Office Furniture Resettlement Options
Periodically, there may be times in the lifecycle of your office furniture that a refresh is needed. We have recently found ourselves in this place and we have learned some valuable information on how best to resettle your used furniture.
The main options for refreshing your office furniture include outright selling it, having a junk removal company come remove it, or contacting an immigration settlement firm. We have actually worked with a couple of these firms.
If your furniture is in good condition, consider selling it on the various social media marketplace platforms. Our experience has been that anything under $50 sells very quickly with multiple bidders. When you approach that $100 or more level, the number of interested parties decreases quickly and the ability to actually fetch $100 or more seems to be elusive. So, for those file cabinet cabinets, small tables, bookcases, or small TV stands, it seems anything under $50 will sell rather quickly. Be prepared to negotiate with one or two bidders if you are seeking $100 or more.
The resettlement of your office furniture is an interesting concept. If you’re not familiar with resettlement firms, search your local town for organizations that specialize in resettling people from other countries. We happen to have at least three well known such organizations locally. One even happens to be in our office complex. When families or individuals are resettling, they often need furniture. The firms helping them will often provide them with as much help as possible in the resettlement process, which likely includes finding housing and furniture.
Our experience was very positive on this front. The organization we worked with sent over a professional moving company to disassemble book cases and a table and moved them out, at no cost to us. Such donations may be tax deductible as well. Check with your accountant on this aspect but it is well worth the ask. It seems all parties benefit in this arrangement and it truly did not cost us anything to remove the furniture and it felt good to know our pieces were going to help new families in town.
The third and final option we researched was junk removal firms. They will often seek a minimum amount to provide this service. So, if you only have one piece or a couple of small pieces, it might be best to find a fit friend or two to help you move these pieces to your office dock or out front on garbage day. You might be surprised how people will drive around on garbage day and remove your pieces before the garbage truck gets there. We did note the number of these types of companies, there are a multitude locally so choose at least three and obtain quotes, they may vary greatly.
When it is time to purchase a larger file cabinet or a different sized conference table, consider donating, selling, and proper junk removal, if the pieces cannot be repurposed. It is the best method to being sustainable and being a positive, contributing member of your community.
Be well.
