Aibu to fill house with second hand furniture

[Harryfrog12]

I know im not unreasonable just want tips.

Im moving house. Some of my stuff is in storage but ive given half of my furniture away as it seemed a good idea at the time

The new house is slightly bigger anyway and needs quite alot spending on it ie, electrics, plastering, flooring so most of my money will be tied up

What would be your tops tips to find good quality second hand furniture
I need a kids bed and furniture, my bed (will buy a mattress im thinking emma
A desk
Dining table and chairs
Fridge / freezer
Sofa - i think this will be priority new

Ive been trawling ebay, fb marketplace, gumtree

Any others that would be good finds

Do you have an emmaus near you? We've bought (and donated) some brilliant stuff through them.

Estate sales, auctions, consignment stores, ebay, local antique shops, and fb marketplace.
I love a great second or fifth hand find!

Nextdoor app might be worth a look.

I furnished my first flat from a local auction house. It was great.

Thanks. Just checked and i do have a emmaus near. Never heard of it so will take a look when they open.

Community furniture projects.
British heart foundation shops.

I have loads of second hand items.

I would get new beds because of the bedbug risk. Unless you're getting solid frames.

A lot of my house is pre-owned for solid furniture. I had to trawl around them though to find treasures.

Ive never understood how i get onto auctions but will research them too

We got some good stuff from local charity shops who opened up separate units just for furniture.

House clearances are also good, we have a couple of local trading estates and I've found that they're amazing for decent quality picture frames!

Some charities do second hand furniture. Gumtree has worked best for me.

We have a fair amount of auction stuff, lot from local eBay. Beds and sofas were bought new.

2 local charity shops have big furniture warehouses.

Local Facebook is very good. It’s amazing what people get rid of. One year old sofas etc. Also ask friends, workmates,....

Vinterior if you have spending, eBay as well

I can genuinely say that apart from mattresses our house is filled with used furniture - as we live to buy (usually mid Georgian) antiques. Have a look at ‘thesaleroom.com’ as well as antiques, there are lots of general household sales which gives you a broader spectrum to search through.

We got the bulk of our furniture from Freecycle when we moved into London and passed it all on when we moved. People were incredibly generous so it's worth looking on there depending where you are.

Auction houses are your best bet - find out your most local ones then view their catalogues online. - some of our nicest things have come from auction pretty cheaply. Soon you will be able to go and view in person too, looking forward to that!

I love good quality second hand and vintage furniture, particularly anything made of solid wood where you can just sand or paint for a high quality look and it is better than some of cheap MDF furniture on the market.
However there is a trick to it to stop your house looking too cheap. Things like appliances and soft furnishings need to be new. If you can get a bedroom suite it would look better than random bits of mismatched furniture. If you get mismatched wood pieces I would paint them all the same colour to uniform them. I also like mixing different materials such as oak wardrobe with a strong metal bed.
Places I get second hand furniture from is Facebook market place, gumtree and Shpock. Good luck.

Chalk paint can give stuff a whole new lease of life. Chalk paint and also spray paint (spray second hand picture frames gold /Matt teal etc, v satisfying). Second hand leather sofas can look great even when quite battered.

Google "the saleroom" as a lot of local auction houses are on it for the bidding.

I've not read the full thread but one thing about 2ndhand furniture is the environmental benefits, both in reuse & indoor air quality.

I'm definitely comfortably off but we have dogs, so I get our furniture from charity shops, etc. Love a good auction. 😊

Seconding Gumtree - I’ve had two wardrobes, a dressing table, a coffee table, a Victorian fireplace, a sofa bed, an armchair, a sideboard and a kitchen table from there - most of my furniture! But you have to be prepared to wait for a nice thing, it’s not a quick as buying new.

We had some good finds on Nextdoor, Ebay and the local charity furniture store. Mix of nicer antiques and decent quality secondhand (e.g. a John Lewis toddler bed in immaculate condition).

BTW I've found that some genuinely nice antiques work our cheaper then new furniture, for example a huge, extendable mahogany dining table for 180£ that will last at least another 100 years.

My tip would be to watch items and see how many weeks they are on for then give a cheeky offer.
Generally people get more desperate as it gets closer to their new item getting delivered.

It's also worth joining local community group pages as well as free cycle as often people just give away for free

A lot of my stuff came from fb marketplace. You have to wait for the right thing and jump in there quickly. It also helps to have a van quickly available as people dont want to wait long, so think about that now.

I disagree that appliances need to be new. The amount of appliances only a few months old is incredible. My Zanussi washing machine was only 4 months old and immaculate (owner decided she wanted to change to a different colour!). Kenwood dishwasher, 6 months old and immaculate, owner was getting new all-integrated kitchen.

Some charities have furniture only shops/units and they are well worth a look. Got a beautiful 1930s solid walnut wardrobe at one for £40. Got 6x solid oak dining chairs at another for £60, about a year later found a gorgeous Spanish veneers patterned top solid wood 8 seater table that goes with them perfectly, on fb marketplace, for £80. So the whole set was only £140 and is the quality you'd pay upwards of £1000 new.

It makes so much sense, as unless you pay a fortune the quality of new furniture is really shoddy, it quickly looks tatty and doesn't last.

Local auctions - they practically give some furniture away if it's not 'fashionable'. We bought a solid wood eight seater dining table and chairs for £30 (cost more for the van hire to get it home!).

I second Freecycle & Gumtree. I was looking to get a piano recently and people are giving them away for free on Gumtree.
Check if your local tip has an area for donations
Charity furniture shops are good for browsing although our local BHF is actually quite expensive

Yes we paid £300 at auction for a beautiful polished mahogany victorian table with 8 chairs. It's absolutely gorgeous.

And £200 for a huge mahogany chest of victorian drawers with lovely little keyhole detailing. It's in beautiful shape, looks lovely and the same size of solid wood chest from M&S is £750.