Sydney and Illawarra collection

Piano Donation Sydney: Rehome Your Piano Instead of Dumping It

Getting rid of a piano is harder than most people expect. Free listings sit for weeks. Schools turn down almost every offer. Councils often refuse to collect one at all. There is barely any resale market left for old uprights, so the usual routes rarely work.

Piano donation in Sydney works better when someone is already waiting. We match your piano to a school, church hall, community centre or family from a list we keep. Collection starts at $450, close to what a tip run costs. The difference is that your piano keeps being played.

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25+ Years in Business

Featured on Channel 9

Fully Insured

Sydney and Illawarra collection

25+ Years in Business

Featured on Channel 9

Fully Insured

Sydney and Illawarra collection

Will Anyone Take My Old Piano in Sydney?

Usually not through the places people try first. Here is why each one tends to fail.

Selling it

Old uprights have almost no resale value now. Free listings on Marketplace and Gumtree often sit for weeks with no reply, because whoever takes it still has to pay a removalist to shift 250kg out of your house.

Schools

Music departments get offered pianos constantly. Most only accept instruments in very good order, because a piano that needs restoring costs more to fix than it is worth.

Charities and op shops

Vinnies, Anglicare and similar groups take furniture, but pianos are usually beyond what they can store, move or sell on.

Your council

This one surprises people. North Sydney Council lists pianos on its excluded items list for bulky waste collection, alongside baths and commercial fridges, so they will not pick one up at all. Shoalhaven Council tells residents to ring around for rehoming first, then explains that disposal fees apply at their depots and the item goes to landfill. Rules differ across Sydney’s 33 local government areas, so check your own council, but pianos are refused far more often than they are accepted.

So what does work? Matching. We are not looking for a buyer. We are looking for someone on our list who wants a playable everyday instrument, not a collector’s piece. That is a much easier match to make, and it is why a piano that failed on Marketplace for two months can be placed in a fortnight.

How Much Does It Cost to Donate a Piano in Sydney?

$450

Starting price, paid by the person giving the piano away. It covers assessment, finding a recipient, collection and delivery.

What you pay by piano type

Piano type	No stairs
Upright	$450
Pianola	$550
Grand	$750
Baby grand	$950

Stairs, tight corners, or a long carry out to the truck. Stairs add $20 per stair.

What pushes the price up

Stairs, tight corners, or a long carry out to the truck. Grands and pianolas, which are heavier and need the legs and lid removed. Distance beyond Sydney and the Illawarra.

You will get a fixed number before anything is booked. It does not change on the day.

How that compares to the other options

What you do	What it costs	Where your piano ends up
Council waste depot	Disposal fee, and you have to get it there	Landfill
Marketplace or Gumtree	Free to list	Usually still in your lounge room
General rubbish removal	Quoted by volume, often $200 to $1,200	Landfill or tip
Rehoming with us	From $450	A Sydney school, hall or family

Being straight with you: rehoming is not the cheapest way to make a piano disappear. If all you want is the space back, a rubbish removal company will do that. What you are paying for here is the piano staying a piano.

Our Guarantee

Fixed price, given before we book

The number we quote is the number you pay.

Free assessment

Send photos, hear back within one business day, and pay nothing if you decide not to go ahead.

Insured from your doorway to the destination

That covers your home as well as the piano. Our crews carry gear to protect floors, walls and door frames.

We tell you where it went

Once your piano is delivered, we let you know which school, hall or family received it.

What We Can and Cannot Rehome

Not every piano can be rehomed. Here is roughly where the line sits.

Usually yes

It holds a tune, or will after a standard tuning
All or nearly all the keys sound
The soundboard is sound, with no major cracks
The tuning pins still hold, so it can be tuned
The cabinet is scratched, faded or worn. That is fine, and cosmetic wear does not rule anything out
It is old. Age alone is not a problem. Pianos from before 1920 get rehomed regularly

Usually no

The soundboard is cracked or has come away
The pin block has gone, so it will not hold a tune at any price
There is active borer, or serious water damage
It has been stored for years in a garage, shed or anywhere without insulation
Repairs would cost more than the piano is worth

If yours falls in the second group, we will say so upfront rather than after you have paid. We can then quote you separately for recycling or disposal, and the materials still get recovered rather than buried.

How Piano Rehoming Sydney Works

1. Send photos and your suburb

The front, the keyboard, and inside the lid where the serial number sits. We come back within one business day and tell you whether it is suitable.

2. We find the recipient

This takes one to three weeks in most cases. Uprights in good order move fastest. Large grands take longer, because the person receiving it needs the floor space.

3. We check the access before the day, not on it

How many stairs, whether there is a turn or a landing, doorway widths, lift ceiling height, and any steps in the front garden.

4. We collect and deliver

Wrapped, strapped and secured in a truck built for pianos. Insured at both ends.

Where Sydney’s Pianos End Up

Our list of people waiting for a piano includes:

Primary and high school music rooms
Community and neighbourhood centres
Families starting a child on lessons who cannot stretch to buying one
Church and parish halls
Aged care homes and retirement villages

A Lewisham Piano, Still Being Played in 2026

This piano sat in an old terrace house in Lewisham for years. It had been in the same family for a long time before that, passed down from the owner’s grandmother.

She was sad to see it go. That is the part people underestimate. The problem is rarely that you want rid of the piano. It is that the piano no longer fits the house, and there is nowhere obvious for it to go.

We found a Brazilian student living in a share house between Newtown and St Peters. She was thrilled to take it.

Getting it out of the terrace took the right gear and people who move pianos for a living. Old terraces are tight, and the piano came out without a mark on it or on the house.

It now sits in her bedroom. A bed and a piano, and not much else. Still being played in 2026, which is more than most pianos of that age can say.

If you have one like this sitting in a room you want back, that is the situation we deal with every week.

donalting piano to Brazilian student living in a share house

Pianos we have rehomed

Getting Pianos Out of Terraces, Stairs and Apartments

Most jobs that look impossible are not. They just need the right gear and the right questions asked beforehand. Tell us the number of stairs, whether there is a turn or a landing partway, the doorway widths, and the internal ceiling height of the lift if there is one. Front garden steps catch people out, so mention those too. What we deal with regularly around Sydney:

Inner west and eastern suburbs terraces

Narrow staircases with tight returns at the top. Paddington and the surrounding streets are full of them, and some of those jobs need a crane rather than a staircase.

Apartments and walk ups

In a lift building the limit is almost always the internal ceiling height, not the floor space. An upright standing on its side needs more headroom than people expect. One recent Sydney job involved carrying an upright down 35 stairs, which two of our crew managed between them.

Federation and Californian bungalows

High front steps and a verandah edge to clear.

Illawarra and Campbelltown homes

Split levels and steep driveways. On a recent Campbelltown collection our crew got the piano out without marking the floors or the walls, which is what the protective gear is for.

Suburbs and Areas We Collect From

We cover the Inner West, Eastern Suburbs, North Shore, Northern Beaches, Hills District including Kellyville, Sutherland Shire, Parramatta, Campbelltown and Macarthur, and the rest of Western Sydney.

Closer to home we cover Wollongong, Shellharbour, Kiama and the Illawarra, which is where we are based, and we regularly run north to the Central Coast and Newcastle. A recent job took a piano from Kellyville up to Ourimbah on the Central Coast.

Melbourne and Brisbane: we deliver pianos to both cities on our interstate runs. If you are in either, get in touch and we will tell you honestly whether we can help. Interstate piano removal

Rehoming, Recycling or Disposal: Which One You Need

	Rehoming	Recycling	Disposal
Best for	Still playable	Past repair, but materials worth recovering	Unsafe or unwanted, needs to go
Cost	From $450	Quoted	Quoted
What happens to it	New owner	Cast iron, copper, brass and timber recovered	Managed waste stream
How long	1 to 3 weeks	Booked to suit you	Often same day

Rehoming · Recycling · Disposal

Frequently Asked Questions

Usually not through the obvious routes. Schools decline most offers, charities cannot store them, and most councils will not collect one. Matching a piano to someone already looking for one does work, and that is what we do.

From $450, paid by the person giving it away. Price depends on the size of the piano, the access at your address, and the distance. You get a fixed quote before booking.

Most will not. North Sydney Council lists pianos as an excluded item for bulky waste collection. Shoalhaven Council will accept one at a depot, but disposal fees apply and it goes to landfill. Councils across Sydney set their own rules, so check yours, but a refusal is the common answer.

It needs to hold a tune or be able to after tuning, with a sound soundboard and tuning pins that still hold. Worn cabinets and old age are fine. Cracked soundboards, failed pin blocks, borer and water damage generally rule a piano out.

We tell you before you commit to anything, then quote separately for recycling or disposal. Recycling recovers the cast iron frame, copper, brass and hardwood rather than burying them.

You can, but most schools turn down direct offers. They are approached often and only have room for instruments in very good condition. Going through a matching service works better, because we only approach schools that have told us they want one.

Yes. Tell us the stair count, any turns or landings, doorway widths, and the lift’s internal height. We have taken pianos down 35 stairs and off upstairs balconies using a crane.

Only if the organisation receiving it has deductible gift recipient status, and you would generally need a valuation. Many schools and community groups do not have that status. Check with the recipient and with your accountant rather than assuming.

Ready to donate your piano?

Send us a photo and your suburb. Within one business day we will tell you whether your piano can be rehomed, what it will cost, and roughly where it is likely to go.

Sydney, Wollongong, the Illawarra, Newcastle and the Central Coast.

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