Cheap or free office furniture for a charity?

elljay

Morning all - I work from home for a very small charity, I'm the only employee, the rest are volunteers/ trustees.  We badly need a lockable file storage cabinet, preferably  metal, and I wondered if there are any companies that donate or charge a small amount for something like this?  I've come across a couple  but they're a long way away and by the time I've paid courier I might as well buy a new one from Viking etc.  Have also tried larger charity shops and freegle/freecycle/gumtree.  I will be paying for it myself as I don't want to use the charity's money for this.

Any ideas please?  Thanks very much.

martindow

Might be worth posting on Freecycle or Freegle to see if anyone is getting rid of one?

theoretica

My area has a local facebook group that is good for getting the word out and sourcing such things.

elljay

thanks for the responses.  Yes as mentioned I've put a wanted onto freegle/freecycle as well as looked at the items offered.  I don't Facebook but will ask friends to ask on theirs, thanks for the idea.

Savvy_Sue

Where I am, I know there are a couple of projects which I could approach. One is Emmaus, who in our area do furniture recycling / upcycling and would keep an eye out for anything we need. As well as the usual suspects of FB and Freecycle, there's also NextDoor. And you could google Furniture Reuse plus your area and see if anything specific comes up. 

rach_k

Have you had a look here? www.warp-it.co.uk/
I know I sometimes see adverts on Facebook for an organisation that puts companies trying to get rid of furniture in touch with charities that need it, but I'm not sure if that's the same one.  Looks about right though!

pramsay13

Definitely get on facebook. Just create a profile for your work.
I've just searched my local fb marketplace and within 10k of me there are 7 cabinets, 2 of them are free.  

oldbikebloke

yes you may be afraid of facebook but it really is the place to look for this sort of stuff. I see you have tried Freecycle etc but there will be people on FB who do not belong there. For example down my way there are 6 (yes six) FB groups covering mine and the next door village all of whom are purely "item listing" groups (not discussion groups) and 4/6 are restricted to free items only. 

Your appeal on here may work, and of course there is no harm in asking on here, but you'll have a much better chance on a social media page that is relevant to your actual location. 
 

Savvy_Sue

Also, if you get a lockable one but it's lost its keys, you can often get one through a local locksmith. If you know the make of cabinet and there's a number on the lock, it should be straightforward. 

elljay

Thanks everyone for these brilliant responses, lots of great ideas for me to follow up.  

Savvy_Sue

Another thought if you get a non-locking one: you can add a padlock and hasp in various different ways to locking and non-locking ones. 

And as you'd prefer metal, I'm going to add please make sure it works well: sometimes they deform after years of abuse, especially if they've been frequently moved. Also make sure that you can only open one drawer at a time: it's a health and safety issue otherwise.