What We Learned in Social Media This Week: Forget property, flip furniture instead

What We Learned in Social Media This Week: One woman’s trash is another woman’s cash-making side hustle.

Could you be sitting on easy money? Furniture flippers have found a lucrative niche.

Welcome to What We Learned in Social Media this Week, a new weekly column by The Australian’s technology desk, highlighting the weird, wacky and sometimes painfully obvious yet overlooked things we learn on social media each week.

In our first column, we’re kicking off with a new hobby we stumbled across over the weekend which is sure to turn some financially hungry heads.

Some investors swear by house flipping, long touted as a fruitful side business turning renovation works into hundreds of thousands of dollars.

@furnitureflippingmom

BEFORE & AFTER ##furnitureflip##furnitureflipping##thrifted##flippingfurniture##glowup##upcycle##furnituremakeover##furniturerestoration##freeflippers

♬ How You Like That - BLACKPINK

In recent months house flipping and renovation work more generally has found legs on social media app TikTok, as tradespeople and investors show off before and after pictures of their done-up homes, bypassing weeks and month’s worth of hard work that got them there.

This is, of course, wonderful for those who can afford to do so. But for those who can’t, there may be another entry into the market, one which in some cases can be done for little more than the cost of the materials.

Meet furniture flipping.

While the art of restoring furniture is not new, making a profit out of cheaply bought furniture from Facebook marketplace, Gumtree and kerbside may be.

This is one of many so-called new “side hustles” the entrepreneurial types are taking up in a bid to gain financial freedom.

@furnitureflippingmom

do you want to give an old vase a makeover!? ##bakingsodapaint##vasemakeover##furnitureflipping##glowup##diy

♬ Lottery - K CAMP

TikTok user Lindsey VanVlymen is one of those people. The DIY enthusiast, who posts videos tagged #trashtocash and #kerbside under the username FloridaFlipsters, has won over more than 150,000 followers since she began using TikTok to showcase her work in April last year.

She and her husband drive around scouting furniture on rubbish collection days and the outcome looks a lot like later selling those items for several hundred dollars minus the cost of supplies.

Another furniture flipper is Mica Sansaver, who goes by the social media alias Furnitureflippingmom. On TikTok and Instagram, she shows keen enthusiasts how to creature textured finishes on household items like a vase, with little more than white paint and baking soda.

VanVlymen and Sansaver aren’t alone in the new venture. The hashtags #furniturerestoration and #furnitureflipping have been used 341,000 and 17,300 times respectively on Instagram.

As for onselling, it seems the real trick involves many props. Furniture flippers list their items with pictures of plants, vases, carpet and notepads among other accessories to give the buyer an idea of how it might look in their home.

@floridaflipsters

Can you guess what it sold for? ##curbside##diy##flip

♬ Sedona - Houndmouth

So, the next time you go to throw out that old drawer, perhaps ask yourself whether it could be flipped. Or at least list the thing for sale online so another furniture flipper can do just that.