Moving to new house with nothing

[TeaAndHobnob]

Not me, my bil, sil and niece. Things have become intolerable at mil's so they are moving out asap.

They don't earn much, and they won't have anything other than bedroom furniture to kit out a new place with.

What are the essentials? We could buy a few things for them, we have a TV they could have and a few kitchen bits.

Where could we/they go to buy household stuff cheaply?

They will be allowed to with other shops tomorrow, but some will depend on older volunteers so might decide not to yet.

Argos do some decently priced starter sets when it comes to cutlery, pots and pans, that can do the job for quite a few years (we had to move by ourselves with pretty much nothing at ine point). Ymca in my town is quite decent for furniture, don't know in other places. And there are always lots of things on facebook local groups.

Lots of people will donate surplus furniture, bedding, towels, crockery, pans etc if you put an shout out in your local Facebook page.

We have a Wastenot Facebook page in our village,staggering what people give away for free.

As others have said I would put something on facebook. Lots of people are clearing out unwanted items with no charity. Shops to give to so people would give up stuff.

tesco site have bath sheets that keep changing price, last friday they were £4.50 each. The quality seems ok for the price. They also have a few kitchen bits for low prices

I think car boot sales will be able to start again soon so if you have one near you it's always worth going to. The best ones are in the posh villages in my experience, where people are genuinely having a clear out. They are always good for curtains and sometimes rugs or throws and nice bits and bobs like candle holders, plus very good for kids stuff.

Online sites such as olio, freecycle and nextdoor are still running. They can 'request' items, along with give them away on there.

Asda home are also relatively cheap for home basics.

Try the Salvation Army.Where we are in W Yorks, they collect disused furniture to redistribute to people moving into an empty house/flat from homelessness. I don’t know what the qualification for help is though.

Scissors

Gumtree do lots of freebies. We put a few things on there when we were moving, that we didn’t need, free to the first person who came.

freecycle, Are charity shops open there yet?

B & M do some nice furniture bits cheap, when I got divorced & had very little, I found a warehouse locally that did end of lines & seconds furniture, I know they won't have a lot of money but as an example I saved 70% on a leather 3 + 2 sofa set & for the full price of the sofa set got the sofas, table & chairs, side & coffee tables, bedstead, mattress & bedside tables.

Gumtree has a free section, also lots of pre owner household stuff

*pre owned

If you have enough spare money, can you get something nice for your niece her room? Like a cute chair or curtains? Ikea has nice stuff that's very affordable.

And yy to charity shops.

If your BIL and SIL are working/have worked so if there is a benevolent society for whatever trade they were in. However some applications need to be made by CAB or another charity.

You can get pretty much anything for free as long as you have transport - that is the sticking point for most - not having a van.

Charity shops are not open (I don't think) however if you contact the ones who do furniture they may be able to help you out.
I recently did this for someone who was homeless and moving into a property and although they were closed they were able to offer some furniture- and signpost to other re-use/ second hand shops who specifically set up to offer decent furniture second hand to those on low incomes.

My local charity shop is opening tomorrow. And word of mouth, my DD was given loads of random furniture when she got her own place

Check out British Heart Foundation- their furniture shops might be opening soon. Call a central number and ask?

Where are you based? Will be glad to help if possible.

See if you have a local Besom as it is a charity which takes decent furniture donations and gives it free to people who need it.

Free cycle and gumtree. Shpock too. People often get rid of decent appliances or large furniture items cause they have bought a new one and give them away on freecycle because it's faster. I've given loads away on it as I've no way of getting rid of it.
Pound shop, & savers for smaller bits.

Me and DP moved with no furniture, just a mattress and two plates basically. Facebook buy and sell is good but only if you have a car or access to a van. You also have to watch it very closely to get to the good deals early. We got a lot of cheap furniture off eBay to start us off with, like bookcases and bedside tables. Not that great quality but good as starter furniture.

It was little things like bath mats, cooking tongs, baking trays, lamp for the bedroom and draws/box to keep cleaning supplies in the bathroom that we hadn’t thought of until we needed them. Oh and also bins, we had completely forgotten to buy any bins for the house.