, but like so much provision it is patchy.

It is also awkward sometimes, to fit older bulkier furniture into small houses & flats. I remember visiting one family who had been given a lovely old comfy 4-seater sofa. They could fit nothing else in their little living / dining room - a small box to put a tray on when they were eating (on the sofa). No room for any sort of table. And no room in the 'kitchenette' for a table or chair. Everything happened on that sofa!

So very sad that much loved furniture of a high quality is so difficult to either sell or recycle. My sister, who is in the process of down-sizing, is currently experiencing obstacles when offering a dining room suite & dressers for sale with a local auctioneer. If they’re unable to sell it they will recycle, which means ‘chopping it up!’ 😔

It’s amazing how different some of this old furniture looks after a lick of paint. Suddenly it’s distressed/French chic. We have painted a lot of ours. It’s such good quality in comparison with the new tat which isn’t cheap.
Such a shame that people don’t take a anything old/second hand, preferring new. We couldn’t afford new and When we married in the late 60 s everything we had was second hand, we were grateful and took what was offered or paid for it in second hand shops. We didn’t have the money and were saving every penny we could.
As for what to do there are charities which collect furniture items, our local hospice for instance, but they can be picky about anything upholstered.
A table and chairs can look fab if painted and I do sympathise with how you are feeling.

I think the fact that places like IKEA and Argos sell modern furniture cheaply means that many younger people would rather have something new and fashionable than an old piece - even if there is no comparison in the quality.

Furniture can be tricky to shift for the reasons already mentioned (transport being a main one - you can't put a sofa in the back of a car), and also because modern houses often have smaller rooms, and people are less likely to have designated dining rooms that can take large tables that don't fold away. The trend is for open plan living. Even things like bookcases are out of fashion, as everything gets downloaded now. We recently had a fruitless search for bookcases to line a wall, and in the end had them built for us. The only ones we could find in shops were in places like Oak Furniture Land, and they were made for lower ceilings and were more for display than books, as the shelves were fixed and too far apart for what we wanted, which was lots of book space.

Also, the 'traditional' way of setting up home on marriage is less popular too. Both partners are likely to have had homes before getting together, so will have furniture of their own, even if the homes were rented. It is a shame for the planet, but I think it's understandable that young people want to make their homes theirs, rather than in the fashion of decades earlier.

W e never had second hand anything when we got married.our families bought us the furniture we liked from shops like Habitat ,The Danish centre and Behar carpets ,we had a suite beds carpets and small items like bedside chests an sside tables etc.
My parents moved just 3 tmes in their marriage and refurnished each new house when they moved with new furniture that suited it .Like me they changed furniture quite often
I would rather do without than have something I wasn't really happy with,compromises dont work for me ...even now .I change furniture quite regularly .Since we moved here we've probably had 8 or 9 suites in 33 years and 4 in the 15 before that .Nothing gets wasted its all passed to charity or my kids will take it and send theirs to charity
.I couldn't live with old furniture I like things to be modern and fashionable .the only old...er things here are my OH and me .I'm the same with clothes too .
I'd rather spend my money on the place I live than hotels and holidays ,that way I get to enjoy it every day