This article echoes something I've learned since we moved into a larger house this past summer: don't buy new furniture.†
We bought very nice leather couches a few years back (we have dogs, leather is the only option) and paid dearly for them. And they're great. (We looked carefully at the construction details before buying.)
This summer, we had some rooms we cared a lot about and others we just needed to fill in some blanks in, and we camped Facebook Marketplace looking for stuff. Pretty soon, even the living room was getting stuff we found on Facebook, at comparable levels of quality to our old "new" furniture, and at pennies on the dollar. People are simply always getting rid of good stuff, and there isn't a meaningful secondary market for it; they're just thrilled you're getting it out of their house and getting a couple bucks in the process.
I submit that you would end up with a better-furnished room faster, more easily, and at a fraction of the cost of high-end furniture retailers simply with Facebook Marketplace and TaskRabbit (for near-instant delivery).
† Leastways, not if you live in a major North American metro.
Few years ago I moved to another country and had to get rid of everything I had minus ~25kg.
It's bloody hard to get rid of a lot of stuff. I had a great leather sofa, about 15-20 years old (inherited from my grandparents) still in great condition, but I couldn't get rid of it at any price and none of the charity shops took it because it was missing some fire hazard label (sigh...). Same with almost everything: I sold my 2-year old £1,200 mattress for £50 (and I had to practically beg to guy to take it, because it would have been a complete shame to chuck it). Washing machine, fridge, all the "little stuff" (cutlery, books, DVDs, what-have-you). I ended up putting a lot outside "free stuff" and that got rid of a lot.
Actually the only things I managed to sell was an IKEA sleeping sofa and an IKEA dinner table set.
That said, since then I found that actually finding good stuff isn't always easy.
I've moved countries three times and that's been my experience each time.
What's more, actually selling stuff is often such a time consuming hassle (posting, dealing with replies, scheduling pick ups, dealing with flakes) that in a lot of cases you're better off just paying trash hauling service to just come pick it all up in a single go.
I ended up having to discard a perfectly good desktop computer and a high-end scanner because nobody wanted them, not even for free. It's really frustrating, not because I missed out on making some money, but because of how wasteful it feels.
However, monitors seem to sell immediately every time.
It's actually illegal to sell a used mattress in the US - and there are very legitimate public health reasons for the being the case. You can't really clean one - that's especially true of foam, and they can be riddled with lice, bedbugs, and all kinds of creepy crawlies.
Once upon a time when moving countries people would pay for a shipping container... another unfortunate side effect of everything becoming shit - it's not even worth taking stuff with you.
I found it very freeing when I moved country to leave almost everything behind. It really helps put into perspective what is valuable and what you know you would miss, and to reduce dependence and attachment on possessions. I think it has helped me become generally more minimalist in my life too.
What I find helpful with buying IKEA items second hand, I know the exact measurements and can find more infos online. With other furniture items, it much harder. And their names are distinct so I can just search for it.
I've looked around for some quality used furniture at a decent price, it's very hard to find. Just gave up and bought some stuff on article.com which has been pretty ok bang for the buck for me in the past.
> People are simply always getting rid of good stuff
I suppose there’s an interesting survivorship thing going on here. A poorly-built couch probably won’t even last 10 years. And if it does, somehow, you’ll know as soon as you sit on it if it’s about to turn into dust based on the squeaking and general instability. If it still feels solid and you don’t sink into it so deep that you can’t stand up again there’s a decent chance it’ll last another 10 years.
I would worry about stuff like that if I was buying cloth furniture. I am not worried about it buying high-end leather furniture. It seems about as likely as getting bedbugs from a used car (which also happens! but nobody blinks about buying a used car). You're generally buying from people's houses. Maybe I'd be concerned about grabbing something from an apartment.
Do you have a link to an alternative site with information about bedbug density made since 2018 or so?
I'm not saying you're wrong, I'm saying that in lieu of additional information this is what I have to work with, so I will need a better source of data before I change my mind.
Just put the sofa in the dryer. But seriously, I wonder if there's some heat treatment possible. surely it should be possible and put the sofa in a giant plastic bag and heat the air inside or something.
Bedbugs die much more easily than that, 45C for 90 minutes will do it. The most expensive extermination method for bed and bugs is to seal up the home similar to the way it's done when using pesticides, except they just blast heat into your home for like 8 hours. Kills the bed bug infestation inside completely, but because there's no residual poisons bedbugs from outside can start a new infestation easily. It works great for homes, not worth doing for apartments.
Put it in a Uhaul box for a day in summer heavy sun. It already hits 160f / 71c routinely in summer in a closed vehicle.
Ive done that when getting old wood furniture from facebook. We bake it for a day or 2 in a closed trailer. If there was anything living on or in it, it isn't after the bake.
And the temp doesnt damage what we do that to in any way.
My father went through a double bed bugs ordeal. The first try didn’t work and he ended up throwing out nearly everything he had to get rid of them. Kids toys for the grandkids, furniture, mattresses, clothing, and basically started over like his house on the inside burned down.
For me it's the other way around: anything I might want that's of reasonable quality will take 1+ months to arrive (usually, it'll have to be constructed to order), where I'm only a couple clicks away from having the new thing the next day buying used.
I want to be clear that I'm not saying everything on Facebook Marketplace is great. Most of it is crap! You still have to be discriminating. But everybody is always unloading high-quality furniture, and, at least for now, Facebook is full of excellent deals.
Learned this 30 years ago. Durable quality goods are generally best bought used, but furniture requires close inspection to avoid pests.
Custom Macy's extra long couch from ~2000 is the best thing ever. You sink into it and it holds up. Bought used-new for $1k when a friend paid $4k but was delivered 2 by mistake.
We bought very nice leather couches a few years back (we have dogs, leather is the only option) and paid dearly for them. And they're great. (We looked carefully at the construction details before buying.)
This summer, we had some rooms we cared a lot about and others we just needed to fill in some blanks in, and we camped Facebook Marketplace looking for stuff. Pretty soon, even the living room was getting stuff we found on Facebook, at comparable levels of quality to our old "new" furniture, and at pennies on the dollar. People are simply always getting rid of good stuff, and there isn't a meaningful secondary market for it; they're just thrilled you're getting it out of their house and getting a couple bucks in the process.
I submit that you would end up with a better-furnished room faster, more easily, and at a fraction of the cost of high-end furniture retailers simply with Facebook Marketplace and TaskRabbit (for near-instant delivery).
† Leastways, not if you live in a major North American metro.