What to do with old furniture from IKEA and not only: 5 useful ideas

1. Renovate

Fixing a broken table leg or a loose cabinet door is cheaper than buying new ones. In addition, the repaired item will serve you more, and will not turn into garbage at landfills and landfills.

Do-it-yourself furniture restoration is not as difficult as it seems. Look with illustrations for common problems. Let's say how to fix a wobbly chair or polish up scratches on a dresser. By the way, if you need fittings or spare parts, you can order them for free at IKEA. At least fasteners for the door, at least a leg for the table.

If you are afraid to take up repairs and completely ruin everything, invite a furniture maker. There are specialists who work with things from IKEA: they restore, polish, sew up, do dry cleaning.

2. Sell

Even furniture in good condition can become useless. For example, a changing table that lost all meaning when the child grew up. Or a decent sofa that no longer fits into the new interior. After all, an unnecessary coffee table that you bought out of enthusiasm. All this furniture can be useful to other people.

Take a photo and post your offer on classifieds site, social media marketplaces or. You will make money on the sale and free the house from unnecessary, and other people will save on the purchase. Moreover, it is also eco-friendly: to reuse already made things, and not to stimulate the production and purchase of completely new ones.

Furniture from IKEA that you no longer need can be sold back to the store itself and get money on the IKEA Family card. Until December 3, 2020, there is an opportunity to do this especially profitably - to join the campaign. Instead of discounts on Black Friday, which often provoke us to buy unnecessary items, IKEA has increased the amount of remuneration to 60% of the cost of your old table, cabinet or other furniture. This is a great chance to give a second life to things that may have ended their days in a landfill, and to get the funds to buy the new furniture you really need.

3. Decorate

Old furniture that is boring to you can be styled in a new way. So you hide the traces of time, such as scratches and damage, and also freshen up the interior of your home without shopping and spending too much. You don't need special tools and skills: sandpaper, stain, paint, varnish and an action plan. You can get inspiration from different design pages on social networks or see ideas for decorating such furniture.

Let's say a shabby white cabinet can be repainted in wenge and replaced with carved or gilded handles. For a boring chest of drawers, make each drawer a different color, choosing shades that are friendly with each other. Colored mosaics can be laid out on the table surface and fixed with glue. And on the faded inserts on the doors, apply a spray with the effect of frozen glass.

4. Send for recycling

A lot of resources are spent on the production of furniture: wood, plastic, metal, textiles, water. Much of this can be reused. Find out if there are pick-up points in your city and bring your old furniture there. There are still few opportunities for recycling, but some manufacturers are looking for materials for recycling and organize the collection themselves. Look for queries on classified sites.

IKEA is testing wood furniture recycling service. In the meantime, textiles, energy-saving lamps and batteries can be returned to the store for reuse. Old curtains, tulle, bed linen and other items are donated to the "" fund, which distributes and recycles textiles. And lamps and batteries with metals harmful to nature are safely disposed of.

5. Donate to charity

If the funds raised for the old furniture do not play a role for you, you can donate it to those who need it. There are many options: from orphanages to volunteer centers or student dormitories. It so happens that adult inmates of shelters receive housing from the state, but do not have the opportunity to furnish it. Charitable organizations come to the rescue.

IKEA itself also has charity. You can bring any furniture you don't need here, not just products from the store. You will be pleased to know that your old desk came in handy when setting up a school for hearing impaired children or found a place for itself at the headquarters of volunteers solving social problems.

A huge amount of good furniture goes to landfill. European countries alone produce 10 million tons of furniture waste annually. This is a big harm to the planet and an extra cost to people. To contribute to solving this problem, IKEA has developed a round-robin service system. It includes recycling and reusing old materials, reducing waste, extending the life cycle of things. If you buy furniture from IKEA, you can take part in these initiatives to save your own money and resources of the planet, and also help other people.