Toilet paper made from yesterday’s news. Computers made from old car parts. New tin cans made from old tin cans.

Recycling is a good thing, most of the time. Furniture recycling, however, is not a good thing for you. We’re not talking about making microfibers from plastic pop bottles, or advocating filling landfills with still-good stuff. What you don’t want is Ms. Jones recycling her old furniture when she buys new.

Sometimes Ms. Jones moves up or adds on, but mostly she just moves stuff around. Most furniture purchases are replacements of existing pieces in the home. She needs to take that old furniture and put it out of its misery. You want her to say, “Sayonara!” to sagging mattress sets and, “Ciao, baby!” to crappy couches. The last thing you want is for her to move it into another room or give it to a relative or neighbor.

Do you remove old furniture? What charities in your community could use gently-used goods? How do you help Ms. Jones free up square footage for fantastic new furniture?