Everything You Need to Know About Buying Used Furniture

Well over half the furniture in my home is used furniture. Some we’ve acquired as hand-me-downs and some we’ve bought thrifting and looking for cool pieces with lots of personality! The chairs in this photo are one of my favorite finds ever!

When you’re getting furniture from family for super cheap or free, you take what you can get! But when you shop for new-to-you pieces, there are some things to look out for before you hand over your hard-earned money.

There are a lot of advantages to buying used furniture, but sometimes it’s hard to know if you’re getting a good deal or not. The condition of a piece of furniture determines how much it’s worth. It’s too easy to look something over quickly and fall in love with it. Then when you get home, you notice some imperfections that didn’t catch your eye at first.

What you might accidentally overlook when buying used furniture:

Maybe the drawers don’t slide easily. Or they slide well but you don’t notice that one of them is actually broken and you can’t tell until you completely remove the drawer.

Maybe there’s damage on a the side or back of the piece that you don’t see until you unload it at home.

Maybe this awesome piece is mostly veneer or even made of particle board when you think it’s solid wood. That can easily happen if you aren’t that familiar with buying used furniture.

I learned the hard way to spend some extra time getting to know a piece of furniture before buying it. Not every imperfection is a deal breaker, but it’s nice to know what you’re getting into. Then you can decide what you’re qualified to repair on your own. And you may even have more leverage in negotiating the price tag.

I put everything you need to know about buying used furniture into a guide so you can save it or print it off.