When treating yourself to a new sofa, you may find yourself wondering what to do next about the old, unwanted one. After all, you don’t want it consuming space around your home or collecting dust. But what is the best way to get rid of an old sofa? Our sofa removal experts are on hand to help with all of the answers you need.
Can I take my sofa to the tip?
One of the most popular ways to dispose of your unwanted sofa is to take it to a local recycling centre, or as others know it, a tip. Local councils are obliged to provide disposal services that enable you to dispose of your waste more responsibly, so you should be able to find a local recycling centre in your area.
However, taking your sofa to be disposed of at the tip is not without drama. Transporting it to your local recycling centre can be challenging given the weight and awkward sofa shapes, particularly if you don’t have a big enough car or van. What’s more, most recycling centres will request that you deconstruct your sofa prior to disposing of it to save precious space at the tip. This often means that you will need to remove all cushions and cut the frame of the sofa to make it more manageable. This can be a tedious task and one easily avoided by hiring a professional sofa removal team who can collect your sofas as they are.
You might also find that your local recycling centre isn’t as close as you might like, making it time-consuming and costly to dispose of it this way.
To find your nearest recycling centre, use this handy location search tool.
Can you put a sofa in a skip?
Of course, putting your sofa into a skip to be collected and disposed of later is also an option. In doing this, you can remove your sofa from your property and store it in a skip until it gets collected. However, this is only a good choice if you are already looking to get rid of a bulk of additional waste, like following a renovation.
However, there are a few things to consider when hiring a skip for your sofa, such as:
Your ability to lift the sofa into the skip
It is important to bear in mind that when you hire a skip, you must do all of the heavy lifting yourself, unlike when you hire a professional removal company. This means that you will be required to lift the sofa and any other waste into the skip yourself, without assistance from a professional. Not only is this inconvenient, but it can put you at risk of injury too.
Whether a skip is worthwhile for your waste
Skips are designed to hold large quantities of different waste types but are less useful for just one item of waste. Therefore, it is worth considering whether hiring a skip for a sofa is worth the time, effort and money associated, since professional sofa removal services are cheaper and more effective.
Whether you can get a skip permit
If you are looking to get rid of your sofa quickly, you will need to consider whether or not you have enough time to get a skip permit before your skip gets dropped off.
Skip sizing
Skip sizes are also important to bear in mind, as sofas are large, bulky waste items and can consume a lot of space or even require breaking down to fit. Not to mention, the bigger the skip, the most expensive it will prove to be to hire one.
Can I leave an old sofa at the side of the road?
When looking to dispose of their unwanted sofa, many people may consider dumping it at the side of the road for someone to collect. However, what they don’t realise is that doing this is a crime called fly-tipping which involves illegally depositing waste onto land that isn’t yours. Although you may leave your sofa outside after arranging a curbside collection, doing so without having organised a collection already is forbidden and can carry huge fines if caught.
In fact, local authorities are cracking down on fly-tipping offences, and whilst it may seem like a thoughtful thing to do for others, dumping your sofa on the street can prove hazardous to individuals and may even attract unwanted pests.
So, in short, you cannot leave your sofa at the roadside with the hope that someone will collect and dispose of it for you, so it is worth looking to hire a professional sofa collection company to remove it quickly on your behalf instead.
Need help disposing of your unwanted sofa?
If you need assistance getting rid of your old sofa or armchairs, then you may benefit from hiring a professional furniture disposal company to get the job done for you. Not only do we do all of the heavy lifting on your behalf, but we also eliminate the need for you to break your sofa down, hire a skip unnecessarily, or go through the hassle of finding the right vehicle to get it to the tip.