how to furnish your place on a tight budget

How to Furnish Your Place on a Tight Budget.

Need to move on and get a place of your own? Or maybe you just want to set up house without breaking a meager budget. Furnishing your place on a tight budget is not only possible but it's also a very creative exercise that can set you in good stead for mindful purchasing for years to come.

Steps.

1. Begin by making three lists.

List the things you already have.

List the things you absolutely need, such as a place to sleep and some way to cook food.

Make a wish list. Go crazy here: for example, "I want a large white dresser in French rococo style."

2. See how far items on the first list can cover for items on the second two lists. This will immediately reduce some of your costs if existing things can do double acts, such as a bed with a bland cover and the right pillows along the back can be a couch, and so forth.

Throw rugs can become curtains, and bedspreads turned into drapes.

Paint on old pieces of furniture can make them seem new again, as well as suggesting new possibilities for ways of reusing them.

Throw slip covers over any chair and suddenly the chair becomes respectable again.

3. Start searching. Don't try to buy everything at once. If you snatch the first stick of furniture you find, you pay more than if you wait and look for bargains. When you buy or find any items, think beyond their immediate appearance. You can always paint or alter them. Paint a hideous ecru dresser white and add rococo touches.

4. Consider free furniture. Look on Yahoo Groups for Freecycle. Find one that serves a place near you, for example, Michigan Freecycle. Freecycle is a group that uses email to hook up people who want to give or get something for free. You can also look at Freecycle's official website at Freecycle.org.

Look on Craigslist.com. If you open your local Craigslist under "for sale" you can find a subcategory "free." This is a great place to find freebies.

Ask your family and friends for furniture that they don't need anymore.

Get on Facebook and Twitter and let people know you're willing to take their old stuff off their hands for free. Be specific about what you need and let them know it's for a good cause!

Don't neglect the chance of trading or bartering your skills in return for furniture and appliances.

5. Go curb shopping. Look for things left on the curb for pick up. Again, with these three entries, think of the long term. College kids leave stuff at the end of a school year, and other people may throw out perfectly good furniture when they buy new furniture.

Designated trash days can be a great time to pick up much needed furniture.

Visit recycling depots at municipal landfills. Many of these places keep furniture, appliances and other household items that are still in good condition and sell them for very low prices.

6. Look for discounted furniture. If you don't succeed with Freecycle, Craigslist or your Facebook friends, then you could look at Craigslist in the "for sale" category or visit discounts stores.

Go the resale route. Look at thrift stores such as Goodwill and the Salvation Army.

Visit secondhand furniture stores in your area.

Don't neglect normal furniture showrooms. Ask them about their floor stock, damaged stock, and sales items. Ask for deep discounts!

There are also unfinished furniture stores with inexpensive unpainted and unvarnished items.

Tips.

Getting rid of things is just as important as getting things. A chair breaks, or you suddenly find yourself with three useless toasters. Recycle stuff you can't use, or let another person have a chance to fix it. Hoarding is dangerous and keeps you from having real furnishings.

See if there are any garage sales in your neighborhood. You might fine something nice for a good price.

Be flexible. If you want bookshelves, you might use wooden boxes, or milk crates, or bricks and boards. I have even seen books neatly stacked in color-coordinated pyramids, with no further structure needed.

Use your gifts in your quest. Do you know how to sew or weave? You can make sheets into fitted cloths or rugs. Can you saw or solder? You will be able to use more of what you find. You can always learn one of these skills from courses.

If you live in the UK and are on benefits, the Job Centre will give you vouchers you can use in certain shops for furniture.

Januari 23, 2020

how to buy furniture on a budget

How to Buy Furniture on a Budget.

High-quality furniture is possible to find on a budget. You just need to know where to look. There are many options available for you to find affordable furniture without sacrificing comfort or quality. While retail stores often have holiday sales and clearance discounts, you can also look through the inventories of thrift stores, salvage/recycled stores, local vendors with garage sales, and online trading sites.

Method 1 Buying Used Furniture.

1. Seek out yard sales. If you are on the hunt for furniture and see a yard sale sign, stop by! They may have what you are looking for. Furniture that is sold at yard sales is cheaper than what you could find anywhere else, either because they do not know its worth, or they just want to get rid of it regardless of price.

Do not be afraid to haggle. You will often be able to talk the seller into offering you a lower price.

2. Go to thrift stores regularly. There are trustworthy thrift store chains like Goodwill, but there are also many smaller local thrift stores that may have what you are looking for. Thrift store inventories change regularly depending on what is donated each day, so make a habit out of stopping by to find hidden treasures. When you go to browse their inventories, be prepared to haul the item away yourself.

3. Consider salvaged items. Stores like Habitat for Humanity accept gently used donated furniture and sell it for a fraction of what you could find elsewhere. Salvaged items are used by definition, but some effort has been put into refurbishing them. These pieces typically have a more traditional and rustic aesthetic.

Know what you’re looking for when you go to a salvage store, and don’t be afraid to put in a little effort to spruce up a piece of furniture. Cleaning it and adding a new coat of paint can transform the furniture into the perfect piece for your home.

4. Sign up for estate sales. There are several sites you can use to sign up for alerts when there is an estate sale in your general vicinity. Estate sales are the ideal place to find matching furniture sets at reduced prices. These furniture items are usually of a higher quality and were taken care of by their previous owners.

Method 2 Shopping Online.

1. Check local advertisements. There are a variety of sites at your disposal to find individuals in your area who are looking to sell their used furniture. Sites like Craigslist or Freecycle organize vendors by location and let you see what items are available near you. To purchase something from these sites, just contact the vendor and agree on a time, place, and payment method. Bring a vehicle that can transport the furniture.

Don’t forget to check social media sites, as many people advertise garage sales on sites like Facebook.

2. Browse Internet-based retailers. Sites like Amazon or eBay receive their inventories from many different vendors, meaning they have a variety of styles and prices to choose from. While you will not be able to inspect the item in person, you can rely off of user reviews left by people who have bought and used it before.

Sites like eBay often have furniture for sale from companies that have liquidated their offices.

3. Check retailer sites to compare prices. Shopping online is a great way to find cheaper deals, but take some time to compare prices with the furniture that you could buy directly from a retailer in your area. By sampling the prices at a few stores, you can figure out how much something is worth and how much would save by purchasing it elsewhere.

Method 3 Buying Directly from Stores.

1. Shop seasonally. Sales happen all the time at retailers, especially around the holidays. While major holidays have their own sales, furniture retailers have especially large sales around President’s Day, Labor Day, and Memorial Day. Take advantage of these sales to score larger furniture items and matching sets.

January and July are also good times to shop for furniture because retail stores rotate their inventories at this time, greatly reducing prices to get rid of excess stock.

You can usually find discounts at the end of the season. For instance, patio furniture is often on sale at the end of August.

2. Check retail store websites. Here you can check specific product information like size and user reviews and figure out if you want it as well. You can also find many discounted deals by looking at the online site than you would by walking around the physical store. Websites will often have a page dedicated to featuring their current sales and limited time offers.

3. Use coupons. Furniture coupons can be acquired in a variety of ways. You can pay a subscription service to either newspapers or magazines that could potentially have them. You can also find them for free online on the store’s website.[10] Certain websites like RetailMeNot will hunt down coupons and offers for you and let you know when your items are on sale.

You can find extra coupons during holidays, such as for “Back to School” sales.

4. Search for clearance sales. Clearance sales are different from standard discounted sales because they mean the vendor is looking to get rid of the entirety of particular stocks to make room for newer products. These products will be sold at greatly discounted prices, knowing that the low prices will attract more buyers.

Tips.

Take a truck or van if you buy furniture from a rental storage company, as it is up to the customer to haul the furniture. If you shop for furniture at garage sales or thrift stores, make arrangements with someone to load and haul your purchases.

Buy only used and discount furniture you really like. If you buy a piece of furniture that you dislike, you may end up replacing the piece in only weeks or months.

If you buy furniture online or if it gets shipped to you, keep a record of the sale, payment, and any communication with the seller to ensure you receive the item as it was advertised.

Warnings.

Buyer beware! You get what you pay for, which means that if you pay very little, there is a decent chance that the quality of your furniture will be unsatisfactory.

If an advertisement is too good to be true, it just might be. Before going to pick up a piece of furniture, take some precautions to ensure you are not getting scammed. Call ahead, ask for a different picture, anything that will prove your vendor has that object.

Be skeptical of furniture that is left by the curb with a “Free” sign. The item may be broken, moldy, or have bugs. If the item has been there for a while, chances are it has also been rained on as well.

Januari 27, 2020