How to Kit Out Your Unfurnished Rental Home on a Budget

Congratulations, you’ve just signed the contract for your new rented home… but then you remember it’s unfurnished, and you need to get furniture ASAP – don’t panic, here’s where to look to get you started.

1)    Freecycle and Freegle
Your first port of call for free furniture and décor should be websites like Freecycle and Freegle. They allow people to advertise goods they no longer want to their local communities… and items are free which is even better! You will more than likely need to go and collect the items but for that price it’s worth a look.

2)    Facebook 
Facebook Marketplace is also a great place to look for a bargain. It’s very user friendly by allowing you to search for an item within a radius of your choice and even lets you ‘offer’ on the item so you can try and haggle a bit too. You can set up alerts so that when a certain item is listed you will get a notification and get in there quickly! There are also many local Facebook groups (rather than Marketplace) where people list items for sale, these are also great for meeting the community and discussing local events and news.

3)    Gumtree
A long standing and well-established website for free and cheap furniture is Gumtree. It has millions of users so goods will go quickly, however because there’s so many users this also means there will be a wide variety of listings. Gumtree has a section called ‘freebies’ for free items, as well as items which you can pay for, so it is definitely worth looking at.

4)    Charity shops
Another great option is heading to your local charity shop to see what they have on offer. When moving or emptying a house, a lot of people would rather donate furniture and knick-knacks to a charity shop so you can get some great finds. With the funds going to charity too it’s a win-win option.

5)    Car boot sales
This may be a seasonal option, but car boot sales can be great for picking up smaller items for your new rented home. Haggling is a must which means you can end up with some great deals! Get Googling to find your local car boot sale and see when it is open.

We hope you find these suggestions helpful, and don’t forget to be quick once you’ve found an item you like, be sure you can collect it from the stated location and bring someone with you to be safe and give you a hand with the items too!