Gateway Road Reuse and Recycling Centre is now closed.
There are numerous ways to donate, sell, find or buy second-hand items such as furniture or white goods in north London, which could really make a difference to someone else’s quality of life as well as reducing the amount of furniture that goes to waste every year.
Did you know 10 million household items are sent to landfill every year? Three million of these items could be re-used by those in need.
Council reuse services
You can take reusable furniture to one of north London’s reuse and recycling centres where they can be put aside and sold in our Reuse shop.
Contact your local council to see if it provides a furniture reuse collection service. If you live in Camden, Haringey, Islington or Waltham Forest, reuse shop Brightsparks will collect furniture to sell at affordable prices.
Charities or social enterprises
The Reuse Network directory shows where furniture reuse and recycling organisations are located. If you live in or around Barnet, check out Barnet Furniture Centre which is a furniture reuse charity.
Some charities will collect good quality reusable items for free, such as Sue Ryder and British Heart Foundation, which are then sold at affordable prices in their numerous outlets. Not all items of furniture can be re-sold by charity shops, so it is best to check before arranging a collection.
Repairing furniture
Often, damaged furniture can be repaired, giving it a new lease of life. There are many free guides and videos online that can take you step by step through the process for repairing all sorts of furniture, from simple fixes to the bit more challenging. One option is Ifixit, an open-source and free repair guide for almost everything, so that you can teach yourself how to repair.
Why not go further, not just repairing your broken item, but making it better too? Upcycling takes unwanted or broken items and creatively turns them into new products of better quality and sustainable value. Each year, North London Waste Authority runs the London Upcycling Show, which showcases the best of London upcycling and repair.
Online marketplaces
There are numerous online options for passing on all sorts of unwanted items.
- You can sell them on platforms like Gumtree, Facebook Marketplace, Ebay, or Shpock.
- Offer items for free on Freecycle, Freegle, (as well as on Gumtree, Facebook Marketplace or Preloved).
- Private neighbourhood social networks like Nextdoor also have a ‘free items’ section.
- Share second-hand items on the Ferris App.
- Love Junk allows you to list or collect reusable items for free.
Know of any other furniture reuse or repair services? Please let us know by emailing post@nlwa.gov.uk, and we’ll update this page.
