Thanks! I Found It on the Street.
Curbside cowboys share their best tips—and biggest warnings—for recouping furniture from the trash.
By Rachel Davies
You’re walking down the street, minding your own business, when all of a sudden you’re confronted with a designer sofa, sitting on the edge of the curb. Is this a gift from god or a highly sophisticated bear trap? It’s hard to tell if it’s pest free—and impossible to know how clean it is—without bringing it inside. So: Do you take a big swing, call an Uber, and claim it? Or walk away and cut your losses?
This is a predicament plenty of New Yorkers have found themselves in, and certainly more still when you take perfectly good furniture without a designer label into account. The answer seems to come down to one’s appetite for risk—but still, there are a few best practices you can follow to optimize your curbside collection.
Stooping is more than just the thrill of the hunt—it’s a way of pushing back against the increasingly rampant waste in an industry that is only becoming more trend-obsessed. According to EPA data from 2018—the most recent figures available—more than 12 million tons of furniture are sent to the landfill each year. That’s nearly double the amount from just a few decades ago, back in 1998. There are more than enough treasures to go around: Take, for instance, the Grete Jalk armchairs in this AD-featured modernist landmark that were once mere curb crumbs, or the Joe Colombo cart that made it off the street and into the Bougie Woogie founders’ Milan home. Rescuing furniture can be a noble mission—an anti-elitist act that insists anyone in the community deserves a fair shot at reimagining their space.
For many, the reward is worth the risk. We talked to a range of experts on refinishing and curb-hunting to help you figure out whether that armchair is worth nabbing.
When and Where to Look
No one is more aware of the constant stream of curb finds in New York than @stoopingnyc. The anonymously-run Instagram account launched in 2019 as a place to post the admin’s own curb finds, and now boasts an audience of nearly half a million followers. These days, the handle has a couple of helpers to deal with the hundreds of message requests it receives each day. There are certain trends to how items move: “Sometimes I get happy when the weather is bad,” @stoopingnyc jokes, as reports slow down when it’s raining or snowing. The end of the month tends to be the busiest time for curb finds, as people prepare to move out of their apartments; weekends are dependably busier than weekdays.
Bronwyn Tarboton, an actor and obsessive curb finder who’s appeared on The Drew Barrymore Show to discuss her upcycling expertise, recommends taking a stroll around your neighborhood on garbage collection day. “Most people don’t really look when they see that the trash is out, they assume it’s just trash,” Tarboton says. “As I’m walking by, one eyeball is always on that area... I have found so many perfect-condition items in the trash.”
It can pay to keep your eyes peeled, even in unsavory places. Laura Deutsch—the founder of HiLo Brooklyn, a company that reimagines used furniture for contemporary tastes—has reaped the rewards of trash finds herself. Deutsch once found a Womb chair (retail price: $4,995 and up) in a dumpster and successfully reupholstered it. It may not be the place to look if you’re hoping for a minimal restoration process, but if you’re open to a project, no place is off limits.
Should It Stay or Should It Go?
Once you’ve spotted a piece of furniture you want, the choice of whether to bring it into your home or not mostly comes down to a gut feeling. There will always be some level of risk in bringing something of unknown provenance into your home—whether or not it was a freebie. “When you rescue something from the street, you inherit its history,” says Ruti Wajnberg, whose upholstery company, Find the Thread, specializes in reviving time-worn finds. “You take on its challenges, whether there’s structural damage, or rot, or pests, or old upholstery layers.”
If you’re looking for a piece to reupholster, Deutsch recommends working with items from the ’80s or earlier, when hardwood construction was the status quo. “You wouldn’t believe it,” she says. “It could be the most disgusting-looking piece, and you open it up and it’s the most beautiful, pristine wood.” Though these will almost certainly be better quality than flat-pack sofas made today, Deutsch recommends only reupholstering furniture that you really love. Even if you save money by finding a piece on the street, reupholstery itself is quite expensive: Per Wajnberg, an armchair typically costs between $700 and $900 while a three-seat sofa starts at around $2,500, minus the cost of fabric.
Though a leap of faith is a given, there are a few rules of thumb worth following to make sure you’re not exposing yourself to unnecessary risk while curbside treasure hunting.
Getting Your Pieces Home
The biggest investment for a piece of free furniture in the city might just be the cost of getting it home. People use all kinds of methods, notes @stoopingnyc—“crazy shit on Citi Bikes,” ferreting couches onto the MTA, pleading with Uber drivers, and more. And of course, there’s the old-fashioned way—your own two feet: “The other day, when I brought this lamp home, I had a stroller in my left hand, a lamp in my right hand... My arm was getting super tired,” says @stoopingnyc.
For smaller pieces like lamps, stools, or decor, Tarboton carries an IKEA tote bag around for impromptu schlepping. She also invested in a wagon, unlocking yet more potential for curb finds, though she’s hired Ubers to help her move furniture, too.
Back at Your Place
Once you’ve rehomed your furniture, next steps will depend largely on the specifics of what you’ve found. If you aren’t trained in refinishing and don’t own any literature, you can learn plenty on YouTube and TikTok. Skjoldahl, who now flips furniture full time, had no experience whatsoever before she bought her first piece on Facebook Marketplace three years ago. She taught herself using YouTube and by following accounts similar to the one she runs with her own projects now.
“The furniture flipping community is super tight knit and welcoming,” Skjoldahl says. She regularly fields requests from followers saying they’d happily pay her if they could ask for advice on a piece they’re trying to refinish. “I’m like, ‘You don’t have to pay me, just send me a picture and I’ll send you a video that you can reference.’” As daunting as the actual process with the piece can be, finding the information isn’t quite as complicated.
Though your supplies will depend on the particular project you’re taking on, there are a few basic items that are helpful to have around:
A screwdriver — Helpful for tightening or loosening screws on rickety furniture pieces.
Clorox wipes — A disinfectant wipe should be the first step in cleaning off a furniture piece that’s been found on the street.
A tarp — Tarboton puts a tarp down in her living room to quickly convert the space into a workstation.
A protective mask — If you’re taking upholstered furniture apart, Wajnberg recommends wearing a protective mask since dirt and debris are almost certainly going to be present inside of the piece.
A sanding block — A quick sanding can drastically improve many wooden pieces.
Tin foil — Rusted chrome can easily be cleaned up with tin foil, according to Wajnberg.
Whether you’re ready to get your hands dirty or you’d prefer to pass off the extra work to a professional, at the end of your street find journey you’ll be left with one particularly desirable quality for your new piece: an impressive origin story. ⌂