Ways to furnish your new home for cheap

So, you’ve just moved into your first home or into a bigger home? Now you will need to furnish it! Here are some ways that you can get your new home furnished without having to spend a fortune.


Don’t furnish everything all at once
We know that you are excited about moving into your new home and want to start furnishing and decorating it right away. But don’t go overboard and start buying everything just to fill up that empty space. It is okay to have empty rooms for a while after moving it. You want to give yourself time to settle into your new home so you can figure out what furniture you really need. Focus on furnishing the key items first, like beds, a sofa, and a kitchen table with chairs.


Find a friend with a truck
Before you begin looking for free or cheap furniture, you will need to figure out a way to bring it home. Otherwise you can end up spending a lot of money on moving services to bring over the free sofa you found. Start sucking up to your friends and neighbors with trucks.


Scour freebie websites
Before buying anything, look online to see what freebies you can find. Some good starting places to look for free or dirt cheap furniture is Craigslist and Free cycle.


Don’t be shy about dumpster diving
Okay, you probably don’t want to dive right into the dumpsters, but you can find great free furniture in the trash. This is especially true if you live near a college campus. On move-out day, the students will throw away a lot of perfectly good furniture. You can also find out what day your neighborhood has curbside pickup for large items. Then take a drive and grab all the great furniture being tossed.


Visit the salvation army
The Salvation Army and other charity stores are great places to find used furniture. For upholstered furniture, you might want to rent a steam cleaning machine to make sure there aren’t any nastiest left in the furniture!


Look for Garage Sales
In the local newspaper and online, you can find ads for garage sales. Just be careful about buying a lot of junk you don’t really need. Make a wish list before hitting up the garage sales so you can focus on spending money on the things you really do need.


Think twice about particle board furniture
Particle board furniture can be very attractive and it is definitely cheaper than real wood, but you will want to think twice before you buy it. Particle board is not very sturdy. If you move frequently, the particle board furniture can easily get ruined in the move (once you take particle board furniture apart, it is hard to get it back together again). It is better to pay more now for real wood furniture but have it last a lifetime.