How much furniture/home goods are too much?

[ReadingLisa]

Hello all, so I am currently in the process of relocating from NY to Philadelphia (of course, I don't really have a place yet...) but I'm wondering, once I find a place what sort of furniture and other home goods should i get? I'm looking at one-bedroom apartments, so should I bother getting a couch or not for the living room? Should is fully-stock the kitchen or just get necessities? 

 

I currently don't have much that I would be bringing with me, so I'm looking at purchasing everything (even my bed). 

 

 

Thanks in advance.

[rising_star]

If you have absolutely nothing, you might want to consider moving into a place with a roommate so that you don't have to buy everything right away but still get to enjoy having those things. That's what I did when I started grad school and then I gradually bought enough stuff to furnish my own apartment over time.

[WriteAndKnit]

If you're going to buy new furniture, go for outlets and clearance centers (I got my bed at a mattress store's clearance center; it had been a floor model). Otherwise, go for craigslist and similar sources. The only things I'd consider buying full-price are bookshelves at Target or Ikea, since that's (comparatively) less pricey than other items. 

 

I'm lucky that my roommate owns the house and had furniture for all rooms but mine, and I already had bought my furniture. My first priority was a bed (I'd been borrowing an air mattress), then a desk, then bookshelves, and a set of wire cube shelves for crafty stuff and school supplies. I need a good comfy chair, though, that the cat doesn't already think is his, so I can do some of my reading at home.

[TakeruK]

I would upvote WriteAndKnit too if I didn't already run out of votes for the day! Both the above gave good advice. 

 

I don't think there is a "right" answer to how much is too much. It all depends on what you can afford and what you are willing to live without. My spouse and I got a lot of furniture when I first started grad school but this was because 1) it's a lot easier with two incomes and 2) my spouse isn't a student so I would say our needs/desires for comfort might be higher than the stereotypical graduate student living conditions. Personally, I also need/want a lot of creature comfort, especially after a long day at work--I want to be able to go home, feel comfortable and relax! 

 

That said, here are some tips that I think can help save money (sure, two people = two income but also some increased costs, and grad students / young adults don't generally get paid much anyways).

 

1. Kitchen sets can be really expensive. But I would personally choose to skimp on the kitchen table chairs and spend it on a couch because we spend much more time on the couch and really only sit at the kitchen table for < 1 hour per day for meals. However, I would say to get a 5 piece set (table + 4 chairs) instead of a 3-piece one since the price difference is usually something like $30. But chairs individually can cost as much as $50 each. Since we don't spend that much time on them, we just got very simple wooden ones and then added a IKEA cushion ($6ish) to make it hurt our butts less. Much cheaper than buying nice padded chairs for $50+ each. I think a couch + 4 kitchen chairs is plenty of seating if you have guests over. We also picked up a couple of folding camping/lawn chairs to increase seating when we have more people visiting. 

 

2. We chose to invest in a very nice mattress. Both of us have back issues so a crappy night's sleep can really ruin our productivity for the next day. Given that we spend almost 1/3 of our life in bed, it's worth the investment, I think. You can haggle the price on these, don't pay the ticket price. I agree with getting a floor model where possible as long as it still looks good. Given the long lifespan of a mattress, it's easier to think of it as an overall cost per year!

 

3. Ikea desks are really cheap. You can pick a surface (even a nice black glass one) for like $15 and then get some legs for $10 or so and you have a super cheap desk that looks sleek and is also easy to wipe down. 

 

4. We started with very little in the kitchen and slowly purchased items as we had more money / needed them. One kitchen/home-goods store in our area has a coupon for like 25% off an item and if you say, buy an item in May, you get a coupon that is valid in June only. So, by buying the bigger ticket items one at a time, one per month, we were able to save a lot of money.

 

5. We like to use the Ikea Expedit shelving system (the 2x4 size, not the 4x4 or 5x5 giant ones) for pretty much all of our living room furniture (bookshelves and TV stand). They are generally a lot cheaper than an actual TV stand and can hold a lot more stuff.

[zigzag]

I read apartmenttherapy.com religiously. They have great set-up photos and tips for tiny apartments, studios, etc that people have fully furnished and still made comfortable. Plus they advertise weekend sales and while some stuff is obviously out of my budget, other stuff makes sense. I'm going to be like 40 min outside philly proper, so I'm going to definitely go thrifting/hit estate sales. 

[LittleDarlings]

I am moving into my first 1 bed apt and so far I bought a bed (frame, headboard, 2 night stands, a dresser and mirror) from a garage sale. I have a computer desk and chair, a coffee table and 2 end tables.  My parents are giving me their couch and I just need a mattress and dining room table.  I say go to garage sales and thrift stores that is what I did.  

[GeoDUDE!]

Pro tip: Only buy what you can afford to replace or move. 

[danieleWrites]

Two words: Garage Sale. You can get some decent stuff at cut-rate prices. You just need some sort of truck to move things. You can rent those, like the small U Haul kind.

Protip: never buy a used mattress. Ever.

Protip 2: sofas can carry bedbugs, too.

Also, those rent-to-own places = massive ripoff. If you do without for a while and put the "payment" you'd be making aside, you'd be able to outright pay for the furniture, or better, much cheaper in a relatively short amount of time with no payments.

As for how much furniture you'll need? That depends on the place you end up getting and what you need for comfort. Your home should have something that helps you destress.

[fuzzylogician]

I bought a good mattress because that was important to me. Bringing home a used mattress or couch is a big no-no where I am at because of bed bugs. That aside, you can get everything used and even for free if you move in around the time other students will be moving out. If there is a big "moving day" when everybody's lease starts/ends, you can find lots of things for cheap or even for free if you just walk around your neighborhood. If you're patient, you could probably furnish your entire house that way. 

[themmases]

I think well-chosen kitchen things can really save you a lot of money. Crock Pots, something to make coffee or tea in, and containers for leftovers/bringing lunches will all definitely save you money. They don't have to be the nicest, and a lot of them can actually be thrifted. For years my favorite spatula came from a box of abandoned kitchen stuff that the previous tenants of my house left behind. When I first moved out on my own, I got an Ikea kitchen in a box and I still have most of that stuff ~7 years later.

 

Furniture depends more on your personal preferences and how you like to spend time at home. For me, bed > couch/chairs > shelves > any other surface. My partner and I use our kitchen table as more counter space, and eat dinner sitting on the floor at a coffee table we set like we are dolls at a tea party. I study and use my computer at that table too. My partner's employer also has excellent desk chairs and cheap desks, and they all seem to like it.

 

I've had really good luck with Ikea. Every piece of furniture I've bought from them (except maybe bed slats-- get the thick cheap flat ones, not the curved ones, if you must) has lasted me a long time even I sometimes bought the cheapest or ugliest thing. On the other hand, I got a Target sofa when I moved into my current apartment that didn't last a year.

[Eigen]

Craigslist!

 

And a good mattress. I'm getting old enough that I can really tell the difference, and a good nights sleep is oh-so-important. 

 

But really, it's a very personal thing. I've been married for 8 years, and so we've had quite some time to accumulate stuff, we have a full house worth of books, bookshelves, furniture, kitchen items, etc. 

 

I have friends who are the same age that have maybe 2 boxes of stuff they'd move with them when they leave grad school. 

 

If you cook a lot, and enjoy cooking, then a fully outfitted kitchen can be worthwhile. 

 

If you like to have people over, and want places for them to sit, then plan around that. 

 

But I'm a huge fan of buying good quality furniture second-or third hand on craigslist- we've bought almost nothing new, and all of it is solid, non-particle board, wood furniture that we like and got really cheap. 

[whatsinmind]

If you are living by yourself, I would go with the bare minimum and gradually buy whatever else as you settle in and realize you need them. You may only live in your new apartment for 1-2 years, and the less stuff to move later, the better. 

 

In addition to craigslist, you should check out if your university has a page to sell things to other students. Many universities have a cluster of Facebook groups where you need a .edu email to access them. "Free & For Sale" has students (usually undergrads) selling their things at the end of the year. Usually, the items on sale are 1-2 years old if they are from undergrads, in close proximity to the university, and dirt cheap because undergrads are more concerned about giving them away as opposed to getting a good deal. 

[Munashi]

As others have noted, buy only what you would be able to move in a couple of years.  When I finished my undergrad and moved to LA to work for 2 years, I bought all of my furniture from Ikea.  I got a mattress, sofa, small kitchen table, a nightstand, a tv/bookshelf, coffee table, and some kitchen wares (glasses, plates, etc) for about $1500 total.  I ended up taking pretty much all of that with me when I moved for my grad program (literally last week).

 

Since it was all relatively cheap, I wouldn't have minded selling it and re-buying when I arrived.  A series of other circumstances lead to me needed to rent a truck anyway so I ended up just taking it with me, but I wouldn't necessarily recommend spending a ton of money on furniture that you might not want in 2 years or that you end up needing to get rid of.  Set up with your essentials first, and if you feel like you need something else, just buy it later.