Do you love thrifting?  I do even though I don’t always have the time to go as much as I love.  Today, Rachel is sharing some great tips on how to clean up thrift store furniture without any power tools!

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Hello all! My name is Rachel and I blog about recipes, crafts, DIY and parenting a five-year-old and two-year-old twins over at Architecture of a Mom.

Are you afraid to buy furniture at thrift stores because you don’t want to go to the trouble of fixing the furniture up? Are you leery of power tools? Well, fear not! You can easily fix up wooden thrift store furniture with only household items–no big tools needed.

Step One: Assess the furniture in the store.
You need to decide if you like the lines of the furniture, if it’s the right size and style, especially if you are not looking to use power tools.If you are willing to use some hefty tools, then you can cut the furniture down and change out pieces to make a style change, but that’s not really the goal here, right? So if you like the look, the size, and the style, make sure there aren’t any major structural failures.

When I say structural issues, I mostly mean wobbling. Once you get the furniture home, make sure that you can safely use the furniture. This table I purchased was pretty solid, but typically, wobbling can be fixed by tightening screws and perhaps using some wood glue at loose dowels.

Step Three: Deal with any surface contaminants.

My table was covered in wax. In order to remove wax from a table, you need an iron and an old t-shirt.

Make sure that your iron has no water in it, and then heat up the iron to the cotton setting (medium high). Place the t-shirt down on the table, and then run the iron over the t-shirt, pressing down slightly but keeping the iron moving. Check periodically to see if you need to move to a clean section of shirt until all the wax is removed.

You can use this technique on crayon marks, too. Have other marks? Try a magic eraser. If it’s water marks, there are products that you can find at your local hardware stores that is marketed to remove them; if it doesn’t work, you may need to sand.

When I get a thrift store piece of furniture made from wood that smells “off”, the first step I take is to wipe down all surfaces with a rag dampened with vinegar.

This step is all it took for this table, but if you have drawers or more detail work, you may want to try the following: use furniture wax (like pledge) to clean the surface, sprinkle all surfaces with baking soda, or put cat litter in the drawers for a few days.

If you are not refinishing your table completely, you need to figure out how to hide and nicks, dings or chips. I have a set of blending sticks made for furniture.

I have also heard of rubbing walnut meat on chips, using crayons, or a thin dab of paint. Just be sure to match your medium to the existing wood. The chips on this piece were very minimal, and since I’m still deciding if I am going to leave it “as-is” or if I’ll paint it, I decided to skip this step entirely. 

I’m leaving my table alone for now, but if you want a new color, then if you are not going to sand the furniture, your options are limited. You can try various paints that do not need sanding and priming, such as chalk paint.