So, whether you’re furnishing a home for a newlywed couple, or just moving out of your parents’ home and into your own place, or even moving abroad and starting from scratch, here’s how to furnish a place without breaking the bank.

First, I have to admit that this post will probably irk some, as many extreme frugality posts do, because I question the notion of what is a need and what is a want, and some people find that upsetting, because they assume I am making a value judgement on them and their lifestyle. So let me preface this by saying that I know that some of what I’m writing here is very extreme- I am offering it as an option for those that are seriously tight on money, and if they spent more money on furnishings it would mean less food on their table, etc…

I am also offering some less extreme ideas, so if the very extremely frugal option doesn’t speak to you, there should still be some stuff here that can work for you.
But if you have the money, and spending money on nice furniture is important to you, then do so- I won’t judge- everyone has to make their own value judgments about what is important to them, and while brand spankin’ new furniture isn’t high on my list of priorities, I understand that for some other people, it is, and that is ok.

Secondly, buying a lot of things at once with a credit card and paying it off ends up costing much more than saving up for one thing at a time, and buying it when you can afford to pay for it in cash. So you may start furnishing your home with the bare basics, and then as you save up more money, buy more and more non basics for your home. Additionally, if you want to dumpster dive or get hand me downs from FreeCycle or other places instead of buying things new, you have to take things as they come, and can’t guarantee they’ll have everything you want, exactly when you want it. Gradually you can build up your home furnishings- it doesn’t have to be all at once. You can use these bare basics until you replace the basics with the nicer stuff.

So, what are the bare basics that I, Penny, think you need in a home that you are furnishing, things that you definitely do need to start out with? (I know every country is different, but lets assume that your home comes with a toilet, a shower/bath, and a kitchen with a sink and counter and at least minimal cabinet space. If your home doesn’t come with that, include those in the bare basics.)

Basic Necessities For a Home

• Something to sleep on
• Something to sit on
• Something to eat at and work at
• Something to store stuff in
• Stuff to wear
• A refrigerator
• Some cooking element
• Things to cook and eat with
• Something in which to clean your clothes
• Something to heat your home if you live in a cold climate

That’s it.

I know, super super basic. But lets elaborate on each one of these, and how you can get these cheaply.

Something to sleep on. In the olden days, people would just sleep on straw, etc. I don’t think that is realistic for today’s modern world. But that doesn’t mean you need a bed. You need something soft to sleep on. A mattress will do. And it doesn’t have to be an expensive spring mattress either. You can either buy a cheap foam mattress, or even make your own foam mattress (this blog post touches on how a family did that) without a lot of work. If you don’t mind a little extra work and a more “rustic” bed, you can also make a mattress that is either filled with straw (here’s two tutorials)- one of them said it cost her only 35 dollars to make her mattress- or out of wool– which is more expensive, but can last a lifetime. I’ll be honest- if it were me, I’d just go to the thrift store and buy a bunch of thick blankets and fold them to size and pile them on top of each other, possibly sewing them together. I’ve slept on blankets on the floor before and it was super comfortable. You’ll probably need at least 3-4 thick ones for it to be really nice.
You can build a frame for your mattress out of pallets or dumpster dived wood.

Something to sit on. This does not even need to be chairs. At the very least, it can be boxes filled with things, whether cardboard boxes or plastic boxes, or upturned milk crates. You can also build your own chair out of wooden pallets. (I’ll be elaborating further on how to get pallets in a little bit.)

Something to eat at. Also known as a table. But it doesn’t need to be store bought. It can be as simple as a giant cable spool, or even a wooden plank attached to a box or some other type of base, such as cinder blocks. You can also build a table out of wooden pallets.

Something to store things in/on. Simplest is just cardboard boxes, but since they break easily, you can easily build your own shelves from wooden boards and cinder blocks. If you need space to hang things, you can build your own PVC pipe garment rack. If you do have two sets of shelves with holes in them, whether wicker shelves or the cinder block and board shelves, you can take a piece of piping, plastic or metal, or even a wooden stick like a broom stick, and stick it between the holes on both sides, and hang clothing on hangers from that.

That’s what we actually have in our apartment instead of a clothing wardrobe, and it works perfectly for us.

Stuff to wear is self explanatory, as is a refrigerator. A refrigerator can be a mini fridge, at least temporarily. While it is possible to live without a fridge, it’s not something I recommend.

Some cooking element. While a stove/oven is great, sometimes financially it’s not an option. Picking one or more of the following will allow you to cook your own food even without a stove/oven, and more than one will give you even more options: an electric hot plate/burner (or two), a decently sized toaster oven, and/or a crock pot. Between the first two, you won’t even miss a stove/oven combo, and a crock pot makes life easier and can replace one, or both, but has some limitations.

Things to cook and eat with. One or two pots minimum, better larger than smaller. One large bowl and cup and spoon per person, at the very least, plus a sharp knife and a flat surface for cutting on. Ideally, though, you should have a few bowls, plates, cups, spoons, forks, knives, mixing spoons, and a few food storage containers (which can be recycled food containers). Tall jars work as cups in a pinch, and wide mouthed jars work as bowls.

Something in which to clean your clothes. Some people use a laundromat, but that gets hideously expensive. I highly recommend getting your own washing machine if you have a place to keep one, and if not, a portable washing machine that hooks up to the kitchen sink. Some people wash their own clothing by hand in a bucket/wash basin, and if you’re living by yourself and you wash your clothing daily that is doable, but for a family, it’s pretty impossible, from experience… It’s a huge physical effort to wash a bunch of clothing at a time. I think having a washing machine of some kind is a necessity. A dryer, on the other hand, is not. You can use an indoor clothes rack, or hang up a clothes line even within the house, or just drape things over chairs to dry…


Something to heat your home. If you live in a cold climate, you’ll need some sort of room heating element if you don’t have a wood stove or fireplace.

And that’s it for the very basics that you need for living.

And while its not a necessary basic for living, having a couch and maybe a coffee table makes life a lot nice, as does a desk. You can build a desk out of palletes, build a coffee table out of pallets, and you can even make a couch by combining pallets, mattresses (even homemade), and pillows.

But there’s no reason to furnish your home that simply! You can start off with furnishing it that simply, and then, as you find/get more things, upgrade.

Dumpster Dive:
There are so many things that you can find in the dumpster. Firstly, wooden boards and beams and wooden pallets can often be found in the trash or at construction sites (ask if you can take if from a construction site) and can be used to build many of the aforementioned things.
But that is often not necessary, because you can usually find ready furniture in the trash. I’ve found in the dumpster (and have/had in my house) book cases, chairs (wooden, metal, and plastic), tables, cabinets, beds, couches, arm chairs, coffee tables, among others… Sometimes the furniture in the trash needs a little bit of loving (reupholstering, screw tightening, etc…), but a lot of times you can even find perfect things in the trash. Wealthier neighborhoods are the best place to look for these things, as are the dumpsters in college dorms at the end of a semester. (College students often just throw out everything they had in their dorm room, and you can get many wonderful things there for free.)

Giveaways: 
Craigslist, FreeCycle, local online message boards and social networking sites, church bulletin boards, etc… are perfect places to request and find things that people have lying around and are giving away. I got my fridge this way, as well as my washing machine and beds, my toaster oven, a set of dishes, and much else.

Buying Second Hand:
If you can’t get free, you can often find anything you need being sold cheaply, again via Craigslist, local online message boards and social networking sites, church bulletin boards, as well as at moving sales, yard/garage sales, thrift shops, etc… Dishes and cooking implements, clothing, furniture, etc… can all be found second hand for much cheaper than you can get them new, and sometimes they are in perfect condition.

And of course, you can buy new, if you so desire, shopping sales, etc… but that will inevitably be much more expensive than if you made from scratch, dumpster dove, or or bought second hand.

My house has much more than the very basic necessities, and I don’t think people need to live like this. But knowing that if your budget is tight, this is how you can make do with spending the least money while still furnishing a place, until your finances allow you to spend more money on nice things and extra things to furnish your home.

If you enjoy crafting and have extra time and would like to save money, before you buy any extras for your home, try searching on Pinterest if there is a way you can make it yourself. For example, searching for “DIY Lamps” or “DIY Picture Frames” or “DIY Vases” will give you many terrific results chock full of cheap DIY ideas for your home.

Going through the things in my home, furniture wise:
Oven we bought new but on a tremendous sale. Our first oven we bought used, but it died.
Our fridge we got free from a community list serve.
Our washing machine we got free, via social media. (Someone heard we were looking for one, and heard someone else was giving one away, and made the match.)
Of the 13 bookcases/shelving units in our house, 2 we bought new, 4 we bought second hand, 2 we inherited, 4 we dumpster dove, and 1 my husband built from wood we dumpster dove.
We built our “hanging rack” from our shelves and a metal bar.
Our table we got free from someone about to throw it out.
Our recliner we got from someone upgrading theirs.
Some of our beds we got free from someone who was giving them away, we inherited the mattresses, and we built our loft bed.
We bought some of our chairs second hand, and some people passed on to us when they were upgrading, and a few we got from the dumpster.
Our dryer we bought second hand.
Our high chair was a hand me down.
Our bureau we found in the trash.
Our couch in our old apartment we got from the trash. (We have no room for a couch in our current apartment, so we gave ours away.)
A small table which we use as a desk we inherited…
Of our curtains/shades, one we inherited and 2 were sewn by our landlady.
Our nightstands we got free from people throwing them out.
Our heaters were hand me downs.
Our portable AC we bought used.
Our area rug we bought new from a cheap store.

Of course not everyone has the same connections or same abilities to get stuff for free or cheap as we did. But my point is- it is doable. You do NOT need to buy everything new and spend a lot of money in order to have a well furnished home. Furnishing cheaply means thinking outside the box, making do with mismatched furniture and maybe less than ideal stuff until you can afford to buy exactly the type and style of furniture that you like.

Furnishing your home does NOT need to cost an arm and a leg. You can have a great home and spend very little to furnish it.

How much would you say you spent on furnishing your home? How did you get the different things? Store bought, dumpster dived, bought used, inherited, etc? What do you think are the bare basics you need for a home? If you’d furnish a new home entirely from scratch, how would you furnish it?


Linking up to Frugal Days, Sustainable Ways