Saltar al contenido
Second hand furniture is a great way to furnish your home, but always buy carefully to make sure it is clean and can be used by you or your family. My favourite piece of furniture that I currently have at home is a very large sofa with 8 huge cushions which are filled with duck feathers and covered with a solid white pine canvas which looks beautiful in my living room. The best thing about it is that sitting on it is like sitting on a cloud, or a giant candyfloss. There is not only one thing that is fantastic about my sofa, there are several, another one is that I found it by searching on the internet for furniture exchanges for other furniture or for money. I know I saved a lot of money, my sofa only cost me 100 dollars, when I’m sure it would have cost thousands of dollars new.
But not everything is good when we buy second hand furniture and we have to be careful about how we do it and where, so we will show you some tricks so that you don’t make a mistake and get ripped off, with which you can save thousands of dollars and you can buy furniture and objects of great value and good quality.
We will also explain why opting for the path of saving and considering the option of buying second hand furniture is a good option for your comfort and your wallet. And why you can walk away from going to a new furniture shop.
You can find great quality stuff
How do you know it’s good quality? Well very simple, the fact that they are old and look in good condition gives you to think that their quality and resistance is good, the example of a sofa is very simple to understand, if the sofa is a few years old and is still in good condition and when you sit on it you feel comfortable it means that it has passed the test period to which the furniture is subjected when people buy it new in the shop, one of the problems that people usually find when they buy new products is that they have to spend a trial period in their home until the furniture or in this case the sofa gives itself and at that moment they can see if it suits their needs.
This theory also goes along with the theory that good furniture, if it is really good, is made to last for decades, if not a century. If the frame is solid it will most likely just need a little restoration and that’s it, with restoration it will just look more amazing and beautiful.
Best of all, even if you have to restore it, a refurbished second hand piece of furniture will only cost a fraction of the price you would pay if it were new.
You save money and waste
Why do we say you save on waste?
Basically it’s because the furniture and decor industry is an industry which is constantly wasting waste. Among this waste we can find fabrics, wood that are the remains of the furniture that have been made to measure, leftover resins which are used to attach or polish the furniture etc..
This usually happens when the furniture is destined to last a few years, there are many companies whose furniture seems to be of good quality but in the end they are using very basic and bad materials that what they achieve is that they last a few years to make the buyer have to buy in a few years other of their products. By buying second hand we reduce the demand for new resources which are becoming increasingly scarce and at the same time the wrapping that is used to protect the furniture that arrives at your home new, second hand furniture does not usually come wrapped.
The furniture industry is hugely wasteful. From fabrics and woods to plastics and resins, it takes a lot to create the items in your home, especially if they are built to last only a few years before they break or look outdated. Buying second-hand reduces the demand for new resources, and it also comes without packaging.
You won’t get so attached to the furniture
This point is very important for many people and it is a nonsense for others.
There are people who have a guilty attachment inside, this happens because they have spent a lot of money and that way they have found affection for it, there are things that we don’t really like, but because we have spent so much money we trick ourselves to keep them and make us like them.
Another thing that some people develop is the fact of keeping things, even if they don’t like them, and this also happens because they have spent a lot of money and they don’t want to get rid of that piece of furniture.
There are people who, because they have made such an economic effort, feel the pressure of not being able to let it go. Well, thanks to second hand furniture you can make these disgusting feelings disappear, the feeling of having to keep something you don’t like just because you have spent a lot of money will disappear, and when you buy a second hand piece of furniture what will happen if you don’t like it is that you can sell it again for a similar price to the one you bought it for.
You help the community
What does it mean that you are helping the community and how can I know that I am not really harming them?
Maybe some people think that buying on second hand sites causes losses to companies and that they are hurting that type of company by not buying first hand. This may be true, but it is not that you are hurting them, but that you are taking away a clientele that was going to buy cheap products because they were already hesitating between new and second-hand products. When you buy in recycled furniture sites what you are doing is helping people who want to get rid of old furniture or objects that they are not going to use anymore, and you are doing them a favour by removing the furniture and paying them for it. They are normal people who want to take advantage of the purchase they made some time ago.
It is also worth noting that there are many second-hand shops that are run by individuals, or run by charities that hope to make money that is then invested and given back to society in some way. Another thing that is good for society is for restorers and upholsterers who will get more customers from the sale of second hand furniture.
They will create stories
Those pieces of furniture that have been used by certain people and during certain times create and have a different personality, the story can appear by the story of how you got it or what the seller told you about that piece.
One example I can give you is my own, when I bought a house with my husband there was a wardrobe that we decided to keep which he told us had been handmade by people in Italy and that it came from the villages where the last nomadic tribes were in Europe, it was later transported to New York.
It’s eco-friendly and healthy!
Second-hand furniture does not give off noxious fumes and will not fill your home with noxious fumes. On the other hand, new and usually cheap furniture is made of particle board, which is terrible for your health, because it is bound by formaldehyde, a carcinogen that provokes and irritates the eyes and nose, which in the long run can even lead to cancer.
This theory is unproven and unverified, but it is supported by many doctors.
One of the best ways to avoid formaldehyde, according to experts, is to buy second-hand furniture that has had enough time to off-gas in another house, or to buy furniture that is made of solid wood.
One of the disadvantages of furnishing your house with second hand furniture is that it will take much longer to furnish your house, it will not be the same as going to Ikea and making a big purchase, but you will have a much more professional and pleasant result.