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?

If they're in Liverpool then PM me as I'd be happy to donate two sofas in about three weeks.

A container with sellotape, scissors, tape measure, paperclips, safety pins, needle and thread, pair of pliers etc. All the stuff you accumulate in "the drawer"

Freegle is a good alternative to Freecycle. Next door has a free section as well.

Completely different situ, but when I bought my first flat things I forgot about were:

Dish towels
Bathmat
Wooden spoons
Soup spoons
Baking trays
Measuring jug

I moved from a furnished rented flat, and was fortunate to be able to buy cheap furniture from Argos, but my mum also put together a box of kitchen stuff for the day I moved which was SO useful, things like:

Teabags
Milk
Bread
Salt and pepper mills
Branson’s pickle
Jam, peanut butter, honey
Pasta and rice
Stock cubes
Tomato purée
Kitchen roll
Flash cleaning spray
Loo roll
A bottle of wine!

@Suze1621

Try local Freecycle (or similar) sites.

Free cycle sites. They are amazing to get started

Try the Olio app too. Mainly used for giving away surplus food, but I’ve seen homewards on there too.

It might be a bit early in the year, but places like Wilko, Ikea, Argos etc do home “start up” kits of essentials - duvet, kettle, mugs, cutlery etc which work our cheaper than buying things seperately. They are usually aimed at students, may only have 2 mugs, single duvet etc, but might be worth looking at.

I'm surprised no-one's mentioned Ebay. I think half my home's kitted out from Ebay wins!

Facebook marketplace, B&M, Supermarkets, etc..

Curtain poles, curtains and/or blinds.

Ikea is great for basics, their 50p range of plates and bowls are a lot nicer than more expensive ones. They have all the little odds and sods like utensils, a drainer, bins, lampshades etc and some of them are less than £1.

I always find Asda George good for decent quality cheap bedding and other home essentials.

Furniture charity shop, facebook market place or ebay for furniture. I remember when DH got his first flat he just went to Asda and bought everything from the kitchen section, we were using those plates for years. Today I'd go to Ikea (do they still do a starter box?), Boyes or Wilko for kitchen basics and bedding.
If they can bear it, put on Facebook they are furnishing a house if any one has bits they want to get rid of , there will probably get a flood of offers, especially if they can collect.

On ebay - you can search for "local collection" and specify a distance from your post code. Good for finding larger items locally. Sometimes people say they can deliver for a small fee.

On facebook lots of groups have been set up for offering and receiving help in the current climate. I believe these are called "(your local area name then)mutual aid.
you can find your local group by searching on covidmutualaid.org
You could join the relevant local group and ask if anyone can offer anything spare for people setting up home from scratch or
would be willing to help collect items with a man and van for a small fee.

I cannot recommend free cycle enough. We moved in with a ds bed and a tv and enough money to feed us to pay day. It might not be what you want and you might need to make a few swaps but we furnished our house with the basics then upgraded as we went.
The big things were great but things like expensive oven dishes I would never spent on but made a huge difference and pictures for the walls that made the house less barren.
Kids clothes as well, I always freecycle ours and they are always gratefully received so it go’s both ways.

All these suggestions are great, thank you. They have a car and have access to a van so they can pick up big items if they need to.

I want to help them save money for bills as only my SIL is working at the moment.

I've had a look at a few of the sites you've suggested and I can see a fridge, sofa and a bed being given away free for collection only straightaway. They can always upgrade things later as and when.

I was thinking about some nice pictures or photo frames and things. I know the basics are important but bare walls are so depressing.

Reminds me of our first house back in the early 70s We had nothing, my Dad made us a bed using the Readers' Digest DIY manual, a sort of 70s bible, we bought a garden table that looked a bit like the trendy pedestal tables, four ex church chairs from an auction place and a couple of very uncomfortable whicker chairs, that was it! When we bought a really cheap sofa bed we thought we'd really arrived, it was so uncomfortable that we sat on the floor. Happy days.

Recycling centres have some brilliant bargains.

Facebook local freecycle. U.K. freecycle (you sign up for local areas). eBay.

Get them to sign up to Nextdoor at their new address and post about their set up. I think they’ll be shocked at what they get offered.
With charity shops closed or limiting the donations they will take a lot of people are looking for some way to donate things they aren’t using.
Agree about the blank walls. Have you thought about wall stickers for your nieces room? Cheap as chips and no damage when they come off. Might help her feel at home quite fast.

Great advice upthread. Extra worth having include

• something very easy to eat for their first night. Ideally hot (plug in slow cooker) or a picnic.

• I kept my orange box bed side table for years after I could afford to replace it, because it symbolised my freedom

• a few bricks and a broken up pallet will make a decent bookcase

• something lovely for your niece, simple but a sign that things are going to get better, maybe a poster or something blue racked up

I wish them all the best in their new home.

OP, you mentioned giving them a TV - don't forget they will need a licence for that. Easy to overlook with everything going on but you don't want them ending up with a fine on top of everything else. They are very fortunate to have you helping them.