How To Furnish An Apartment For Free

Recently Sweet Guy moved into his first apartment on campus. It’s no secret that tuition and other college expenses are expensive. Wanting to save money we set a goal to learn How To Furnish An Apartment For Free.

If you just want to see the REVEAL photos simply scroll down to the bottom of the page.

How To Furnish An Apartment For Free

Five great tips will be covered in this post. 

• Allow Time
• Define Your Style
• Ask Friends and Family
• Transform
• Sell The Excess

Allow Time

As the old adage goes you can have it quick, easy, or free but you cannot have all three. Quick and easy costs money. Free is going to take an investment of time as well as some effort. We began to look for furnishings in early June and by mid-August, we were ready to set up the apartment. 

You’ll be amazed at the amount of great free furniture that is listed on Freecycle, Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace, and even found on the curb. 

Define Your Style

This is actually the most fun part of the process: gathering ideas. Because you will need a road map on this journey. Think about what you want your apartment to look like. Peruse apartments on Pinterest and in home decor magazines. Make notes of friends’ homes and perhaps even a room on a favorite television show. 

You will notice that after a while you are drawn to similar looks over and over. 

Sweet Guy definitely liked Swinging 60’s/Mad Men/Bohemian Bachelor Pad looks. 

Ask Friends and Family

In this day and age of consumer consumption, most of us have an overabundance of home decor and accessories. A letter was written to our local friends and family members via email asking if they would like to contribute cast-offs to Sweet Guy’s first apartment. We noted that we would bring our truck and haul off any kitchen, living room, bathroom, and bedroom furnishings they wanted to donate. This resulted in amazing success! 

Because for the most part, people like to be helpful. 

It’s also very easy to give away stuff you no longer want particularly when you don’t have to haul it off. 

We accepted everything. More on that later. 

Transform

By early August our garage and she shed were completely full. It was time to get to work. We set up several tables in the backyard and began setting out all the bounty. A cleaning station with two tubs of soapy and clean water was placed in the grass along with a few beach towels. Dishes, pots and pans, various knick-knacks, and more were all washed and set out to dry. Wood furniture was cleaned and given a liberal dose of furniture oil to restore its beauty. 

The vast majority of the items simply needed a good cleaning and a bit of polish to look great again. 

It’s hard to believe this rolling wood cart is over 50 years old. 

Now as I said we took everything. Even items in need of repair.

A few screws simply needed tightening. A task that took a mere minute. 

So keep that in mind when considering furnishings. It may just need a simple fix. 

The power of spray paint is amazing. It can transform so much!

After the lamp bases were thoroughly cleaned various half-empty cans of spray paint were applied as a base primer. 

This insured the one can of turquoise paint that was just three-quarters full would be enough to cover two lamp bases. 

But what about lampshades?

Sell The Excess

After going through everything that we wanted to keep from the various donations we had a huge pile of really great things leftover. 

It was time for a garage sale. 

TIP: We had asked everyone who donated things that if any items were not needed could we sell or give them away. Again, people were so happy to be rid of their old stuff that everyone agreed. 

With the garage sale money, we were able to buy the things that were still needed that we didn’t have. Like lampshades. 

The Reveal

I’m not sure what your first apartment looked like. But mine didn’t look anywhere close to this.

It’s perfect for three college bachelors. 

They attend a university known as the Mean Green. One of the campus missions is recycling. I think this room achieves that goal beautifully.  

With the exception of the lampshades, pillow covers, and plants everything in the room is second-hand. 

The couch is a sleeper sofa and has already been used by a friend visiting from out of town. 

Because you might wonder: portions of the kitchen were shared in this post. It was also fully stocked with donations and has everything a kitchen/dining area needs. 

The young men did not wish to publicly share their private quarters. But they are indeed fully furnished. 

It is our hope that this post will inspire you to create a space that is warm, welcoming, earth-friendly, and FREE!

See you Friday!

Laura