Habitat For Humanity Restore

This is not a review of the thrift store itself, but of their furniture donation service, which is one of the largest in South Florida. Got furniture you don’t want? You can contact Habitat for Humanity and they will schedule a pick-​up.
I’ve had two large furniture donations with them in the last 3 months. One was a 5 star experience, and the other not worthy of a zero. I’ll describe the 5 star one first.

We decided to completely change the look and feel of our living room and family room, and had several large upholstered chairs and sectional sofas. Each piece was in excellent condition, even though 10 years old, all were high quality, purchased at Robb and Stuckey in 2006, for those of you who recall their high end expensive business.
After offering them free to various friends and neighbors, and finding new homes for a few, the rest were ready for Habitat for Humanity.
There is one telephone number to call to set up a pick-​up for the area from Boynton to Fort Lauderdale. I won’t provide it, as its a recording which advises you to send an email and they will contact you. Note, there is really no phone contacts made in establishing the pick-​up date and time, it’s all done by email. Bypass calling.
Send an email to:
and provide them with your address, phone number, whether private home, gated or non gated community, floor where you reside, and items you wish to donate. They respond, within a day, and provide a date and time slot for pick-​up. If that doesn’t work, you need to respond to the email and request a new date. Frankly, it’s a bit old fashioned way to do business, but it is the way they do it. You will get a call about 30 minutes before the agreed upon pick-​up from the driver.
On day of pick-​up, Driver and helper arrives, looks at the furniture items, and HE HAS THE FINAL DECISION WHETHER TO TAKE THE FURNITURE. My Boca Raton driver and helper were hard-​working guys. They were careful not to scratch other items in the house, didn’t drag anything across the floor and mar it. They even put down drop clothes and took shoes off when they entered house as it was raining. They were tipped generously, frankly, these guys looked like they were a bit on the edge economically, and I always feel a large tip to guys like that makes their day and a lot of people don’t tip anything, and they need the money.
The prior donation experience was from a condo in Kings Point, Delray Beach, and was a disaster. Driver and helper arrived and assessed the furniture. Yes, there was a lot, really a lot, many pieces of old sectional sofas, coffee table, dining table and chairs, dressers. All the stuff a 90 year old woman has in her condo that she bought 25+ years ago.
Driver (who calls the shots) decided that none of the sofa pieces were donation-​worthy nor was the large and heavy wall unit pieces, or the dining table. OK, I was disappointed but accepting of it.
But then the driver OFFERED TO TAKE ALL THE PIECES TO THE DUMP FOR $ 150. As he said «to help you out». I declined. It felt like a shake-​down, pure and simple. I proceeded to document a complaint through email to the dispatcher, and after a series of emails, was advised there was a «misunderstanding», and that drivers can, on their own time, offer to take stuff which is not «donation-​worthy» to the dump. OK, dispatcher (name-​less, as no emails contained his/​her name), this clearly wasn’t on the driver’s own time, it was when he was on the clock picking up donations, using a Habitat For Humanity truck.
So, be warned in advance: it’s the luck of the driver draw if you are getting an honest one, or one who is «entrepreneurial», looking to make $$ on the side from an older aged population who reside in retirement communities like Kings Point. Or wealthy-​looking people living wherever they live. Remember there are a lot of shady characters out there, so don’t let your guard down. Ever.

Let’s face it – you go into a habitat restore looking for a sweet deal on some home hardware, maybe some furniture, or perhaps some dish ware. However, in this particular shop, the reality is quite the opposite. Today I came upon an Ikea glass top table priced at $ 329. My jaw dropped. I almost bought this exact table from Ikea (NEW) for $ 160. I’m not sure who is in charge of pricing items, but it’s a bit steep for the items they have.

An amazing find! They have such an eclectic collection of stuff and the inventory is just constantly rotating. A great find for home decorating on a budget or renovations. It’s a little hard if you find yourself needing a particular item, like– right now. But if you’ve got time to forage rather than hunt you won’t be disappointed with what you find.
The have different deals on different days too. So don’t be afraid to ask Inside about what’s marked down. But my absolute favorite thing? 10 Books for $ 1. No, that’s not a typo. 10 Books for only a buck! With how fast I read, buying (or even downloading) books has never been cost effective and the library isn’t exactly on my way to, we’ll, anywhere. But 10 books for $ 1? That I can do :)

Love love love this place! Clean, constantly getting new items, always a sale and the employees are the nicest ever!
You won’t be disappointed!
Mostly bric a brac, building supplies and furniture
Very limited clothing

I love thrift stores as much as the next person, and I’ve been to this particular store before and found some cool stuff. However, I just visited and saw two ikea lamps marked at $ 49.99 A PIECE! I don’t know how they make these prices up but that is an outrageous rip off. I happen to own that exact lamp which cost, prepare yourself, $ 8 BRAND NEW. You have got to be insane to pay that much of a markup for a cheap, widely available lamp! This makes me seriously question the legitimacy of their prices overall. And I can’t shop somewhere if they don’t fairly price an item. Sorry, Habitat, that was my last visit.

I love love LOVE this store! Better prices than the delray store and wonderful volunteers there. So nice! I have found so many random and fun things there, and every time I go the entire floor is different! That’s the best part!

This is an awesome place… Has everything you can imagine. Furniture, accessories, and even the kitchen sink… Great management and great prices… They will even pick up your donations… they are often new items donated! …new Kitchen cabinets and lighten offen come in… I go so often I started volunteering. Stop by you won’t be sorry.

Yay for the Restore. I saw some cool furniture, but alas I was just visiting Boca. Were I local, I think I’d pop in here periodically. You never know what you’ll find.

Having reached a new level of obsession about home décor and its likes, I am quite pleased to have discovered Habitat for Humanity Restore!
There are plenty of odds and ends that are waiting for a magical touch to bring life back to them as well as your home!
Literally, anything from picture frames, cabinet pieces, lighting, plumbing and etc.
Do yourself the favor, stop in and see what you feel inspired to ReStore to life!