What to do with old furniture in San Francisco

Start with two questions, not four options

Most advice on this subject lists the options and leaves you to work out which applies. Do it the other way round.

Question one: what floor is it on? In San Francisco this is rarely "the ground floor". Most of our flats sit above a garage, which means the piece has to come down a full flight to a landing, round a turn, down a half-flight, and out the front door. Every free option — donation collection, resale, the city's bulky-item pickup — assumes the item is already at the curb. If you cannot get it there, three of your four options quietly disappear.

Question two: is there a date? Keys due back, a sale closing, the new sofa arriving Thursday, a landlord's inspection. Selling and donating are both processes with uncertain end dates. If you have a fixed one, they are a gamble rather than a plan.

Answer those two and the rest of this page is short.

Option one: sell it

Worth doing for solid-wood pieces, mid-century originals, anything from a designer line, and good-condition items under about five years old. San Francisco has an active resale market and a large population of people furnishing a first flat quickly.

What works against you here:

• Buyers will not carry it down. A listing that says "second floor, no lift" loses most of its responses. Be honest about it anyway — a buyer who arrives and refuses is worse than one who never came.
• Upholstery is a hard sell. Used sofas and mattresses move slowly and skeptically in this city.
• Flat-pack is not resale. A particleboard bookcase that has been assembled once will not survive being taken apart again.

Give it a week. If nothing has firmed up in a week, it is not going to.

Option two: donate it

The right answer for clean, structurally sound, genuinely usable furniture. Charities here do good work with it and some will collect.

Three realities to plan around:

• They are selective, and they should be. Stained upholstery, broken frames, water damage and anything that has lived in a damp garage will be declined — often on the doorstep, which is the worst place to find out.
• Collection is usually curbside and scheduled. Same problem as everything else: it starts where your stairs end.
• Mattresses are generally not accepted. Almost universally. Do not build a plan around donating one.

Ring first, describe the piece honestly, and get a committed date before you rely on it.

Option three: the city's bulky-item collection

San Francisco residents have access to a bulky-item pickup through the city's contracted collector. It is the cheapest route when it fits your situation.

The terms — what is eligible, how many items, how far in advance you book, what must be at the curb — are the city's to set and they do change, so check San Francisco's current bulky-item page rather than relying on what a neighbor remembers. The two structural characteristics that will not change are that it is booked in advance and it is curbside.

One thing that is emphatically not an option: putting the piece out without a collection arranged. That is illegal dumping in San Francisco, it is enforced, and enforcement follows the address the item came from — which means a departing tenant does not get clear of it by having left.

Option four: pay someone to take it

This is the option built for the case the other three are bad at: the piece is upstairs, or it is past donating, or you have a date.

Published flat prices, with carry-out from any floor and disposal both included:

• Sofa / Couch: $126  |  Loveseat: $119  |  Sofa (Oversize 90"+ / Cut-Apart): $185
• Sectional Sofa (2-Piece): $141  |  (3-Piece): $185  |  (4+ Piece): $228
• Armchair / Accent Chair: $77  |  Recliner: $98  |  Ottoman: $56
• Dresser (Standard): $126  |  Dresser (Large / Double): $148  |  Nightstand: $57
• Dining Table (2-4 Seat): $103  |  (6-8 Seat): $163  |  Dining Chair: $45
• Bookcase — Flat-pack: $100  |  Bookcase — Solid Wood (6ft+): $123
• Coffee Table: $67  |  End Table / Side Table: $52  |  Console Table: $57
• Area Rug (Large, 5×8+): $68  |  Mirror (Wall / Floor): $53

San Francisco's visit minimum is $95. A single end table at $52 therefore prices as a $95 call, which is why it is worth walking the flat once and adding whatever else has been waiting.

Worked examples:

• Sofa and armchair from an Inner Richmond upper flat: $126 + $77 = $203.
• Dining table for six to eight with four chairs: $163 + $45 + $45 + $45 + $45 = $343.
• Three-piece sectional and a coffee table: $185 + $67 = $252.
• Dresser, nightstand and a large area rug: $126 + $57 + $68 = $251.

The San Francisco factors nobody mentions

Furniture bought for the room does not leave the room well. A lot of this city's furniture was sized to fit a Victorian doorway or a specific bay window, and it was carried in by four people on a Saturday in 2014. Getting it back out is the same job in reverse, and that is worth knowing before you promise it to a buyer who is arriving alone in a hatchback.

Garages are not storage. The ground-floor garage under the living space is where furniture goes to wait for a decision, and our fog and damp mean that decision has a shelf life. A sofa that would have donated cleanly in March is often past it by the following winter.

Long tenancies produce volume. Rent control keeps households in place for decades, and a flat cleared after twenty-five years is not a four-item job. Past a certain point, stop itemizing and take the truck rate: a half truck is $431, three-quarters is $587, a full truck is $732.

The decision, in four lines

Solid wood, good condition, ground floor, no deadline — sell it.

Clean, usable, you can get it to the curb, timing is flexible — donate it or book the city collection.

Upstairs, or worn, or damp, or you have a date — book a pickup.

On the pavement with nothing arranged — never.

Frequently asked questions