How to Furnish an Apartment Cheaply in Barcelona, and other large cities.

Barcelona, like almost all big cities, is extremely expensive. And if you aren't lucky enough to find a furnished rental, you will find that furnishing your apartment can cost you lots of euros.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• patience
• cleaning supplies
• paint
• a dolly or a friend to help move.

1. Buy the absolute essentials (mattress, pillows, sheets, towels) that you have to have new for your place right away. These items will be the least expensive at Chinese shops, IKEA, and Carrefour. If you are lucky enough to be looking during the sales in January or July, even better!

2. If your big household appliances aren't provided, a great place to look for good second hand stuff is online at sites like loquo.com and ebay.com. Sometimes there are advertisements in local papers as well. Another idea is to negotiate the inclusion of these items from your landlord for a small increase in monthly rent (depending on what kinds of deals you find, this could be worth your while).

3. For other wooden items like chairs, tables, wardrobes and dressers, a great way to find unusual furniture is "dumpster diving"...which in Barcelona is amazing because furniture is actually not placed inside, but beside the dumpster, and only on certain days of the week in certain neighborhoods. For example, in my neighborhood, Eixample, it's on Tuesdays between 8-10pm. I've found lots of neat stuff, dressers, nightstands, tables and chairs.

4. Any furniture found on the street must be carried home, so this is where the dolly or your friend will come in handy. If an item is really heavy a friend with a car can seem heaven-sent.

5. Once safe and sound in your apartment, any new pieces of furniture must be cleaned and disinfected (just in case). Sometimes I even refinish and paint the furniture I find to match other furnishings...but this is up to you, depending on how much time and money you are willing to invest.

6. Another cheap place to find cheap furniture is at mercadillos. There is a very large one at Glories on Saturday mornings. Buyer beware, a lot of the stuff they're selling you can find on the street for free, and that's exactly what the seller did.

7. If all else fails, IKEA all the way, they even offer delivery.

Tips & Warnings

• Relax and look at furnishing your apartment as a long-term gradual project. Once you've got the essentials, you can just pick up things as you find them for free, or at a reasonable price.
• Picking up used furniture is not for the weak of heart nor the nearsighted and is actually very competitive in Barcelona. Do not leave behind a piece of furniture in the street you are interested in, chances are when you return, it will be gone.

[Wasatch]

on 10/14/2008 Fun info. Spent a lot of time in Europe but not Spain yet.

[cherry67]

on 10/3/2008 cool and creative ideas