Furnishing a flat

Hello, I'm hoping for some advice. My partner and I are moving to the East Midlands very soon. I've been looking at all kinds of housing, and want to live close to my office since I will be walking everywhere. I have had a terrible time trying to find anything furnished, as I thought that would be easiest. The ones I find are mostly far from where I want to live or don't really show pictures. But there are some lovely, affordable places near where I want to live.

How hard is it to find furnishings and get them delivered? I am a postgrad student so I don't have a lot of cash. I spent some time in the Ikea in the US testing things out, but it looks like it's way more expensive in the UK and there isn't an Ikea nearby. I do know that there is an Argos in town (an Argos Extra or something) and online they have lots of good furniture. Will things still be on sale in the week or two after xmas? And if I only decide to stay in my flat for 6 months or so, is there some kind of uhaul or affordable moving option?

The idea of refurnishing a whole place has me stressed out. If i can just get a couch and bed and some dishes I'll be happy. We are only bringing like 2 suitcases each for our move.

You can often get quite decent furniture free on Freecycle, or quite cheaply on Gumtree, but the downside is you often have to pick these up yourself unless you can work out with the giver/seller to bring it to you. If you really want new stuff, January is the sale month, so lots of stuff will be on sale at that time. We've been in unfurnished flats our last 2 moves, and we hired a transit van for less than £100 for a weekend. Not including our bed, which we already had from IKEA for £100 + £90 for the mattress, we kitted out our current flat for about £400, which included a corner leather couch, a 4 seater table and chairs, 2 chests of drawers and a wardrobe, all thanks to Gumtree. In our previous flat we had a futon obtained free on Freecycle. Another thing I did when we first moved into an unfurnished flat was I sent an e-mail around my department (I work at a uni and was a Ph.D. student at the time) asking if anyone had spare furniture they wanted to give away or sell cheaply. I ended up with a free wardrobe, coffee table, chest of drawers, linen trunk, set of pots and pans, and some other kitchen bits, plus we got a nearly 3 piece living room suite for I think £200 (we took that one because it was nicest, but we were also offered quite usable sofas for as little as £10), a cordless phone for £10 and a table for £10. As for things like dishes and silverware, charity shops are brilliant for that sort of thing, as long as you don't mind a bit of mismatching!

Great, thank you so much. That puts me more at ease. I'll be a PhD student too, so that is good advice. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any sort of local gumtree for where I'll be living as I can rarely find anything listed for the city, so I must be out in the middle of nowhere. But it's a college town so I suppose there will be lots of people getting rid of things. I forgot about freecycle!

If you do want to get a bed and the like from IKEA, there are stores in Coventry, Birmingham, and Milton Keynes.  They do deliver and you might be in their free delivery zone.  Worth checking out.

I also have found that IKEA is a bit more expensive here, however like Dar said, there are stores in Coventry, Birmingham, and Milton Keynes.  Delivery (depending on where you are) may be anywhere from free to £50. 

Argos also sells inexpensive furniture and will deliver.  Delivery time (at least when we ordered) was 35 days. 

Besides Freecycle and Gumtree which are both great options for not new, but new to you furnishings, check out local Charity shops.  Most will have some furniture or furnishings.  I know there's a few in my town that had sofas and chairs.

Plus there are loads of sales going on right now for Christmas... possibly even better ones just after Christmas.

Where will you be? I don't have an exact Gumtree for my area, but I searched in the nearest big city and there were loads of people in the general vicinity using that site because it was the closest, so even if there isn't one for your exact town, there might still be people nearby advertising things. I would also check if your student union has a message board; my uni's does, and there is a board specifically for people getting rid of things. This is mostly small stuff, like microwaves and clothes drying racks, but sometimes you get computer desks and bookshelves. If you do find a place, it's also worth asking your landlord if they're willing to help out. Our first flat originally wasn't going to have a fridge-freezer (oh yeah, be sure to check that it will have white goods or you'll be stuck getting appliances!), hoover or eating ware (plates, glasses, silverware, mugs) but we convinced our landlady that these were fairly basic things people would expect to have and she got them for us.

Any charity shops near you?
I'm in a furnished flat, but still needed a few bits and got a shelving unit and a table & chairs from a local charity shop.

As for moving, you can rent trucks if you have a driving licence here, but you can also hire a man with a van (or men with ven if it's a bigger move ).  You have to be careful with this, but you can often get a good deal if you can find one that is reliable.  

As for Ikea, many do deliver outside their free or cheap delivery zone.  You just need to contact them about it.

Many online stores will deliver furniture (especially things like beds and mattresses) nationwide.  It might be more difficult to find something in Ikea price range, but it probably can be done through other shops.

Just to let you know, if you order any furniture from Argos or DFS or a lot of places like that, you often have to wait several months for delivery. We waited 16 weeks for our sofa and chair from DFS and about the same amount of time for our wardrobe and dresser from Argos. It can take ages. I would definitely look in shop windows, as well, or wherever you happen to see that people post flyers of furniture they want to get rid of. Here in our tiny village, people often put up notes with phone numbers for things they want to sell, so have a look around and see what you can find.

Wow, thanks everyone. I'm moving to Lincoln, and I haven't exactly found a place yet, but I have this fantasy that I will be able to get it all done online. It looks like there are a lot of stores in the area though, as I'm looking in the city center. If i have to sleep on the floor for a few days I can just deal.

Don't forget Ebay! We got some brand new furniture off Ebay at about 1/4 the original price.

Definitely agree with eBay! When we were emigrating we listed everything on eBay. In the end we took stupid prices for stuff just to be rid of it. And anything that didn't sell went to the local charity shop. They're definitely worth a look! 

DrSuperL99: Thanks for reminding me of Freecycle! A friend of mine back in the states was involved in running his local one. I just found one for Milton Keynes! Yay!

And Ikea can deliver for FREE? Since there's one in MK, we might fall under that umbrella! And we're moving from a furnished flat to an unfurnished house in about a month or so, so that's fantastic!

I'm not sure what it will be like in Lincoln, but, when we looked at actual rental places in the East Midlands, it was rare to find one that was completely unfurnished.

People leave A LOT of stuff behind in rentals in these parts... This is especially the case in rentals that are for undergraduate or postgraduate students...So, I would advise you against buying things online before you move in...

There's always air mattresses until you can get a bed, bit more comfy than a floor.

Freecycle and gumtree and charity shops definitely the way to go.