The green choice for your old furniture: Repair instead of replacing to keep it out of the landfill

Over the past many years at Lim’s Upholstery, we have rescued tens of thousands of chairs, sofas, and other pieces of furniture from being chucked into the landfill. We believe that you need to think twice before throwing your old furniture away.

Repair your old furniture pieces instead of replacing them in order to keep them out of the landfill. That doesn’t just save you money, it is also the right thing to do from an environmental point of view.

Really, don’t throw your old furniture into the landfill. It’s likely that the legs of your chair are varnished and stuffed with polyurethane. These are toxic materials, and they are not biodegradable. Call a professional furniture restorer or a reupholstery professional and find out what they can do for you.

It’s not the cheapest option, as furniture reupholstery is a labor-intensive task that requires a tremendous amount of skill and experience. But it keeps your old furniture out of the landfill and adds value to it. It makes sure that your furniture stays useful to you for many years into the future.

Now, you may think that your furniture is broken beyond repair and that there’s no point in trying to fix it. In that case, perhaps you can recycle some or all parts of the furniture.

You could make a kneeling pad out of it for gardening, or a bed for your cat. Or, you could have it broken into toy blocks for the kids. There are so many things you can do even with a furniture piece that is broken beyond repair, but talk to a professional furniture restorer about it first.

The furniture restorer will do their best to make the furniture serviceable again and good enough for your living room. If that’s next to impossible, and if the furniture has been damaged beyond redemption, we help you recycle it safely, without sending it to the landfill. That’s not just the smart choice, that’s the green choice.

For example, the wooden legs of a badly damaged chair can be used to make a coffee table. There are plenty of great uses for the springs as well. All it requires is a bit of creativity, some imagination, and a lot of skill – there is absolutely no point in sending the furniture to the landfill where it is burnt down to form a highly concentrated toxic sludge, which is so dangerous for our environment. Talk to us at Lim’s Upholstery for more on this.