To think it's impossible to furnish your house when you have little money?

[marry3456x]

I've just got the keys for my new home.
It's basically a shell..no carpets,no appliances no furniture.
It's my first place and I have nothing.
I currently receive ESA which is £202 a fortnight,I have no credit cards.
How on earth am I meant to do this?
It's 2 bedrooms..
Cooker,fridge,washing machine,carpets,kettle toaster,plates,cups,knife,forks
Wardrobe ,bed,dresser,tv,sofa ,blinds /curtains,vinyl floor,coffee table etc etc etc
Is this impossible?
I'm really stressed about it
It all needs decorating..everything
The doors,skirtings,ceiling are all a dirty magnolia /dirty stains on them.

For carpets visit the actual carpets stores and buy the offcuts they discount them heavily. You must know your room measurements though.

In the interim I used rugs from (you guessed it) freecycle... once I had carpets I then freecycled them on to new owners...

There is a big shop near us that sells donated home goods.. I'm sure there is one near you ... I'm lucky enough to not need to use them but I enjoy a bargain and yesterday we got a brand new mirror which we have painted and it looks fab .. nothing to be ashamed of .

That sounds like DH and me, when we moved into our first home! We too had nothing!
DH moved in and a few months before it did, as we got the house before we left were married. He used his camping kit! Slept on an airbed in sleeping bag, cooked a on the camping stove!

I suggest you check out your local recycling centre. Ours has lots of 2nd hand furniture for sale. Also try Freecycle and Freegle and local Facebook selling pages.

You could post on Facebook or on a local community page requesting any unwanted furniture. People have to pay for delivery drivers to remove old stuff, so would be only too happy to give it away. You would need transport, of course. Do you know anyone who has a van or a large estate car, who could help you collect?

Good luck! Be patient. It will take a few years, but you will gradually build up a home.

Doors and skirtings will probably benefit from a clean with sugar soap. Buy the powder and follow the instructions.

Facebook selling pages/marketplace are good, especially if you can collect. We got a perfectly good sofa for £40 the other week because the lady was redecorating.

Marry, ESA is a pittance. Please check charities and freecycle etc. To help you out to start u off with the basics. You can replace things as you become more financially stable.good luck

You do it gradually, that's how. Seems a bit grim at first but you can make it fun, I swear. I remember drinking out of one discount pound-shop christmas tumbler for a while, then getting some mugs and loving them ...
Fridge and cooker is high priority.
Also get one good medium saucepan, you can boil water until you get a kettle.
One good knife.
George/Asda is good value for sofas IMO.
Matalan crockery is v good quality for the price.

I’ve furnished my home from auctions

Sofa £20
Dinning table and chairs £60
Rug for dinning room £10
Rug in lounge £17
Chair £3
Sofa in conservatory £3.50
Free table for pc it’s ercol
Leather swivel chair £70
Standard lamp £7
Rug for dds room £3
Oak chest of draws small didn’t sell at auction got for £3
Mirror in stand £20

eBay
Glass cabinet £15
Half cabinet £15

It’s fine as long as you don’t buy new

I’ve just donated all of my daughters Uni pots, pans, crockery, cutlery etc to a local charity that helps people get on their feet and was very happy to do so. Much better than dumping it and some of it was unused.

Agree with making a priority list:

• something to sleep on
• microwave or means to cook food
• fridge
• something to sit on
• washing machine

Start with freecycle/freegle/greencycle, freeloved, Facebook local groups etc.

You need to get it functional, then personalise it with your own tastes.

Also in our first house we had hand me downs , charity stuff . It was all fine .. don't be proud and learn to paint 🤗🤗

My friend split from her dh and lived in a house with no carpets and no heating, she had an old armchair with a throw on, a bed, a microwave and saved to buy a log burner. It was awful and it was during the winter months too. But lots of people gave her stuff in dribs and drabs and her place is lovely now.

I would look at Lino for floor covering, cheaper and you can sweep rather than use a hoover which you will have to get somehow.

Then get rugs to place on top - these can be shaken rather than hoovered

Ask around friends and family for odds and ends, you'll be surprised what people have tucked away. And anyway there is lots of stuff on your list you can live without, a coffee table ffs! Be thankful that you have somewhere to live,

Free cycle is brilliant,you start off with basics and build from there.,everything from sofas,beds,cheats of drawers,rugs and appliances,pans.Charity shops for curtains,crockery and cutlery,glasses and often nice containers for tea, coffee,serving dishes.etc.
I started with a mattress on the floor,an old rocking chair my dad gave me and a cheap garden table with folding chairs and a deck chair.
It will come together though it does seem daunting at first,enjoy your new home.

Charity shops, and charities - and please don't feel stupid: that's what charities are there for. I know of several charities where they take large furniture items & renovate or refurbish them - they train jobless, or learning disabled, or long-term homeless, to do the renovation work - so everyone gains - skills, lovely furniture, house clearance!

If you don't want to feel you are begging (you're not but it's understandable) offer to do some volunteer work for the charity.

Wth Freecycle, sometimes people are really grateful that you'll pick stuff up & they can get rid of it productively. I know I always am - I have Freecycled stuff that is still OK, it works and so on, but is probably not sellable. I'd rather give it away.

And I once lived in an area where the Council charged to pick up unwanted large items such as cookers, even though they then recycled them via a refurbishment charity, so Freecycle was great!

My first house had stuff we found in skips, we painted them, I never had proper lightshades & mostly I still have £2 paper lightshdes (in quite a naice period "home"). I like them.

The great thing about freecycle is you can upgrade and pass the item on to someone else.

You can apply to your local Council for a Welfare Grant. Its the new version of Community Care Grants. They wont give you much, but they will give you the basics.

Also talk to charities lime British heart foundation,my mum gave white goods and a sofa to them when she moved to a smaller flat,they collect for free and are fussy so only have decent stuff.Shelter may also have a list of local charities who can help.

When we moved last, we had so many offers of furniture, rugs and curtains from friends and family we had to turn most of them down. We bought a 2nd hand dresser for 12 pounds (looked like new), a superking bed and mattress (good condition) for 40, and new sheets from ikea. Crockery from charity shop. Also a kettle and toaster, 10 pounds each from tesco. Still have no microwave but everything else came free. House is cosy with coloured throws on ancient sofas and sixties curtains. But people always say how nice it is (maybe they are just being polite!). We do have a car though - would have been tricky without that.

£10 will get you a 4 place dinner set, cutlery and mugs in Wilkos (£2 for cutlery, £6 for dinner set and the mugs are £0.50 each. Wooden spoons are £0.35 ish, plastic bowls around £0.50 each too (as in baking type bowls). They do a set of 3 glass casserole dishes for £10 too at the moment (good for microwave and oven).

Don't feel bad about relying on one of the furniture projects, you can always pay back in the future when you're in a better position. You're miles ahead of other folks still living with family into their thirties. You will do this, you can do this and yeah it might not be fun some times but it'll be all YOUR hard work and one day you'll see the benefit of it all.

Good luck!

ivykaty44 , your sitting room looks fab!

If you get ESA there's a decent chance you'll get PIP. It's worth applying for as the extra money you get from that doesn't count as income and you'll also get more ESA. Just use the same medical evidence as you did for ESA-there's a fair amount of overlap in what they want you to prove. Here are the criteria

Depending on where you are in Durham, there is the Lisa Dixon Centre, the EDP (East Durham partnership) for cheap stuff. EDP actively help people in your situation.

I am in Durham and have sofas you are welcome to, and can probably drum up more.

Prioritise. Something to sit on, something to sleep on, a fridge and a cooker.

Everything else can wait 😁

I speak from experience - albeit many moons ago, we bought our first house and scraped together money for a settee, a double bed, a teeny fridge (big enough for milk and butter, not much else), and a camping stove.

Happy days😁

Good luck, and pm me if you want sofas

We got our sofa for £70 on gumtree and you can get things very very cheap from BHF furniture stores.
I don't think you'll be able to do it all at once, but get a bed, what you need to cook and then work from there.