Free Furniture, or: How My Stuff Cost Me Less than $100
The two images near the end of this post are of my living room and my bedroom, both of which I’ve shared previously. They’re being revealed once more because all of that cost me less than $100 total to get. Free furniture never looked so good.
That’s right – I got almost all of my nice shit FOR FREEEEEEE. DARCY’S LIVING LARGE WITH FREE FURNITURE AND THAT MUCH MORE MONEY IN THE BANK!!!!!! Frugalwoods waxes poetry on the Boston free-stuff scene and I enthusiastically agree. It’s amazing what others consider trash when it’s still got a lifetime of use ready to offer. There are two groups of people specifically that I get most of my things from, and who basically subsidize my largest possessions.
Academic Appreciation
The first is college students, who are infamous for leaving their very nice things behind during moving days. It’s so well-known in Boston that there’s a pseudo-holiday surrounding it called Allston Christmas.
Allston is a local neighborhood with one of the densest populations of students, which means a high turnover of renters coming in and out every year. That time of year falls around September 1st, which is when most leases expire and new ones begin. The freaking cacophony of moving trucks, harried parents, massive dumpsters and rowdy college kids does make it a festival of sorts. Sometimes you might even see Santa riding a mattress being pulled behind a truck (in lieu of December’s sleigh and reindeer). And no, I’m not exaggerating that.
So that’s fun. Come Allston Christmas there’s plenty of incredible finds to be had, which isn’t actually concentrated in Allston but the entire city area. Anywhere with a high percentage of renters also experiences this exodus of purged goods every year. It’s not unusual to find listings in said free sections of folks offering the contents of their entire apartment.
I’m not kidding with that either. Entire apartments. Free furniture, appliances, and odds-and-ends galore. Through this I get things that are sturdy and can be cleaned easily, if I were to go that route. If I was a flipper, I’d be all over these deals, especially for mini-fridges. Good God, the amount of mini-fridges would make a state school dean blush.
Rich Folk Riddance
Most everything I own, however, comes from the second group of people. This is mainly due to location constraints – I don’t have a car and have a limited geographic radius from which I can get things easily (more on this in the next section). I also live in a very suburban area, meaning we have very few, if any, college kids around here.
Instead, there’s mostly very wealthy families in million- and multimillion-dollar homes. Families who like getting new things on a regular basis. Families who cycle through perfectly nice trappings in favor of the latest models.
You can see where I’m going with this.
You can also see where I come in the picture: once these families decide to offload their furniture I’m there ready and eager to haul their discarded belongings off no questions asked. Getting everything in these pictures took place over several months, but by Month 4 of renting my apartment I had pretty much everything you see here.
The best part about getting free furniture from rich folks is how nice their things are. The only things I was initially leery about getting used were the couches and chairs – I’ve heard enough horror stories about bedbugs to not make another. But these have turned out to be non-issues, as I sourced the furniture directly from these rich-people homes (they never made it to the curb, thank you very much). Nobody even dares breathe the word “bedbugs” in homes like theirs. I’m pretty sure they’d consider it too great of an insult to give me free furniture with even a scratch on it.
The Details
The only costs are getting these finds back to your place, which are easy enough with your own car, a Zipcar, or a willing friend. If the item is small enough (like a nightstand or rolled-up carpet) you COULD use a rideshare. For small-enough things I might’ve gotten a Lyft to help me transport, ONLY EVER getting the Lyft XLs. Don’t burden them with the bigger stuff; that’s not being thrifty, that’s being cheap. Either rent a big enough vehicle or call a friend that owes you a couch-sized favor.
It’s worth reiterating this free-furniture haul took several months to amass; you can’t just hop on Freecycle or Craigslist or LetGo and immediately have your pick of great finds. It takes time to check these sites on the daily for what you want to get. Some things only show up very rarely, like bookcases or bed frames. Other things are more common, like coffee tables and dining room chairs. Sometimes things are rare for months and suddenly become more common, which was the case with dressers for me. It wasn’t until I finally got a dresser that I started seeing them pop up everywhere, annoyingly enough. The ways of the trash gods remain mysterious to us mere mortals…
My Finds
This section is purely gratuitous so I can brag about everything I own. This process was similar to thrift shopping, in that my reasons for doing this were to be sustainable and save money in the process.
Firstly, I’ll point out the few things I paid for. The living room bookcase is this model from IKEA – $20. The shag rug was $10 from Cort Clearance Center (more on that in a minute). The lamp was another $20 off of Amazon. The rest was either picked up from a nearby curb or snagged from the Free sections of the Internet (Craigslist, Freecycle, and LetGo).
The couch and loveseat
Both were from the same place a street over. The lady giving them away was a delight and actually actually asked if we could delay pickup so she could deep-clean both of them. How could I say no?!
The living room chair and Ottoman
Got both of these from the same place in Back Bay. I only saw the front room but it was GORGEOUS, with marble and black accents everywhere I looked.
The living room table and floor lamp
These two were from the curb across the street from me, getting thrown out. The only issue I’ve found with the floor lamp is an ant-sized stain on the lampshade. Everything else about it is great. The end table had some water damage underneath the glass top, which I covered with some old art prints.
My kitchen barstools (not pictured)
There’s three and they were also getting thrown out! Particularly surprising because these types of stools (which are adjustable AND can swivel) go for absurdly high prices even when secondhand.
My dresser
That exact model goes for $700 new. I got it from the curb four houses down, which made for an interesting haul back to my place.
Gold shag rug
That, and a blue one in the same size, came from Cort Clearance Center, which were both $10 each. The guy told me, “I usually tell people they’re getting the best deal we can offer, but you really are getting the best deal with these.” The guy that had to roll up the carpets for transport was also really happy I picked the two smallest ones.
And rounding out my bragging is two tables (one not pictured) which are in my bedroom and the guest bedroom for working. One was from Back Bay and the other from a house a mile away. If I needed to I could resell all of this for thousands of dollars.
Yes, thousands. I’m not exaggerating.
And yes, still cost me less than $100.
This concludes the tale of Darcy’s House of Nothing New. Am I crazy for doing this or kinda smart?