In brief: Sell it if the piece is genuinely valuable and you have time to manage a sale. Donate it if it is ordinary used furniture, because once you subtract the time, the no-shows, and a consignment shop’s 40 to 60 percent cut, the cash left over is often small, and donating is faster, gives you a tax receipt, and sends the piece to a family. This is general information, not tax advice.
The honest split
There is a clean dividing line. If your piece would fetch real money, solid wood, a sought-after brand, mid-century, or nearly new, and you have the time to sell it, selling puts the most cash in your pocket. For ordinary used furniture, the sale rarely nets what people expect once the costs of selling are counted, and donating comes out surprisingly close while taking far less effort.
The mistake most people make is comparing the sticker price of selling against the fee of donating, as if those were the two numbers. They are not. The real comparison is what you actually keep after selling, against what donating actually costs after the tax receipt. Once you line those up, the gap is often much smaller than it first appears.
What you actually keep when you sell
The sticker price is not what you keep. On Facebook Marketplace or Kijiji, listing is free, but you spend hours fielding messages, waiting for buyers who do not show, and arranging to move a heavy item yourself. On consignment, the shop does the work, but it keeps roughly 40 to 60 percent of the sale and only accepts pieces it is confident will sell=.
So a sofa listed at $200 might net you $200 on Marketplace after several evenings of effort, or closer to $80 to $120 through consignment after the cut. Those figures are illustrative, but the shape is real: selling is worth it when the piece is valuable, and thin when it is not. Factor in that furniture depreciates fast, and that most used pieces sell for a fraction of what they cost new, and the case for chasing a sale on an ordinary item gets weaker still.
What donating gives you
Donating trades the possible cash for speed, simplicity, and a tax receipt. If you can move the piece, drop-off is free; if you cannot, a crew collects it from $150, with no HST. Every accepted item generates a charitable receipt, a sofa is calculated at $250, a dresser at $100, and the piece goes to a family furnishing a home rather than to a stranger flipping it.
Donating is not instant, so if you are on a deadline, make sure you book ahead of time, since we won’t be able to do a same-day pick up. . But it removes the entire burden of selling: no listing, no messages, no strangers at your door, no haggling. For a lot of people, that simplicity is worth more than the thin margin a sale would have returned.
The three routes, side by side
| Route | What you get | What it costs you |
|---|---|---|
| Sell on Marketplace or Kijiji | The full sale price, no commission | Your time: listing, messages, no-shows, and arranging the lifting yourself |
| Sell on consignment | A cheque once it sells, with the shop doing the work | Roughly 40 to 60 percent commission, and they only take pieces they expect to sell |
| Donate to Furniture Bank | A tax receipt per item, no HST, and it reaches a family | Free if you drop off; from $150 if a crew collects it |
What the tax receipt is really worth
A receipt is a tax credit, not a refund. A $250 receipt does not return $250 to you; it lowers the tax you owe by a percentage of that value, and the percentage depends on your income and province. So the receipt does not turn donating into a payday, but it does narrow the gap with selling, especially for ordinary pieces where the sale would have been modest anyway. For your exact situation, check the CRA’s guidance or an accountant. This article is general information, not tax advice.
What the money math leaves out
The comparison so far is about dollars, but the decision rarely is purely financial, and it is worth naming the other factors honestly. Selling means strangers coming to your home or arranging to meet them, which some people would rather avoid entirely, especially living alone. Donating removes that. Selling also leaves the outcome uncertain, the piece might sit unsold for weeks, while a donation is done the moment it is collected.
There is also where the piece ends up. A sale sends it to whoever pays, which might be a reseller who flips it. A donation sends it to a family setting up a home, and for many people that destination is worth more than the difference in cash, particularly for a piece with some sentimental weight that they would rather see used well than haggled over. None of this overrides a genuinely valuable item, but for an ordinary piece it often tips the decision toward donating even before the tax receipt enters the picture.
When each one wins
Sell when the piece has genuine resale value and you have time and patience to manage it. A designer sofa, a solid-wood dining set, or a barely-used mattress-in-a-box can be worth the effort. Donate when it is ordinary, when you want it handled quickly, or when the difference in cash is small enough that a receipt and a family at the other end is the better trade.
And if the piece is broken or unsellable, neither applies: that is a junk or curb decision, not a sell-or-donate one, and trying to sell or donate it only wastes your time and someone else’s. Be honest about which piece you actually have before you pick a route.
A quick way to decide
Ask what the piece would realistically sell for, then halve it to account for the effort and the odds of it not selling at all. If that honest number still feels worth your evenings, sell it. If it does not, donate it, take the receipt, and reclaim the time. For most furniture that is not genuinely valuable, the second answer is the right one.
Your next step
If it is valuable and you have time, list it. If it is ordinary or you want it simple, the Furniture Bank quote form returns a donation pickup price before anyone visits, or you can drop it off free and take the receipt.
Related questions
Should I donate, sell, or junk my furniture?
How does the furniture donation tax receipt work?
How much does Furniture Bank charge for pickup?
Is my furniture good enough to donate?
Where can I donate furniture in Toronto?
How do I get rid of old furniture in Toronto?
