Buy Nothing New Day 2024 – Richmond Furniture Scheme

Posted on the 27th November 2024

Buy Nothing New Day Richmond Furniture Scheme

This Buy Nothing New Day, we’re encouraging people to support their local reuse charity and choose secondhand when the urge to purchase new reaches its peak at this time of year.

By opting for preloved goods, we not only cut down on waste, save resources, and make a positive difference for our planet, we also help to support worthwhile causes, such as tackling poverty and unemployment.

To highlight how reuse charities are making a difference, we spoke to Simon Westgarth, the CEO of Richmond Furniture Scheme (RFS) who took us through some of the ways they are helping people, planet and pocket.

Richmond Furniture Scheme

Richmond Furniture Scheme is a local furniture recycling charity based in the borough of Richmond. They sell quality used furniture and household items from their showroom in Twickenham. They also run a workshop called Carousel where they give new life to once-loved furniture by repairing and upcycling selected pieces of furniture.

“RFS’ objectives can be summed up as; making homes, building community and protecting the environment”, says Simon. “We provide a sustainable, environmentally friendly solution to helping people access affordable, mostly donated, furniture and appliances. In turn, we help to alleviate poverty by supplying donated furniture and household goods at minimal costs to people in need. It is helping people to have somewhere to sit, somewhere to sleep and somewhere to store their things.”

Simon continues, “Around 50% of RFS customers come from disadvantaged backgrounds and they receive 25% discounted goods. RFS provides furniture and household items to over 1,600 customers a year, mainly from the London borough of Richmond Upon Thames.”

People

As well as providing essential furniture to those in need, RFS also offer training, employment and volunteer opportunities, thus playing an important role in tackling poverty and unemployment.

“Our charity is all about saving furniture from landfill and breathing new life into well-loved donated items”, says Simon. “We couldn’t do it without our volunteers. Each year, over 100 volunteers devote over 7,000 hours of their time, with an average of over 45 individuals lending a hand each month.

“Our volunteers are involved in a wide range of activities, such as managing the warehouse, overseeing stock, providing customer support, helping customers, admin, furniture repair and refurbishment, site maintenance, IT, marketing, gardening, and much, much more!”

Volunteering can have a positive effective on people’s mental health and well being, and this is clearly demonstrated in the some of the feedback shared by RFS’ volunteers.

One volunteer said that volunteering has helped them feel calm. “Due to my mental and physical health it helped me relax a bit more after hearing other people’s stories”.

Another volunteer explained that donating their time; “Broadens my field of productive things to do. And thus, I feel better. Get to meet new people to teach me woodworking skills as well as see all the furniture salvaged. Interesting place with something new every day.”

Many of the volunteers shared how much they enjoy being a part of RFS: “For me, being part of the RFS group of like minded yet different people with a sense of purpose, achievement and fun in doing what we do gives me a great deal of enjoyment and personal life-balance and I certainly recommend it.”

Helping people through hard times

Many of RFS’ customers have experienced challenges in their lives. Simon recalls a story about a woman they were able to support through their grant scheme. “Amy was homeless and got a grant to spend with us to furnish her new accommodation, she got free kitchen basics including a kettle, toaster, microwave and crockery and cooking utensils. She said, “All I had was my toiletry bag and a pair of jeans and I couldn’t believe how much help you gave me. I kept thinking ‘What’s the catch?’ but you just said: ‘Don’t worry, just go home and we’ll deliver it all’. And they did, it was amazing!

“I’m so happy with everything I got. Getting all those things like the utensils meant I had more money for food and bills – I’m on Universal Credit and it all goes on my bills. A kettle even on its own gives you so many possibilities, I’m sat here with my tea, so my kettle is still going strong!”

Planet

RFS help to protect the environment by encouraging the reuse and recycling of donated furniture and household goods. Simon is enthusiastic about the benefits, “We fix, paint and resell furniture, giving it a new lease of life and a new home. Each year we save tonnes of stuff from landfill (117 tonnes of furniture reused last year). We’re saving the planet one sofa at a time!”

Pocket

Richmond Furniture Scheme is open to everyone, Simon explains, ‘Whether you’re moving into a new house, a young person leaving home for the first time, a vintage furniture fanatic, or if you just need a good quality piece of furniture for your home, we can help you to find what you need.

Simon highlights the affordability of shopping at RFS, “ Furnishing a typical one bed flat (minus appliances and a mattress) can be achieved for £200. This amount could cover essentials like a sofa, chest of drawers, wardrobe, bed frame, coffee table and bedside cabinet . We estimate that this is a saving of at least £2,000 per household compared to buying new items.”

“Appliances are also considerably cheaper. For instance, we provided an induction hob cooker for £175 to a customer assisted by a grant, a saving of around £800 pounds compared to buying a brand-new version.”

Choose reuse and help save the planet

Simon is a sustainability champion and explains why opting to buy preloved has got to be the way forward:

“Buying everything new is simply unsustainable. Society’s consumption rate cannot be maintained without the planet suffering irreparable harm.

But by adopting a reuse first approach can help to turn the tide. And it’s fun, you will find some amazing items this way of tremendous quality”.

Richmond Furniture Scheme is open Monday to Friday, 9.30am-4pm, and Saturday, 10am-4pm, at 1a Fortescue Avenue, Twickenham TW2 5LS. Check out their website for further information.