Outlet House challenges the norm of how furniture is treated in the UK. What blind spot in the system are you addressing?

We see it first hand, handling & sourcing every piece ourselves - so much solid, well made furniture ends up discarded simply because it no longer fits a style trend. Meanwhile people replace it with lower grade or flat pack items that won’t last & this only compounds the cycle of waste. Our work is about breaking that pattern, protecting the most landfill unworthy pieces from being lost & ensuring they continue to live in homes where they’ll be valued.

Many of the pieces we save have already lasted decades & with the right care, they’ll last decades more.​​​

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Sustainability has become a trend. How do you ensure Outlet House delivers substance rather than being part of that?

We’ve always believed substance speaks far louder than trend & the proof is in the mission. Outlet House was founded over 10 years ago now, long before sustainability became the "buzzword" it is today. When we first started out, second hand furniture was often dismissed as low quality, even though the quality was far higher than much of what’s mass produced. What we were doing a decade ago is what people are now calling ‘sustainable’, so for us it wasn’t a marketing angle, it was our honest, every day work & always has been. We trust that speaks more clearly than any trend led campaign ever could.​​​

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Behind the numbers, tens of thousands of chairs saved, thousands of homes furnished. What philosophy guides your decisions?

Our philosophy is simple & that's that new isn’t always better, in fact, it’s often worse. If a table has already lived forty years & is still standing, that says more about its integrity than anything you could buy flat packed or mass produced overseas. We believe in keeping those pieces alive, because doing so reduces the demand for short life products & that alone makes it more valuable. But it's important to mention that it’s not just about utility, there’s also a cultural shift we aim to encourage - which is finding pride in owning something with a past, for example a table that has already been part of many family meals holds a story & carrying that story forward adds a deeper meaning.

 

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From your perspective, what are mainstream retailers getting wrong when it comes to sustainability?

Anyone who’s spent time in mainstream retail knows, but for those who don’t, the reality is that perfectly good returns go straight into skips & on to landfill. “Sustainable” ranges are often launched as marketing exercises but none of that changes the fact that the bulk of their products are still mass produced, designed for short lifespans & destined for landfill. Some companies are even paying into external schemes just so they can wear a green badge, but it has nothing to do with their own practices. As a business built entirely on reuse, that concerns us. It shouldn’t be acceptable to present customers with the illusion of responsibility, when true progress lies in reducing waste at its source. Of course every business is different, but from what we've experienced across mainstream retail, the gap between marketing & meaningful action is still far too wide.

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Some may argue that scaling sustainable businesses risks compromising their values. How do you approach growth while protecting your integrity?

Growth has to stay in balance with the values that the business is built on, it's that simple. We’ve lived through moments where scaling certain services like painting & refinishing at volume brought in revenue, yes - but it also added overheads, waste & strain that ultimately made the model less sustainable & purposeful overall. That experience showed us that sustainability is as much about how you operate as what you sell & that is why our focus continues to be on efficiency & clarity - we are consistently streamlining our systems, staying true to reuse & avoiding growth for growth’s sake.​​​

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What role do you see for businesses like Outlet House in shaping how consumers think about value & waste?

Our role is to reframe value because too often people equate ‘new’ with ‘worthwhile’ & ‘used’ with ‘lesser’, so our work is to try & reverse that. A mass produced piece that looks pristine today may collapse in a couple of years, while a handmade chair that has already endured decades could serve another fifty. By saving, sorting & presenting those pieces in a way that people want to live with, we are showing that reuse isn’t second best but it's actually the smarter, more meaningful choice. Most consumers don’t see the sheer volume of furniture that ends up heading for waste, but we do. Our role is to frame reuse so clearly that people see it as the better option, because once it’s understood, it has the power to reshape the whole system.

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Looking five years ahead, what impact do you want Outlet House to have on the industry as a whole?

We’d like to see reuse become the first instinct & that change requires re framing what people value. Ideally, the industry & consumers will start to think more creatively & keep the solid table, refresh it with paint or styling, instead of mindlessly replacing it, consider adapting first. Much like fashion has embraced second hand & vintage in recent years, furniture needs to follow the same path. If Outlet House helps accelerate that mindset, then we’ve done our job because If we can help reframe the culture then the impact goes far beyond the pieces we handle.

Customers won’t just be buying furniture, they’ll be part of changing how our industry as a whole values resources.

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Outlet House proves that sustainability isn’t just a trend - it’s an ongoing practice.

For customers that means that every purchase is both a choice for their home & a conscious act of resistance against waste.

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