Being in the painted furniture industry, I often get asked by people moving if I want to buy the furniture that will no longer fit in their new home. Sometimes I absolutely do! And other times I’m not able to store their furniture. BUT, what I try to do is help them sell their unwanted furniture for the BEST profit. 🙂 Everyone could use a little extra cash when moving! And selling unwanted furniture is a great way to do just that!

I have painted furniture for a little over 5 years. I’ve been on nearly every resell-it site, flea market, yard sale, auction, and dumpster dive searching for unwanted furniture. I’ve also familiarized myself with the resell-it sites enough to know what sites will pay you the most money for your unwanted furniture. (FYI: Not everything I buy I repaint. You can do the same!)

I think that an advantage to selling furniture that I can help you with is that I am the intended customer! In other words, I am the target audience! I’m the one you’re looking to reach. 🙂 I am the furniture flipper! These are people EAGER for you to sell them your unwanted furniture! If you have an older unique piece of furniture, a furniture flipper is going to WANT and pay you well for your unwanted furniture! This is because antique furniture is beautiful painted and there is a lot of demand but not a lot of supply! What this means is that you can get a great price for your antique furniture, even if the person purchasing it is looking to sell it themselves. Furniture flippers are to antique furniture as pavalos’ dogs are to a ringing bell! And you can use that to your advantage!

Top 4 resell it sites for to sell your unwanted furniture

1. Facebook marketplace – FB marketplace is where I buy and resell the majority of my furniture (painted or unpainted.) Why? Everyone is on FB. It is a HUGE market. You can easily take a picture of your furniture directly from the marketplace icon in FB and post your unwanted furniture immediately. Typically you should sell your furniture that day or the next day!
2. Craigslist – Yes, craigslist is still a thing! In my personal experience my furniture has sat on craigslist for a longer period of time but has sold for more money than other market places. I think the craigslist crowd is more of a “we are searching for something specific that is why we are here.” Juxtaposed to this, the FB marketplace can be someone randomly on FB at midnight, not able to sleep, “window shopping”, and not taking their buying as seriously.
3. Offer UP – Offer Up is a newer app you can download on your phone in order to create an account and sell unwanted furniture or other smaller items. I’ve had great luck with this site as well, and so can you! I think it works great if you live in a larger city.
4. Letgo – Another resell it app that you can easily download on your phone to sell unwanted furniture. Letgo is a fun app that lets you see how many people have actually viewed the item you are selling, allows you to change your cover photo easily, and allows people to “favorite” your item. All this helps in creating more hype for a sell!

How to Know if your Unwanted Furniture is Worth Selling

1. One question to ask is whether or not your unwanted furniture is sturdy or has any wobbliness to it. We’ve all been out to eat and been sat at a table that wobbles back and forth. It can ruin your experience! The same can be said for furniture! But here’s a helpful trick: add a furniture pad under the leg that seems a bit shorter. 🙂 This will stabilize your furniture making it ready to sell!
2. Do the drawers of the furniture slide easily? If drawers do not slide easily a quick and easy fix is to apply a wax of any kind on the inside of the drawers. (ex. of wax: furniture wax, candle wax, beeswax) This will help drawers slide smoothly.
3. Is the furniture missing any hardware? If so, an easy fix is running to the local hardware store and picking up new hardware that fits your piece.
4. Does the furniture have any stickers stuck to it from kiddos? (We have 5 kiddos, so I promise: I GET IT!) Use Krud Cutter, Goo Gone, or simply a damp sponge with water, let soak on stickers for easy removal. You can read my post on removing stickers from furniture here!

I think a lot of times people can think their dresser is missing 3 knobs or their kid put too many stickers on their chest of drawers and their furniture is not worth selling. But this is the great stuff that DIYer’s LOVE and want! You can still make a decent amount of money off of your unwanted furniture even if it has damage and missing parts. So don’t put it on the curb until you put it on a resell it site first!

One of the only times I think furniture is not worth reselling is if their is a tremendous amount of water damage that has caused the wood to warp. I only say that because it can be very time consuming to repair.

You never know until you try! Put your unwanted furniture that is missing a drawer up on a resell it site and I guarantee you’ll be happy that you did! 🙂

How to Determine what your furniture is worth

When I am determining the price of my furniture (painted or unpainted) I check the sites! I check FB marketplace, Craigtslist, Letgo, Offerup, etc. I do a price comparison. I find furniture that is similar to mine and I base my price for my furniture off of that. If my piece is a little more unique in nature than the one I found similar, I will add an extra $25 to the price of my furniture.

A key tip: see what others are doing! Ask friends and family what they would purchase your piece for if they were going to buy it (maybe they’ll make you an offer!!) and price your furniture according to the price comparisons you can make.

Checking Etsy is also a good way to see what furniture prices go for, especially if you are selling antique furniture. There are many resellers/antique dealers on Etsy selling furniture and that can help give you a good price comparison.

Tips for making the most from resell it sites

1. Take photos of furniture in good lighting. Natural light is always the best. 🙂
2. Stage your furniture. Have furniture with a small plant on top with a cute picture. This looks better than a piece of furniture with the drawers open and clothing hanging out. 🙂
3. Edit your photos. One of my favorite photo editors for furniture is ColorStory, (it is free,) and it allows you to fit your pictures to size. This means your picture will fit perfectly in the FB marketplace squares. That way when people are looking for furniture they will see your entire chest of drawers and not just the feet and two bottom drawers of the chest of drawers.

People are typically weekend shoppers!! Post your unwanted furniture late Thursday evening. Friday people are starting to relax and scroll through the internet. By Friday morning and early Saturday you should have a sale or at least inquiries about your furniture.

Final Thoughts on Selling Unwanted Funriture

Paint it! Painted furniture typically sells faster that unpainted furniture. If you are in a hurry, paint your furniture in white, black, or grey. People are more likely to buy these finishes because they go with everything!

PRO TIP: To Paint furniture without sanding use a chalk based or mineral based paint such as: Annie Sloan, Jolie, Dixie Belle, or Valspar. You can seal these with a water based poly. If you are in a super quick hurry use “Amy Howard’s One Step Paint” – it requires no sealing after painting! 🙂

CLICK HERE for a furniture paint price guide! This will help guide you on the most affordable paint to purchase!

Have you sold unwanted furniture? If so, did you paint it first? I’d love to hear! Leave a comment below. 🙂

CLICK HERE for a quick way to paint furniture white. 🙂