How to furnish a first home sustainably on an £8k budget

[hl575]

Help! I am totally lost.

I have recently bought my first home, a 3 bed house in London.

I have no furniture (have been living in furnished accommodation - where I am able to stay indefinitely so not in rush to furnish the new house) and have realised I have utterly no idea where to start with choosing or purchasing furniture.

I would rather not buy new if possible - both for cost but mainly for sustainability reasons. I have a budget of about £8k in total to furnish 3 x bedrooms and the living room.

My taste is very minimal - the home is Edwardian so would like to mirror this (but not so much that it looks like a period drama!) e.g. iron bedframes.

I also have a fulltime job which is 5 days in the office with a 2.5 hour round trip each day (hence why I am moving!) So I really can only work on this on Saturday and Sunday mornings each weekend, not in the week.

If you were me, how would you go about doing this in the most efficient way?

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Both of my sons had their houses furnished for free from freecycle. Only thing we purchased (as a moving in gift) was a washing machine each....but that's because we collected 4 from freecycle which didn't work, so we were being used as a free tip service!). P roviding the item is ok, it will do for the time being, and you can replace as/when necessary with an item more to your taste and style.

I'd be checking out the local Heart Foundation charity shop, or similar, the ones that do furniture.

I also have a fulltime job which is 5 days in the office with a 2.5 hour round trip each day (hence why I am moving!) So I really can only work on this on Saturday and Sunday mornings each weekend, not in the week.

Why don’t you get whatever you consider to be either the bare minimum, or cheap cheap things then move in, thus saving 12 and a half hours per week?

What do you need in order to move? Cooker, fridge, washing machine, bed, armchair? Can you use laundrettes for now? Just seems a very long commute for no reason.