Furnishing your Apartment

When you enter the workforce, and potentially move into your first apartment, you’ll be initially surrounded by all your college and hometown memorabilia and storage solutions – the rickety plastic shelf, the collapsible felt chair, and tons of cube boxes. You might be tempted to throw it all away, immediately, and start fresh, but I would caution you to take your time, and a couple of months before purging most things. The furniture and storage have served you well the past few years, why can’t it serve you still?

Are you embarrassed by the shape it’s in, by you unmatched furniture, or by the clear cheapness of your furniture? If you are, may I suggest blankets – they cover and elevate everything they touch. But still, take some time. When I first had an apartment I didn’t have a table for a few months, or a couch, or even chairs. What I did have was a desk I’d found by a dumpster (and still love, and use, everyday), a mattress and bedspread from Costco and Christmas, some art, a free wooden cart, and a chest. I lived using cardboard boxes in my apartment for a few months and then while walking found a free woven chair on the side of the road. I pulled it over my head and headed home, it was raining that day. That weekend, I got some spray paint and walked to a nearby park where I painted it. I still have it 3 years later.

Eventually, I got a table from a generous individual from Craiglist Free stuff but still no chairs. However, I started inviting people over. My brother found me a $21 chair at a thrift store and eventually I bought a small affordable couch off of amazon and a beautiful set of chairs. I love my apartment and now that it’s mostly fully furnished and decorated, people will always comment on how lived in and comfortable it feels. But they shy away from following my suggestion of picking up things at garage sales, antique sales, thrift stores, or for free.

Feel free to do what you want with your space, however, before buying a single item, organize your old and make it livable and usable first. That way you don’t have to drop thousands in one month to fully furnish your home, maxing out credit cards and racking up interest. Take your time to find opportunities, wait for sales, and reevaluate what’s necessary. I had a rickety plastic cube shelf for years in my room that I eventually moved and replaced with a nicer free cube shelf. Even if you buy everything new, if you don’t give it time, you can’t expect things to work out and settle.

Please note, I’m not saying hold onto your old things forever, when it’s time, replace or remove them, thank them for their time and effort, and move on. I had people commenting on the comfortable and beautiful state of my apartment while all my college furniture was in full display, but I put a blankets on them. Also, I still have some of my college furniture in my apartment today and I only plan to replace it when the exactly right piece comes my way, in a garage sale, for a max price of $20.

Because I gave my apartment time, moved around things, asked my mom to help me organize, and didn’t buy anything that would be temporary (except candles) I had to be really intentional about how the pieces went together. I have an apartment filled with old and new pieces that go together because I won’t buy it, or pick it up, now, unless it is exactly what I needed. It’s been years and I still have blank spaces on my wall that are waiting for the exact piece of artwork, and furniture that is holding space.

A lot of people will go out and splurge when they first move into their new apartment, a fresh start. I think moving into a new apartment can be a fresh start enough with a few candles, and accessories. Everyone is at different levels, has different furniture, and different income levels. However, I know a lot of people who are still using their old furniture cleverly even if the more common narrative is buy new and start fresh.

However, a caveat. Bed bugs, or insects in general. One must be very cautious to not introduce unwanted guests into your new apartment. In particular, that can happen with cloth furniture so use your eyes and common sense, don’t pick up old couches or mattresses, and make sure you clean the piece, inspect it’s every nook and cranny, and give it a waiting period outdoors before bringing it in. Mostly, I prefer wood or metal pieces and I will only pick up items from homes that are well maintained and look nice. If it looks like a hoarder house – pass on it.

I’ve loved finding the exact piece that goes in my home. when I see it at a thrift store, an antique fair, or online, I know immediately if it is a yes. I can go hundreds of times to the thrift store but I won’t pick up a single item until I find the perfect piece. This has also eliminated a lot of switching. Sometimes, I thought I knew what I wanted, but during the search online and in-person, what I needed would shift or the piece wouldn’t make itself available and I wouldn’t know why. Typically, I find that it’s because I’m searching for the wrong thing.

For example, I have a litter box covering that has worked really well for years but now I have an automatic liter box and I no longer need the litter box covering. However, I still have it because I couldn’t find an end table that worked with what I wanted. Eventually, I thought i would get something like this which could hide my roomba but I wasn’t finding one anywhere that wasn’t over $200. So I waited. Eventually, I realized I don’t want that, I want an expandable table for hosting, something like this, that can serve as an end table when not in use. I’m still not sure if that’s the final form of my end table, but I feel like it’s closer and I’ll keep taking my time until I discover the perfect item at a thrift store, for max $20. It will happen.