How to Get Rid of an Old Sofa in London
By the Waste Collectors team · 7 min read
A customer near London Bridge sent us one photo of a black leather two-seater in her first-floor flat. She got a fixed price of £75–£85, plus £15 for the stairs, and didn’t have to lift it.
Sofas are awkward to get rid of. They’re too big for most cars, too heavy for one person, and they’re no longer allowed to go to landfill. Charities only take them with the fire label still on. Some councils won’t take a corner sofa at all.
Here’s every way to get rid of an old sofa in London, what each one costs, and which one makes sense for you.
Short answer: if the sofa is in good condition and still has its fire label, a charity may collect it for free. If not, your council’s bulky waste collection is the cheapest option, from free in Enfield to £40.40 in Croydon, as long as you can get it outside yourself. The tip is free but the sofa has to fit in your car. The quickest is a licensed collector: with us most two- and three-seaters are £75–£100, carried out from wherever they are, often the same day.
Your options at a glance
| Option | Typical cost | Do you carry it out? | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Charity collection | Free | Usually no | Fire label on, no rips or stains |
| Selling or giving it away | Free | Usually yes | Takes time, and buyers can let you down |
| Council bulky waste collection | Free – £40.40 | Yes, to the front | Their date, and some refuse corner sofas |
| The tip | Usually free | Yes, and into a car | Most sofas won’t fit in a car |
| The shop, when the new one arrives | Varies | Usually yes | Has to be booked with the order |
| Waste Collectors | £75–£100 for most sofas | No, we carry it | You pay for the convenience |
1. Check if it can be reused first
If your sofa is in decent shape, someone else might want it. The thing that decides it is the fire safety label, a sewn-in label that shows the foam and fabric meet UK fire rules. It’s usually under the seat cushions or along the bottom of the frame. Our guide on where to find a fire label on a sofa shows where to look.
- Charities: the British Heart Foundation collects furniture for free, but by law it can only sell a sofa with the fire label attached and no rips showing the foam. No label, no collection. Local furniture reuse charities follow the same rule.
- Selling or giving it away: Facebook Marketplace, Gumtree and Freegle all work well for newer sofas. Be clear about the measurements and which floor it’s on, and agree who carries it down.
- No label, or worn out? Then it can’t be resold, and it has to be thrown away properly. Read on.
2. Book your council’s bulky waste collection
Every London council collects sofas, but the price and the rules differ a lot. A few examples:
| Council | Price | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| Enfield | Free for up to 6 items (£22 to choose your day) | Out by 5:30am on the day. |
| Lewisham | £5 per item | At the edge of your property by the pavement. Crews won’t go inside. |
| Royal Greenwich | £13.82 per item | Front of the property by 6am. Nothing from back gardens or up steps. |
| Haringey | £20 for 1–4 items | Sofas and other soft items may be collected on a different day. |
| Islington | £32.46 for up to 3 items | Nothing longer than six feet, so many corner sofas are refused. |
| Croydon | £40.40 for 1–3 items | Waterlogged items are refused. |
Taken from each council’s own website. Prices change, so check before you book.
If you can get the sofa outside on your own and wait for the council’s date, this is the cheapest way. The problems are getting a sofa down from an upstairs flat by yourself, and leaving it out overnight: a sofa that gets rained on is twice as heavy and can be refused.
3. Take it to the tip yourself
London’s tips (Reuse and Recycling Centres) take sofas from residents, usually for free. The problem is transport. A two-seater might just fit in a large estate car. A three-seater or corner sofa almost never fits, and most tips only let vans in with a booking.
When you get there, the sofa goes into its own container, not the general waste skip. That’s because of a rule about old upholstery, explained below. Bring proof of address, and check your tip’s opening hours and van rules first.
4. Let the shop take it when your new one arrives
Many furniture shops will take your old sofa away when they deliver the new one, usually for a fee. It has to be booked with the order, and it only covers the sofa you’re replacing. The old armchair or the sofa bed in the spare room won’t be included. Check the price and the conditions at checkout.
5. Book a licensed collector
This is what most people choose when the other options don’t fit: the sofa is upstairs, there’s no fire label, the council date is too far away, or they just don’t want to carry it. Sofas are one of the things we collect most as part of our rubbish removal work across London.
What a sofa usually costs with us:
| What needs to go | Price |
|---|---|
| Armchair or small two-seater | From £49 |
| Two- or three-seater sofa | Usually £75 – £100 |
| Sofa bed | Usually £75 – £95 |
| Corner or L-shaped sofa | Usually £120 – £150 |
| From an upstairs flat | Usually £10 – £25 extra, depending on the floor and lift |
That includes carrying it out from wherever it is, VAT, licensed disposal and a waste transfer note. Send a photo and you’ll get a fixed price before we come. There’s more on our sofa removal page and the full list on the prices page.
Real sofa jobs we’ve done
Leather sofa from a flat
Carried down from a first-floor flat. The £15 covers the stairs.
L-shaped sofa
A corner sofa taken out of a flat in one visit.
Three-seater and footstool
Both pieces carried out of the house and loaded.
Two sofas from a high floor
Two sofas carried down from an upper-floor flat.
Three-seater from a flat
Carried out of a ground-floor flat, through a narrow hallway.
Two sofa beds and a TV
Everything carried down from a third-floor flat.
Getting a sofa out of a flat
- Measure the tightest point, not the front door. It’s usually the turn on the stairs or the door into the flat where sofas get stuck. Measure the sofa’s depth and height, not just its length.
- Take the legs off. Most sofa feet unscrew by hand, and that gives you a few extra centimetres.
- Stand it on its end. Tipped up on one arm, a sofa can be turned round tight corners that it would never get round lying flat.
- Split corner sofas. Most come apart into sections held by metal brackets underneath. Sofa beds are heavier than they look because of the metal frame, so it’s a two-person carry.
- Protect the walls. Wrap the sharp corners in a blanket before you start. Shared hallways get scraped easily.
Why old sofas can’t go to landfill
The foam and fabric in older sofas can contain chemicals called persistent organic pollutants (POPs), which were used as flame retardants. The Environment Agency now requires waste sofas, armchairs, sofa beds, footstools and other upholstered seating to be burned at high temperature, not sent to landfill or recycled, so the chemicals are destroyed.
That’s why tips put sofas in their own container, why some councils collect them on a separate day, and why skip companies often won’t take them. Licensed collectors have to follow the same rules, so we keep sofas apart from the rest of the load.
Please don’t leave it in the street
A sofa left on the pavement without a booked collection is fly-tipping, even outside your own home, and councils fine people for it. If you pay someone to take it and they dump it, the fine can still come back to you. Always ask for the waste carrier licence number before you hand anything over. Ours is CBDU553904. Our guide on avoiding fly-tipping fines explains more.
Common questions
Yes, every London council collects sofas as bulky waste, usually for a fee. It has to be outside at the front by early morning, and some councils, like Islington, won’t take anything longer than six feet.
Ask first. Because old sofas have to be burned rather than landfilled, many skip companies won’t take them or charge extra.
No. By law, charities can only resell upholstered furniture with the fire safety label still attached, so they won’t collect it without one.
Yes, including electric recliners and heavy metal-framed sofa beds. Tell us what it is when you send the photo.
Not if we can get to the sofa, for example in a front garden, a garage or a ground-floor hallway. Tell us where it is when you book.
Usually, yes. We work 24/7, and same-day sofa collections are common if you get in touch in the morning.
Got a sofa to get rid of?
Send us a photo on WhatsApp and we’ll give you a fixed price before we book you in.