How to furnish your house for less than you think
My husband and I moved into our beautiful 4 bedroom 4 bathroom 2600 SQFT home from a 900 SQFT 2 bedroom 2 bathroom apartment. We are a family of 6 and yes we lived in a 2 bedroom apartment for 1 year to save up for our house. When we were in the apartment we had 2 sets of bunk beds in the kid's room like barracks. When we moved we tossed the second bunk bed. When we got here we had a sofa and a love seat my dad had given us, a queen sized bed that my husband bought before we met, an old lazy boy that my husband refused to part with, a bunk bed for the boys and a twin sized bed for our youngest daughter that had been my oldest daughters and was kept in storage until we moved.
Our new home had 3 living rooms and we only had furniture for 1. We had maxed out our credit limit at the furniture store to buy our new mattress and we gave the old queen-sized bed to our oldest daughter. When we closed on the house we mentioned our predicament to our real estate agent. She suggested we join a facebook page for the community. She mentioned that there were a few FB online garage sales for the town we had just moved into. She said that she was showing a house that was beautify decorated and when she asked the owner where she bought her furniture she said she got most of it from online yard sales. My husband was all over that. The day after we moved in we bought a huge sectional sofa for $75!
The couch was bought on an online line sale, the table and rug came from consignment stores.
A lot of people just want to get rid of perfectly nice things because they upgraded or are moving. If you ever have moved you know that's the bast time to decide how much you like something. Every inch in a moving truck counts and if you never really liked that coffee table you leave it behind or put it on line to see if anyone wants to come take it for free. Sometimes people don't want to e bothered with taking it to the Goodwill and it's so much easier to have someone come to your house and take the unwanted item away and pay YOU for it.
I joined a few more of these pages and slowly started accumulating more stuff. I would check out the Goodwill anytime I was in the area and got a lot of really nice stuff. If you want to be successful at furnishing your home this way there are a few things I wish someone had told me. So today I'm going to share them with you to save you some time, gas money and headache.
1. If you see something is posted as free and the address is in the post... that shit is most likely already gone.
Once I drove 20 minutes away for an ottoman and by the time I got there someone was already loading it into their car. I have learned that if it has been posted within 20 minutes of you seeing it and is more than 20 minutes away, the odds of you getting there before someone else does are slim to none. You win some you lose some, a few months ago I got a patio table with 6 chairs and an umbrella for free because I was able to jump in my car and go. The family was getting rid of this brand new patio set because they were mving to a different state and they didn't have room for the patio set at their new house. They tried to sell it but no one wanted to pay for it at the beginning of fall so they just put it out on the curb and put an add on Facebook with their address. If you see a post with free stuff and the address is in the post, google it to see how far it is. If the time that it's been posted exceeds drive time don't bother. Unless they are willing to hold items for you, it's not worth it.
Most of these free items I got from Facebook. The table I found near the dumpster at our old apartment. It was missing the glass and I found this glass top at the Goodwill for $3. The Life magazine cover I ordered off line and the frame was free. It had a print in it but I just took it out and replaced it with this poster.
2. Do not be afraid to haggle. (Closed Mouths Don't Get Fed)
It's hard to tell who's trying to make a profit and who just wants it gone. The most motivated sellers are people who are moving. They are the most likely to give you the best deals. If you see a post for a moving sale, GO! They are selling items that they do not want to take with them. They are willing to cut you a deal on most items as long as you can haul it away before their move. Also, don't be afraid to ask if they are trying to unload something you have been looking for.
Some people will ask a lot of money for items that are not worth what they are asking. They say dumb shit like "I paid this much for this USED thing." I don't care what you paid for it when it was new, do you need it gone or are you willing to sit on it until you find a sucker? It's best not to deal with these types but sometimes they get tired of sitting on it and just take the only offer they got because no one was willing to pay what they were asking. The value of something is whatever someone is willing to pay for it. The worst they can say is no but if you don't ask you'll never know the answer.
The seller of the cabinet was originally asking $100. I asked if she'd take $40 for it and she said the lowest she would take was $80. I said thank you and thought nothing more of it. The next day she contacted me and said she would take $50 for it as her husband did not want to carry the cabinet back up the stairs and she wants it out of her living-room.
3. Take measurements of your vehicle and ask for measurements of the item.
I missed out on some beautiful sofa's because the trunk door on my SUV was not wide enough. If you do not have a truck your ability to move things is limited but not having a truck does not mean you are dead in the water. I once fit 2 twin mattresses in a Suzuki Sidekick so don't just give up if you don't have a truck. Be sure that when you measure the space in your vehicle you first measure the size of the door or the opening to your trunk. You may have a lot of room in the trunk of your car but if you cannot fit it in there you're done.
We originally bought this couch for the basement but unfortunately when we got it into the house it was just too large to fit through any of the entryways to the basement. So we moved the couch we had up here into the basement.
4. If you are unsure of making a purchase, ask questions and if needed ask for more pics.
Nothing is more awkward than arranging a meeting, having cash in hand and showing up to find that the item you were going to purchase is a piece of junk. You either have to walk away entirely or try and negotiate a new price. Most people will not want to haggle with you once you've set up the meeting and it can be awkward as hell. I ended up with some beat up old hockey sticks once because the picture was misleading. The pic showed a bunch of them and a few looked good and a few not so much. By the time I got there the good ones were gone and only the crap ones remained. The lady selling them was super nice and it was too awkward to back down. The price was low but I still overpaid considering the condition they were in.
5. Double check the post for info and double check your messages for errors but send a message as soon as possible.
When you ask a question that is answered in the post people tend to get a little annoyed and not want to deal with you. I was selling a nightstand once and this woman asked me for measurements when they were already included in my post. I ignored her message and just went on to the next one. When you are sending a message with an inquiry about the item make sure you use proper spelling and grammar. Some people might not want to deal with you if they think you're a dummy.
All pages and sites have different rules. On FB you can comment and the person who posted it may or may not consider you first in line but if you comment and send them a message you have doubly secured your place in line. With apps like Let Go and websites like Craigslist you only have the option to message and most people will go by a first come first served basis.
6. Be nice to everyone on the page, even if you are not dealing with them directly.
Sometimes people can be just plain rude and sometimes other members of the group see it and remember. I remember a particular case where a man was rude to someone else in the group. I went to his page and he had a lot of Nazi propaganda posted. I never forgot his face and always remembered I did not want to buy anything from this guy or sell anything to him.
7. Be patient
It took me a little over a year to do both living-rooms and I still have not done our bedroom. The kids are all set up but my husband and I have been sleeping on a mattress on the floor for about a year and a half. The living-rooms took some time because I didn't want it to be too eclectic. I started planning my color scheme around a painting (that I have not yet acquired) and kept an eye out for any items that I liked that would match the painting. Which brings me to my next point.
Our youngest daughter's bedroom. The bed was a hand-me down, the dresser and side table I got for free on an online yard sale.
8. Have a plan but be flexible.
As mentioned in the prior tip choose a color scheme that you like and make sure you find what might suit your look and style best. I love the look of antique and Victorian furniture and was always on the lookout for anything that suited that look that was the color I needed. I knew I wanted dark woods and green and gold were my colors. Keep in mind that you might not get exactly what you want but you might not get exactly what you want if you went shopping for new furniture either. It's best to keep an open mind.
9. Do not buy anything that does not go with your vision.
Although it is important to be flexible buying something you don't need or really want can just get you in trouble. You can always try and sell the item if it ends up not working out but most times you need to be willing to sit on it for a while unless you price it to sell and that might sometimes involve taking a loss. Not to mention that this is a cash game. If you spend your cash on something you didn't really want, you might miss out on something that you really did want and could not purchase because you're low on cash.
The table and buffet were my grandmother's. I got the rug from an online yard-sale and we got the chairs from the Goodwill.
10. Make a budget and stick with it.
When I say make a budget I really just mean don't overpay. Do your research on a similar item and make sure that you are not being ripped off for something used that you can buy brand new for $20 more that will be delivered for free. Say to yourself I will not pay more than a designated amount for an item and stick with that. I have never pair more than $20 for any chair in my house. Some were cheeper than others but if I'm going to pay more than $20 for a chair, it's going to be a brand new chair.
Next chapter of this Blog will be bedrooms. Stay tuned.
