Ds has been offered a flat but he doesn't have furniture.

[Yellowrose57]

My son has been offered social housing.i can help him with sone things. But not larger items.

I'm hoping i can find a charity of some sort that sells 2nd hand furniture. As we could probably get most things he needs under one roof and its likely they will deliver.

Just to ad British heart foundation and simlar are to expensive. We can't use free cycle . Facebook anything that requires collection . We do not drive or have access to a car. So it makes sense to use a charity

So bit of a long shot but does anyone know of charity's that sell 2nd hand furniture in the southeast london area..

Thanks 😊

He can sit on his bed or on a chair, he doesn't need a sofa if he can't afford one.

Honestly as long as he has a bed and a few kitchen essentials he will figure out what else he needs. I looked at renting a furnished house when I left my ex. I was panicking about having an empty house as I had 2 DC with disabilities. A friend advised me not to so thankfully I never. Social services were aware of my circumstances and offered no help. Plus it will be easier to decorate and get flooring down with less furniture.

don't no about London but in Scotland am Edinburgh you can apply for white goods etc from the council ether free or you can get a loan you pay back but stuff becomes yours its call a Scottish welfare fund here maybe something the same down there

He just needs to work and sort things as he can afford to buy them. That’s surely what everyone does when first starting out.

Dh and I had literally nothing but our clothes when we got our first place together. We bought a £250 mattress from Dreams on finance (the man looked so sad for us having to do the finance application 😂) and put that on the floor. We got an old tv from a family member for the lounge and sat on the floor for 4 months because we didn’t have a chair or sofas. The house came with like a pot and a few forks and we cobbled together some plates and cups we’d used on camping trips in the past.

We ate dinner every night from our camping bowls on the floor of the lounge. We eventually got a sofa and a few other things (18 years later, still have that sofa we bought with a credit card from IKEA, it’s no longer our main one, but it’s seen the births of 2 babies and a good chunk of their childhoods).

Is there a reason why your DS is not looking for furniture himself? Why does he need his mum to do it for him? This can be the first step in becoming an independent person. Having to find second hand furniture for an empty flat is an excellent life skill to develop.

I would email the general council customer service and ask if they know of any organisations that deliver free goods. In my area there is an independent non-profit that collect used items within the community, stores everything in a warehouse, people in need like your DS get an appointmrnt to pick one of each item for free house starter package and their chosen package is delivered to them. I think its bed, couch, white goods. Then they have a cheap shop for ongoing purchases.

So worth asking the council if such an organisation exists within your community.

Failing that he can use a leftover amount from wages or benefits each month paying a good man with a van service to collect free things from gumtree and facebook.

He can initially live without a fridge by shopping each day, in hot weather buy a bag of ice per day and fill a basin with water and ice and put meat and dairy in to stop food going off until dinner time. If your close enough he can bring you his washing every 3-4 days. Maybe you can stretch to a microwave as a housewarming gift, we once couldnt afford an oven and ate microwave meals like ready meals or baked potatoes for 4 months - it wasnt fun and put me off microwave cooking for years but it can be done. Things can slowly be acquired month by month. Id say prioritise fridge, then an oven and then finally a washing machine. After white goods then sourcing funiture for living room and bedroom stuff.

He'll be fine, lots of us started from scratch and many still do like kids ageing out of care with no family. Its a harder path but can be done slowly.

Sounds like financial advice and support would be more useful right now than furniture as he already has a bed.

same!

we literally had nothing. We then got donated these gold chairs from someone and I loved them. It took us 4 years to buy a sofa!

This is a great suggestion. A friend who lives in a student area always goes looking at the literal mountain of stuff that students leave behind and has pretty much kitted out his house with it. Chairs, kitchenware, lamps, all sorts.

I'm not sure a sofa is a priority for someone with a limited budget to furnish a house. He could get a smaller/cheaper chair - something like an Ikea Poang for now, which can probably be bought from eBay for not very much and delivered.

If he asks around, you'll probably find that people you know have an excess of stuff they're happy to give away. If he makes a good 'man with van' contact, he might be able to make good use of them if he finds other things he needs.

But it sounds like he could benefit with you helping him with budgeting and paying his bills. I don't know the background to him getting this flat or his wider circumstances, but 'not being good with money' and needing to pay rent, council tax, utilities, food and other essentials and kit out a flat is a recipe for disaster that leaves him at risk of eviction, in court for non payment of council tax and a ruined credit rating that will make his financial life difficult and expensive for years if he doesn't keep up with priority bills. Can he cook and feed himself economically? If he doesn't have an oven, I wouldn't get one of those. If he's living alone, an air fryer will be more than sufficient.

Agree that he needs to build up buying things, start with essentials, start with second hand and not expect to have everything at once, especially not all new and anything but Ikea/supermarket basics level in the beginning if he's on a limited budget.

A slow cooker is a worthwhile item to consider.

Add things gradually. When we moved at 17 we had one old armchair in the flat and a blow up mattress.

Shein is great for the smaller home stuff, I’ve decorated my sons room with bits from there all £1-£2!

We had a bed and sat on deck chairs. Visitors thought it was cute. In our area British Heart Foundation has shops selling good quality second hand furniture. I would ask on your local FB groups and on Freecycle.

But surely you can organise them to be aligned time wise?
When you contact people you say "i can pick up between x and y only" and then they say yes or no. If no, move on to next person.
Why is your DS not trying to sort this?

How does it sound like that?

Could you offer to pay petrol on freecycle. No where near as expensive as man and van but could mean you get a chest of drawers etc for a tenner.

Yeah I can’t believe some of these comments that just say he needs to learn to be independent. He’s literally going to assisted accommodation??

edited to say sorry social housing I read the OP yesterday.

I’m not who your question was directed at but he’s having to use a grant to buy a fridge and has no money to hire a man with van. I think that makes his financial situation a little tricky.

I sometimes find charity shops really expensive.

He needs to sign up to Facebook market place (as well as Freecycle and gumtree etc) and look for ads that will also deliver.

He just needs the bare minimum for now and then to keep looking for the extra stuff.

I remember having a single mattress on the floor and that was my bed and seating. No tv etc.
I prioritised getting a fridge and cooker. And then I eventually got a tv, sofa, bed etc but it took months/years.

I would help him look for free/cheap items but I would not be getting myself into debt.

It’s lovely to have parents who can help you out financially but most people don’t have that luxury, so supporting him in other ways like helping him on moving day and looking for furniture etc is just as kind of you.

I really struggled to keep on top of bills when I first moved out and so perhaps helping him write down a list of what needs to be paid and when or setting up a direct debit.

Budgeting is one of the biggest challenges.

How exciting that he has got his own place 😁

I don’t mean this to sound gross……but keep a look out when people have skips . Some people often chuck out really good quality, sound items but be sure to knock on doors and ask if you can take it. Also, put an ad in local shops asking for stuff destined for dumping………all this recycling keeps useful items out of landfill!

There’s nothing snipey about normalising living with very little when you’re starting out.

like many other posters, my first flat was furnished with garden chairs (second hand) and a mattress on the floor.

I’m in my 40s, so may be a different generation but the expectation of a fully furnished place seems extreme.

that aside @Yellowrose57 stop trying to solve your DS issues. Presumably he has a smart phone and can figure out what he needs and where he might get it from? What exactly is he doing whilst you are struggling to navigate apps you don’t understand?

Yes because hes clearly on benefits, which isnt really enough to furnish your house in one go and pay 50 quid a time for a man and a van. But bread and beans are affordable

So he needs free stuff, not BHF stuff, which is expensive and needs help to get it home.

People are delusional on here, he and his mum clearly dont know someone with a car or if they do, that person isnt able or willing to run around collecting stuff willy nilly off facebook

Plus, no you cant balance furniture on a bike to the PP who said, this FFS!!

Additionally it isnt possible to get some man with a van to do some round robin to try to pick stuff up, people are unreliable, not in, havent prepared the thing, no way are you going to risk racking up a massive bill with the man and van for unpredictability.

OP sounds sensible

Theres a reason her son is being offered social housing which is why she is trying to help him.

Because he’s got a grant from the council for white goods and his mum is trying to kit him out? He’s doing what appears to be F all, and unless there is a massive drip feed pending about disability or something he is going not equipped to live independently

Well he is living independently, its just social housing. But given that he is offered it and mum is trying to help cant you read between the lines, there is some vulnerability there obviously

But that doesnt mean that he cant afford to live and pay bills, this thread is about furniture

You also dont know that he is doing fuck all, OP hasnt given a view on that, its not relevant to the thread, she is simply asking about options

Perhaps he cant read, perhaps he cant calculate properly, perhaps his MH is poor, many other options.

Either way that isnt the point of the thread, she just wants solutions to where to find stuff and how to kit him out.

In my local area, not near you unfortunately, people are generous to those setting up home for the first time and will sometimes hold an item in a garage until you have a couple of things to hire man and van for. People will often drop off smaller items like a microwave, bedding, towels, kitchen items. So yes do a wanted post explaining that it is his first home and see what you are offered. You may find people with spare bits of carpet or rugs to donate. He might be better getting a free fridge and spending his £200 on carpet though. If he is vulnerable in some way people may direct you to other forms of help too.