There were reportedly 972,000 office buildings in the U.S. in 2023. That is a lot of space to design and furnish. But, office furniture tends to have a shorter lifespan than the office space itself. After a few years of wear and tear, office furniture might need to be replaced. Or it could simply be outdated and negatively impact your office space. So what should you do with outdated office furniture?
What to Do with Outdated Office Furniture
As companies downsize their office space utilization, upgrade their office design to increase its appeal to employees, or to embrace new post-pandemic strategic office design thinking, there is a need to decide what to do with outdated office furniture.
The most commonly used historical approach was to send the items to a landfill. According to the latest report from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, published in 2018, about 17 billion pounds of office assets go to landfills each year. More environmentally friendly approaches include:
- Donating outdated office furniture to charitable organizations who can use the items to save office equipment furnishing costs or who can sell them at a profit to improve their financial resources.
- Selling items to employees, temps, interns and contractors.
- Selling items to the landlord for use with new tenants.
- Selling items to property management organizations who may be able to place the used items with other organizations.
- Reaching out to used furniture companies. Used furniture resellers may be able to haul the items away for a nominal price.
How to Get Ready to Dispose of Your Outdated Office Furniture
First, make a complete and detailed inventory of the items that you want to dispose of. It will be very useful to identify the location of each item. Second, clean every item that you intend to sell or donate. Third, identify where all the items will be going. Some electronics contain hazardous materials, so they need to be handled with care and not dumped into a trash bin. Fourth, keep good accounting records of the items donated for tax write-off purposes.
The Benefits of Great Office Furniture and Office Space Design
Disposing of outdated office furniture enables a company to upgrade to more effective and appealing office furniture. The benefits of great office furniture include using ergonomic design that enhances employee comfort and productivity. Modern office furniture has been shown to boost job satisfaction and morale. Office space designs that incorporate flexible formats support more collaborative work. Upgraded furniture can improve space utilization.
An outdated or poor office space design can contribute to greater employee stress. It can decrease an office team’s productivity and creativity. It can reduce the employee’s perceived value to the organization and make them insecure and doubtful. It can be especially discouraging to millennials and Gen Z. Also, avoid outdated office design trends.
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