Apartment Shopping

If you're like me, getting an apartment right out of college sounds really fun at first, and quickly becomes very sad when you see the price tags. Starting all over owning absolutely nothing is absolutely terrifying. Over the past few weeks I've been gathering furniture, bedding, bathroom things, and all of that fun stuff. I have to say, I was feeling pretty good about it. Until I realized that basic necessities cost a lot of money. Here are my tips and tid bits  about shopping for your first apartment if you are like me and have no money and no belongings.

Furniture
Craigslist, craigslist, craigslist. This has easily saved me more money than I ever could have imagined. Since I was buying different furniture from different sellers, I decided the easiest way to make it all somewhat match was to make sure it was all the same color. Being my preppy self, I decided on white. The other predicament was that I have a little car. It's teeny tiny. So there was no possible way I could transport any furniture. This lead me to using the craigslist in my home town where my parents could (thankfully) pick up the furniture using the large car we have at home. My first furniture purchase was my desk!

Secondly, I was lucky enough to develop a working relationship with a seller on craigslist. I emailed her about a dresser she had listed, but unfortunately, she had already sold it. However, she told me she regularly refinished furniture for people personally and offered to do a piece for me. I told her what I was looking for, and boy did she deliver! On Sunday I will be getting a BEAUTIFUL eight drawer, tall dresser with TONS of storage space (which I'm completely obsessed with).

Walmart is also a good place to look for certain things. I found a cheap night stand from Walmart that I really liked. I was striking out with craigslist and decided to look there. The nice thing with Walmart is their "site to store" feature which basically allows you to ship whatever you want from their website for free.

And of course, reach out to friends and neighbors. Chances are, someone is getting new furniture, or a new tv, or new dishes and would like to get rid of the ones they have. And, depending on your relationship with those people, you might even get these things at the very low cost of free, which is always in budget. And if it's not free, they're likely to charge you less than they would if they tried to sell it online. From doing this, I have been lucky enough to get a couch, chair, dishes, and serving plates from neighbors and family friends!

Bedding
First of all, look early, and look often. I knew that I wanted a new "grown-up" feeling room. Which meant changing the colors from bright pink and purple (yes, pink is my absolute favorite color) to a more neutral color. I settled on a gray comforter with pink and navy accents. I couldn't completely leave the pink in me behind. Sites like Overstock are going to be your best friend if you're looking early enough. You can normally find really good deals with cheap shipping. This is where I got my duvet set.

Sheets and things are something I recommend buying in increments. Buying it all at once was not a fun experience and I don't wish that kind of punch in the wallet on anyone. Thirty dollars here and there is not a lot, but adding it all at once is a very large price tag and one that I could not pay without a lot of financial trauma. I had the "oh shit. Being a grown-up is expensive" moment, and it wasn't fun. I do think Target has some of the best deals. The Room Essentials brand is basically all you will need, and is much cheaper than the other brands they carry. The same goes for things like shower curtains, curtains, and all of those other essentials that you really don't want to pay a lot of money for. Buy them over time, and not all at once. You will be doing yourself and your wallet a favor.

And of course. The Bed. If you're like me, and you have to buy your own bed, you know just how terrifying it is. Justifying spending that much money on any one thing is extremely hard. My best advice is to shop around. I went to two different places, and while the beds were basically the same, the buying experience definitely was not. The first place I went was an outlet. They offered heavily discounted products, but at the added expense of a lot of pressure to buy, something I was not expecting in my very first outing to the mattress store. I ended up going with a slightly more expensive (but still cheap) deal from Mattress Firm simply because I didn't feel pressured, and I felt a lot more comfortable with the service I was getting.

When they say you need to lay down on the beds to see what you like, they're not kidding. It feels crazy awkward and uncomfortable (and embarrassing if you decide wear a dress the day you decide to go mattress shopping.. which I totally did), but it helps a lot, and will ultimately help you make a huge decision.


And last but certainly not least, breath. I had to remind myself of this many times today after all the shopping I did. Everything will work out, and you will find exactly what you're looking for if you have the patience to shop around!