ReLove is on a mission to “break cycles of intergenerational disadvantage” by diverting good-quality furniture from landfill.

In 2019, Ren Fernando and Ben Stammer – two friends from Sydney – were on the hunt for practical ways of giving back to their community. When they noticed an increasing volume of high-quality furniture discarded on neighbourhood curbs, they saw their opportunity.

The following year, the pair set out to connect women starting over after domestic abuse with donated furniture. They thought they’d help just five women furnish their homes, but quickly discovered a critical gap in support services for people moving into safe housing.

“You can’t just get a roof over your head, you’ve got to make it a home,” Fernando tells Australian Design Review.

ReLove holds a huge inventory of high-quality goods

In 2021, ReLove was born. Serving a dual purpose, the charity rescues used furnishings from corporate partners and the community, reducing waste while supporting women and children impacted by domestic violence, people experiencing homelessness and those coming out of incarceration. The ReLove Free Store is a safe place where they can come to choose what they need to start over, from furniture to household essentials.

“What we’ve created is this real environment where dignity and choice are at the centre of healing and recovery,” Fernando says. “ We’re really creating a moment where people’s voices are heard.”

ReLove has since provided over $10 million worth of rescued furniture to families in need.

Making housing a home

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, more than 120,000 people were estimated to be experiencing homelessness on Census night in 2021. The ABS categorises homelessness as not just the absence of a roof overhead, but as ongoing housing instability and a lack of security and privacy in one’s place of living.

Fernando says the gift of receiving furniture for those in crisis means more than just a bed to sleep in or a table to sit at.

“ To be honest, you only need to walk in and see a woman and her children sleeping on a bed made of clothes or on an air mattress and you realise that this is a very big problem for breaking cycles of poverty and violence and breaking cycles of intergenerational disadvantage,” Fernando explains.

The ReLove warehouse, offering plenty of space for pre-loved goods

The ReLove Free Store

After four years of “borrowing” various warehouse spaces, ReLove established its free store to purposefully guide clients through the experience.

The process begins with a welcome from a ReLove volunteer, who learns about the client’s needs and new home layout. At this stage, clients use a virtual shopping cart to select essential items that they “don’t need to touch and feel”, Fernando explains.

“What we’re trying to do is make sure that when people come through our door, we are knocking off all the things to reduce the overwhelm,” Fernando says. “ We’re also building up that little moment of excitement. Things have already started happening. You’re already getting your cart and you’re putting 15 odd items in before you’ve even walked into the shop.”  

Clients then move through the warehouse and spend one hour selecting everything they’ll need to furnish their new space.

After they have chosen the bigger pieces of furniture like sofas and kitchen tables, clients are guided towards the homeware section. This is the point at which Fernando says people get excited and “ start to think that this is real”.

“ They feel that this is a new life that is happening,” she says. “They’re choosing cushions, artwork, candles and decorative plates and all those little bits of bric-a-brac which just gives people that feeling of ownership.”

A huge array of homeware goods and accessories, waiting to go to another loving home.

Within 24 hours of a client’s appointment at the free store, ReLove moves the selected furniture into their new homes.

‘An environmental solution to a social need’ 

Australia generates 30,000 tonnes of commercial furniture waste, with 95 percent of this ending up in landfill every year, according to the Australasian Furnishing Association. ReLove works at scale to save furniture from hotel and property industries, retailers and the community that would otherwise go to landfill.

Fernando underlines that ReLove “never say[s] no to style. We say no to quality”.

“ What we really offer here is this really eclectic mix of furniture and homewares,” she says.“ As long as we are putting things into the store that are of good quality… it’s going to last for longer and it’s going to stay in circulation for longer.”

ReLove offers a large range of pre-loved designer seating and chairs

ReStory social enterprise resells designer furniture

Sourcing high-quality, pre-owned furniture from their supplier partners and corporate defits, ReStory by ReLove is a new social enterprise that offers the general public a chance to purchase pre-loved, designer pieces for themselves.

“ We’re partnering with companies that understand that they have an environmental problem that we can help support them with, but also [companies] that deeply care about wanting to be able to make social change,” Fernando says.

With a store in their Alexandria warehouse, a pop-up shop in Surry Hills and a complementary online store, ReStory allows customers and those in the design industry to support reuse and help bolster the positive social impact of ReLove.

Fernando tells ADR that every $500 purchase at ReStory funds a single-person home with $7000 to $10,000 worth of ReLove furniture. Meanwhile, every $1000 purchase funds a home for a mother and children with $10,000 to $15,000 of ReLove furniture.

To learn more information on the ReStory store, head to the website here.

Imagery supplied.