How to Cheaply Furnish an Off-Campus Apartment

Leaving the dorms for off-campus housing is a big step for many college sophomores and juniors. While it can be hard to leave behind the dorm food, community bathrooms, and living quarters no bigger than a prison cell, living off-campus has it's advantages. For the first time you can decorate and furnish according to your style.

If you are moving off campus into a house or apartment, here's how you can find cheap furnishings.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Off-campus student housing is often concentrated in zones around the college or university. At the end of the Winter/Spring Semester, and at the beginning of the Autumn Semester, you should check these neighborhoods for moving sales. When seniors graduate and move out for good, they need to unload a lot of property; if they're in a big hurry, they will often leave free stuff on the curb.

2. Get acquainted with the thrift stores and consignment stores. You will undoubtedly need dishes, silverware, pots, pans, and small appliances. Thrift stores sell many of these necessities for a fraction of what they cost new.

3. For larger items, such as couches, TVs, beds, and dining room furniture, ask your landlord if he or she has extra furniture. If your landlord manages several houses and apartments, then likely he or she has a cache of furniture you can borrow.

4. Bookmark craigslist and check it daily for garage sales and giveaways. Most of the ads are "u haul," meaning that you will have to pick it up your self. If you don't have car but are willing to pay extra, some sellers will deliver it to you.

5. Large department stores in college towns often have back-to-school specials aimed at new university arrivals, dormitory residents, and college students in general. Look for deals on linens, towels, area rugs, and laundry and bathroom products.

6. When you live on a budget and have to save money on home decor, it's all too common to have a lot of dead areas in the home. Huge expanses of bare wall, empty corners and corners filled with bland storage boxes.
   
   Houseplants and cheap art prints can make an off-campus home look more like a real home. Look for lawn and garden sales, art sales, or collect maps and pages from decorative calendars.

7. Before you and your roommates move in, get together to make a list of all the things you need. Determine what you already own, and what you can borrow from friends, family, or the landlord. Try to divvy up the remaining items evenly, so that no one has to spend too much money on furnishings.