Recycling furniture

[big brown horse]

How to keep it out of the landfills aka landFULLS.


http://www.greenyour.com/home/furnishings/couch/tips/recycle-your-used-furniture

Regarding Couches:
Retask
You may be able to find ways to reuse your used furniture parts for projects around your home:

After you remove the nails from the wood, reuse the scrap wood for projects around your house, including a new headboard, legs for your armchair, or a shim (wedge) under your wobbly table.
Use upholstery fabric to patch jeans or shirts, or to make a new skirt (remember to take note of the fiber content, though, so that you know how to launder it in the future).
Repurpose the fabric and foam for use in various crafts, including doll furniture, valences, window seat cushions, quilts, dog beds, etc.
Reuse the foam and pillow stuffing for new cushions around your house.
Donations accepted
There are a couple of organizations that accept used wood and textiles for reuse:


Visit Smartwood for a directory of companies that use recycled wood to make new products. The Rainforest Alliance's SmartWood program provides certification (look for Smartwood's "Rediscovered Wood" logo) to identify wood products that use salvaged, reclaimed, or recycled sources.
Search Earth 911 for a wood recycling center in your area.
If the woods in good condition, you can donate it to a Habitat for Humanity Home Improvement Outlet or other charities that need building materials.
Although you're unlikely to find a textile recycling program in your community, you may be able to donate your discarded upholstery fabric to secondhand or thrift stores, who in turn either sell the fabric to customers, or pass it along for sale in foreign countries.

 

[hikerchick]

couches also make wonderful bonfires.

 

[sylvie]

Those are super ideas!
I love purses made from heavy tapestry looking fabric. The backs of couches usually show less wear. Would make a good purse or table runner or the ever popular recycle grocery bags.

I deconstructed the stinky dog's couch to fit into the garbage bags that my service sells. That was a LOT of work. Tearing down a couch will take more than a few hours, especially if you are removing hardware for reuse.
I did use the wood for fuel.

 

[big brown horse]

couches also make wonderful bonfires.

 

[Wifezilla]

I took an old wood frame couch and turned it in to an outdoor couch by getting rid of the old cushions and putting lawn furniture cushions on it.

I have pieces of a futon frame incorporated in to my duck pen. It is actually the door to the night pen and another piece is a door to the run.

Hubby tore down a box spring yesterday. I am either going to use the metal mesh (kind of looks like a cattle panel) as a pole bean support, or a hoop house style roof on the quail pen.

 

[Wildsky]

couches also make wonderful bonfires.

Air polution, another reason for craigslist!

And another reason we taught our dog how to behave in our house, no chewing the couch going on here! I wouldn't stand for such behaviour from my dog and she knows it, she was taught well! (and spoiled rotten)

 

[Wildsky]

Hubby tore down a box spring yesterday. I am either going to use the metal mesh (kind of looks like a cattle panel) as a pole bean support, or a hoop house style roof on the quail pen.

we had old box springs lying around when we moved in to our house - just the wire springy part. I put them up against the back of our coop to keep digging critters from getting in that way!

 

[dragonlaurel]

couches also make wonderful bonfires.

They can be used in lots of other ways that are better for the earth though.

 

[noobiechickenlady]

My mother found a loveseat behind a furniture store when she & dad were starting to set up house. We're talking 35+ years ago.

The wood bits were fine, but it had been in the breakroom for quite a while and as such, had coffee & tea stains, rips in the upholstery, sprung springs, flattened padding.

Grandma (who worked as a seat upholsterer) refinished it for her as a wedding present.

This thing survived 4 foster kids, me and my 2 kids. By last summer, it looked to be on it's last leg. Mom found a woman to refinish it.

She stripped it down to the wood & completely refinished it, new foam, springs & upholstery. She said she had not seen a couch made like that in decades. There were no problems with the wood. It'll probably be one of those pieces I inherit, but never get rid of, simply because of the history.

That's how things USED to be made.

Great link BBH

 

[Wildsky]

My mother found a loveseat behind a furniture store when she & dad were starting to set up house. We're talking 35+ years ago.

The wood bits were fine, but it had been in the breakroom for quite a while and as such, had coffee & tea stains, rips in the upholstery, sprung springs, flattened padding.

Grandma (who worked as a seat upholsterer) refinished it for her as a wedding present.

This thing survived 4 foster kids, me and my 2 kids. By last summer, it looked to be on it's last leg. Mom found a woman to refinish it.

She stripped it down to the wood & completely refinished it, new foam, springs & upholstery. She said she had not seen a couch made like that in decades. There were no problems with the wood. It'll probably be one of those pieces I inherit, but never get rid of, simply because of the history.

That's how things USED to be made.

Great link BBH

I upholstered one of our couches, we've had it for going on 12 years re-upholstering isn't that difficult at all, I had to do minimal sewing around the arms and the cushions, but the rest is stapled on! Right over the old fabric!