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.

If you've gpt no spare cash, time to start investigating the local free recycling websites.

As well as freecycle there's also freegle.
Our local Friday Ads has a free section.

And, there may be Facebook groups near you - called something like buy sell and give away

There's often paint and paint brushes, rollers etc on the free sites too. Sometimes wacky colours but hey they'd brighten it up!

Our local food bank has a charity shop so they sell lots of items that have been donated really cheaply. Moved recently and have bought many things from them from furnishings to furniture. Alot of older dark furniture is alot better quality then new cheap stuff and a cheap pot of paint and a makeover can make it look amazing. Good luck in your new house :)

It is hard though and far more expensive than you think. We helped our two children that bought last year as even on quite reasonable salaries they struggled. We all want our homes to look nice but sometimes we have to take what’s on offer and gradually build it into the home we want.
Don’t feel bad about taking cast offs.

For carpets and flooring go to flooring shops and look in remnants section. We got enough vinyl for our kitchen for £30 as it was an offcut.

Got to say, I prefer the words "pre-loved" or simply "secomd hand" to "cast-offs"!!

As I said above I can afford new now but still buy second hand because I can afford better quality that way.

Also - it's a good ethical choice to recycle / upcycle stuff where you can.

The carpet deal is dcocarpets.com

I've joined the Facebook diy on a budget
It's gave me lots of ideas

You'll do it slowly, using Freecycle and the other great suggestions on here. Also if you let people know you are actively looking for stuff, they start offering.
Get some sugar soap or washing powder to clean everything thoroughly, it will look better straightaway.
You can have bare floorboards until you saved up enough for carpets, and focus on what you really need: for me it would be cooker and fridge, and a bed.
Have you got means of transporting things? Is there anyone you can ask to help?

Oh also yes good idea re offcuts, if you have any unusual shaped rooms, like my son’s room is long and narrow, you may be able to get a high quality offcut. We did this as the room is 2m x 5m and had a few choices of scraps. Same can be done easily for stairs as there are often long and narrow offcut a at the shop nearest us. We bought the underlay on a roll from eBay and it was much cheaper than the quote from the shop. I paid a carpet fitter to do it he charged £40 so I did a bedroom in a really luxurious carpet for £80 in total. It’s still one of the nicest in the house. The hallway of ours was awful when we moved in it was filthy concrete but we had to prioritise so when I got the offcut carpet I asked the guy if I could have some thin protective foam that they had in the back and he said yes as they were going to chuck it out anyway. I had that in the hall for months - and although not beautiful, it was clean and bright white, plus insulating, anything better than walking on an ice cold and manky concrete floor!

When I moved into my first flat I had two cots and two suitcases full of clothes and £30 in my purse.
I took myself off to the poundshop and bought, 2 cups, 2 plates 2 knives & forks, 4 cushions and a teapot.
I ate, sat and slept on the cot mattress for 3 months and watched an old tv that came on a stand that my mum's partner gave me.
I'm now sat comfortably on the brand new sofas I saved and brought watching a 50inch plasma, it takes a long time to build a home but you will get there slowly but surely.
Definetly look on all freebie sites, you can get some really good stuff off there, also have you got a council recycling centre near you? If you have most of them have a paint scheme where people drop tins of paint to them that you can take for free.
Good luck.

I don't know if it's been asked, but what area are you in op?

Amazing looking houses take time, money or love - I suspect in the absence of money you will with love & time make yours amazing.

My first house we spent a while sitting on the floor until we found a nice free sofa close by and my sister & I carried it through the streets to the house - thankfully it wasn't too heavy. We started with mattresses on the floor, moved up to beds when I found some I could afford (free, second hand & a crap one from Argos I wish I hadn't bought)
Second hand furniture is very very cheap and you can get some solid pieces for very little money. Paint, new handles etc can come with time and you have a nice new piece of furniture.
Bits and pieces for me came with time, cheap shops, second hand, freebies cobbled together the basics and we went from there.
I scrubbed & cleaned painted everything white - to make it fresh and clean as it was rather nicotine/ chip fryer yellow when I moved in. I papered the loo with pages from 10p charity shop books for a bit of character.

I remember my first flat we had a mattress on the floor and camping chairs and hung our food out the window in a bag to keep it cool (it was in the middle of winter).

We gradually got second hand furniture/ fridge etc and replaced with better when we could afford it.

When we got our first house, we just took what we could from our bedrooms in our parents' homes, such as single beds, portable tvs/video recorders, drawer units etc., and borrowed a table & chair set and a sofa bed from parents and I think a coffee table from OH's sister. We just bought the absolute essentials, i.e. microwave and fridge. Things take time, even if you have money. It must have been about five years before we actually had it fully furnished and handed everything back that we'd borrowed. Best advantage is that decorating, upgrading, etc is far easier when the house is empty as you've less to move around. We just did one room at a time, our dining room and spare bedrooms were completely empty for a few years whilst we concentrated on the living and bedroom.

I left my ex and left everything! Freecycle was brilliant, I got loads from there and gradually replaced it a bit at at time! It's not impossible, good luck! Xx

If you don't want everything painted white, buy a tester pot of another colour and mix a bit with some white until you have the shade you want.

Quite often I have things to get rid of and would really want it to go to someone who has just got a new place and no money to furnish it. Instead I put it on freecycle and it probably ends up being sold on. Don't worry about asking for some stuff and explaining why.

I have a nearly new double hanging rail/wardrobe thing that I’m desperate to find a home for...whereabouts in the country are you?

facebook groups!! put on alerts and go through pages, a LOT of furniture going is free if you can collect from them. People cant be bothered throwing it away these days as it is basically impossible to do so yourself, so just keep your eyes pealed and good luck x

Do it bit by bit. I started off with two folding garden chairs and a blow up mattress - all borrowed. Everyone has to start somewhere.

I don't know if you have a car but that would make it easier. I got all our paint in seasonal sales, wilko do good cheap paint and large stores have reductions section on damaged cans too.

For furniture join local selling sites, Facebook etc and free cycles.... Go to car boots.

Carpets... We couldn't afford but we have floor boards (we ripped out foul carpet and discovered then) we painted them and brought cotton rugs in sales.

Dish washer 50 from local selling site washing machine same. Both lasted about 5 years by which time had we more cash to buy better. Other stuff.. Tk max... Light shades, lamps etc... Cushions, bedding... But we did have a car.

I have had tons of stuff free through free cycle through the years, I have also passed tons of stuff back and more.

Of course some people will sell what I give them but someone always will I can't control that and nor would I want too some people use it as a rubbish collection service...

Who cares... It's brilliant and you can get amazing things on it.

Glad you're beginning to embrace the possibilities OP, love that you're pleased with your bargains so far.

The most satisfying bits of furniture in my house are:

• a huge leather sofa in my conservatory, immaculate and £25 from ebay

• an old orange pine dressing table that I got bored of trying to replace, because nothing was solid enough or had the same amount of drawers - two days, some elbow grease and a pot of paint later, and it is lovely!

Expensive but when you have a bit of spare cash, Annie Sloane or equivalent, paint can just be one coated on furniture without having to even sand it down first. There are loads of speciality furniture paint colours to choose from.
Transforms even the ugliest of furniture. Look for ideas online, such as, just varnishing the wooden top of a chest of drawers and painting the rest.
Google upcycling furniture.

Changing handles can also have a huge impact.

Adding cheap accessories such as throws and cushions can also make a huge difference to ugly furniture.