Moving to a college apartment could be expensive, especially when you want to go the extra mile to make your place look and feel like an actual home. Luckily, there are a few methods you could utilize to acquire some cute furniture that won’t put too much of a dent in your wallet!
Ikea’s probably the best place for anyone who’s looking for reliable and aesthetically-pleasing furniture on a budget. While some things may be worth looking for a cheaper price elsewhere, investing in the big pieces from Ikea is a smart move. By “big pieces,” I mean the stuff you’re going to be using every day that needs to be guaranteed sturdy for the next few years, like your bed frame. Ikea’s simple yet versatile designs can also go with any themed room you have in mind.
Ikea also has a “sold-as-is” section where furniture that was used for samples or customer-returned items are up for grabs. Usually, the pieces in this area are already built, making it easy to envision in the space it might soon occupy, and a lot of the times you can find a great item for a highly reduced cost. Ikea’s the best place to also get real-life inspo, as they have great showrooms you could browse through and copy ideas from.
Unsurprisingly, Amazon has some great low-priced furniture pieces for your college apartment! You can easily find cheap and unique items that can be delivered right to your door, in a matter of a couple days if you have Prime (which you should, as a student!). The only downside to shopping on Amazon is that you can only base the quality of items off of the (sometimes limited number) of pictures posted. Luckily, you can also rely on countless customer reviews to help you make a wise decision.
If you’re fine with used furniture to use in your college apartment, your local Goodwill should have some unique pieces at a very low cost. As college students on a budget, frequenting your local thrift store is a good move to save tons of money. I would avoid furniture such as couches in the case of hygiene unless you can steam clean it yourself, but you can easily find furniture like coffee or side tables, decor, and even dishware to add to your future stylish college apartment. You’d be surprised what cool and useful vintage items you could find at your thrift store!
Similar to shopping on Amazon, online shopping is very convenient yet still taking a chance on furniture you haven’t seen yet. There are a couple great sites out there for furniture-shoppers on a budget, like Wayfair, AllModern, and Overstock. While Wayfair and AllModern can still be out of a college student’s budget, they still have unique and trendy pieces that sell for less than they would elsewhere. Overstock is a site that generally finds good deals and prices, and also makes it easy for you to stick to a theme by organizing the items by style. Some of their most popular categories are Mid-Century Modern and Coastal, but the range of styles are endless, and you can always combine them to create your own unique personal theme.
Another way to get furniture for your college apartment is through Facebook. A lot of schools usually have an established free and for sale page solely for students or graduating students. The items sold can range anywhere from school supplies like books to entire lightly-used bed frames. You should keep an eye out for the items being sold on these pages especially during the end of the school year for furniture when people are graduating and need to give them away as soon as possible to move out.
Although you might not get anything right away, you can continually ask for help from the people you know simply by mentioning that you’re living in an apartment for the first time. You never know who’s giving away a perfectly fine dining table or couch you don’t have to spend hundreds of dollars on!
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