By Gregg Suttle
September 21, 2026
Over my 22 years at Southern Methodist University, I had participated in minor furniture replacement projects and small-scale building refreshes. However, the first time I ever had to manage a full-building furniture replacement, I had absolutely no formal training for the massive logistics required.
Virginia Snider Commons was built in 1926 and last refreshed in the 1980s. It features 256 rooms with a mix of singles and doubles, layout options with suite-style rooms or community restrooms, and built-in desks on the Snider side.
Beginning the planning process in November, I needed to know exactly how much furniture to replace (spoiler: all of it). Because the building was fully occupied at the time, I had to base my initial purchase order numbers on what was listed in our StarRez occupancy software.
To select a furniture vendor for such a large purchase order, we reached out to contacts I had made at various SWACUHO conferences. We ultimately selected Southwest Contract to supply the bed ends, bed frames, desks, and dressers. They provided various room chair samples, which we used to gather feedback from residents, student leadership, and student staff to pick the winning design. Next, I had to find a new mattress supplier because our previous vendor had gone out of business. We followed the same process: gathered quotes, secured samples, and had the student staff test them out to provide feedback.
With all the orders finalized and the delivery scheduled, there was nothing left to do, correct? Wrong.
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Where was all the old furniture going?
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Could we reuse any of the mattresses? If so, where would they go?
As it turns out, some of your greatest professional connections come from the people you meet at SWACUHO. Having met Ricky Williams at the conference the year prior, I reached out to him and a few other universities to see if anyone wanted our old furniture—provided they supplied the labor and transportation to haul it away. Fortunately, a couple of schools agreed, and the removal was scheduled.
But what about the mattresses? We operate on a 9-to-10-year mattress replacement schedule, and these were about 8 years old. We sent some to the fraternities to replace the ones they inevitably damage every year. That still left us with over 200 mattresses to dispose of. We initially considered a recycling company to save them from the landfill. However, we had tried that once before, it rained on the mattresses, and the company refused to take them. Once again, SWACUHO connections saved the day, I was given a connection for an individual who agreed to remove and recycle them at no cost. It was a small team, and it took them three days to clear out the remaining 200 mattresses, but you cannot beat free.
As removal and installation day approached, I was hopeful that all my planning would pay off and everything would go smoothly. But we work in housing, and if something can go wrong, it likely will. Because the building had been occupied during planning, I had been unable to gather a true, 100 percent physical furniture count. It turned out a couple of rooms on each side required extra desks above the stock count. Thankfully, Southwest Contract stepped up and assisted us with the extra installation just prior to student move-in.
Key Takeaways for Future Renovations:
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Leverage Your Network: Reach out to connections at other universities to see if they need secondhand furniture. Also, check with your furniture supplier, as they often have great leads.
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Physically Inspect Rooms: Always do a physical room inspection to get a total count of furniture needs prior to ordering and always order a few extra pieces for buffer stock. I now utilize winter break or send out building-wide emails to schedule these quick room checks.
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Prepare for the "What-Ifs": I once had a company promise to take all our old furniture, only for them to take 30 pieces out of more than 400. Always have a backup plan ready to keep your inventory out of the landfill.
Conclusion: The Ultimate Housing Truth
Ultimately, this project taught me the most valuable lesson in student housing: expect the unexpected, hold onto your SWACUHO contacts like gold. I survived my first full-building swap without any formal training, a landfill crisis, or a surprise rainstorm ruining my mattress inventory. Moving forward, I am confident I can handle any furniture renovation project thrown my way.
Gregg Suttle
Associate Director of Operations at Southern Methodist University
