Following a leak* and then a pandemic, the loan closet no longer has large items of furniture in its inventory. We sometimes receive card tables and folding chairs as donations. Sometimes graduating students and other donors offer large items to the mailing list on a first come, first served basis. If you have furniture you’d like to donate, please email a photo and details to the mailing list and the students who respond to you can work with you on collection.

Local resale shops with good quality furniture 

The first three shops are all VERY crowded and close early on Saturdays around 2pm, remaining closed through Sunday.  Try to grab a morning coffee in the area and be there waiting for them to open their doors on a Saturday.

• Blue Bird Circle, 615 W Alabama, 77006
• The Guild Shop, 2009 Dunlavy, 77006
• Catholic Charity Guild Shop, 1203 Lovett, 77006
• Goodwill River Oaks, 2030 Westheimer, 77098 – furniture and lamp selection varies week to week; it is impossible to know if they will have anything until you go.

Other ways to get used furniture

• FREE stuff on HEAVY TRASH pickup days for 77005 – 3rd Monday of October, December, February, April, June, and August. In the week or weekend prior to heavy trash pickup, residents will place their old furniture out on the curb. Lots of resale shop owners drive around the neighborhood looking for items, so keep your eye out and grab your treasure as soon as you see it.

Bicycles

• If you need a bicycle, first check out Rice Bikes on campus.
• You can also search for used bicycles in the Rice Facebook groups or just Google ‘used bicycle 77005’ – Example: Cyclone Cycles, 6715 Stella Link Rd, Houston, TX 77005, (713) 668-2104

*Pandemic + Water Damage = Temporary Closure in 2020

In May 2020, while the loan closet was closed due to the pandemic, a long-term undetected leak in a unit on the floor above damaged about 40% of household items we intended to loan in the future. These items had to be discarded, and the remaining items were moved to another location. To assess the extensive structural damage, the university had to remove all the shelves and the walls were taken down to the studs. The furniture had been stored elsewhere and was not damaged by the leak.

To best protect our loan closet borrowers in the pandemic, we gave away all the undamaged inventory to Rice students and employees in December 2020 so that we could start fresh with all new items in August 2021. Any furniture that was not picked up by Rice community members was donated to the Houston Furniture Bank.

We worked out of a temporary space on the third floor of the Rice Graduate Apartments (RGA) on Bissonnet. All our stock was  brand new and pre-packed into specific boxes to speed the checkout process and provide the fewest opportunities for germs to spread.