What to Do with Your Old Sofa
Buying furniture can take a lot of effort—not only does it take quite a bit of time to figure out what you want, but transporting and then placing it correctly in your home takes time as well. Not to mention, it takes a lot out of your wallet! Once you’ve spent all that time and money on your furniture, it can feel quite defeating to just toss it to the curb when you’re ready to buy a new piece. There may be some options you haven’t yet considered!
Redesign
Why get rid of your investment when you can renew your old furniture? You might be entirely sick of that Chesterfield sofa you bought six years ago—but the chances are, that expensive piece is still in really great shape structurally. Before you drag it out to the end of the driveway or sidewalk, look into furniture redesign. Professional furniture companies can do some really savvy things with furniture. You can change the shape, length, height and even the angles of your furniture. If you have a sofa you love, but can’t fit it into your new apartment in NYC, you can look into sofa disassembly or have the sofa redesigned to fit your new home.
Reupholstery & Repair
Often a couch or sofa gets the boot because it’s damaged or the upholstery is worn or faded. There are far better options than starting over from scratch and spending thousands on new family room sets. Any kind of upholstery can be redone. You can choose cotton, wool, leather, vinyl, silk, microfiber and more. The options are endless when it comes to couch reupholstery. Be sure to request fabric protection once you have your sofa or couch reupholstered—this will help prevent your new-to-you piece from getting damaged over time.
Sofa and couch repair is also an excellent option! Whether you have structural damage to the legs or back, or perhaps scratches or tears in a leather couch, you can opt for repair instead of the garbage dump. Choosing to repair a leather couch can save you hundreds, if not thousands of dollars because you are breathing new life into your furniture, instead of starting over from scratch.
Recycle
If you decide that redesign, Reupholstery or repair is just not for you—that is perfectly OK! But look into environmentally-friendly ways of disposing of your couch or sofa. Did you know that sending your old sofa to the garbage dump can negatively affect the environment? During decomposition, the materials used to build furniture can emit greenhouse gases, which can lead to leaching of toxins into the ground and water. A massive issue is the transportation of these large items to landfills—a process that creates a vast amount of CO2 emissions. Do your part by looking into sofa donation, many local shelters and community centers are always in need of extra furniture. Or offer it for free in a garage sale or in the newspaper.
