Furnishing your place for the first time can feel overwhelming. Whether you’re moving into your first apartment or you’ve purchased your first place, needing to scrape together a lot of furniture at once can seem impossible – and expensive.

You don’t need to furnish your entire house all at once. Just make sure you get the essentials to start with, and then you can take your time picking out additional stuff. You’ll need furniture for your bedroom, and furniture to eat and entertain. The rest you can buy as you need it or as you’re able to afford it. 

Take Stock

Before you head out to buy furniture, take stock of what you have. If you’re moving into your first home after living in apartments for a while, chances are you have some furniture. If you’re moving in with a significant other, the two of you will both have some furniture. If you’re moving into your very first apartment and having nothing, as family members or friends of the family if they have any hand-me-down pieces you can use to start out.

Decide what pieces you want to take with you to the new house and where they’re going to go. Many people take the opportunity to pare down their belongings when moving into a new house, and you may not want to bring all of your existing furniture with you, especially if you’re combining households with someone else. Donate any pieces you don’t want that are still in good condition.

Prioritize the Essentials

When you’re faced with the task of furnishing an entire house, it’s helpful to prioritize the most essential pieces of furniture in the rooms you use the most, maybe an oval dining room table, so you have what you need to eat, sleep, relax, and entertain from day one.

For most people, that means the first pieces you should buy are a decent bed, a sofa, a dining room table, and a dresser. Once you have those essentials, you can move onto buying other stuff, like bar & counter stools for your kitchen breakfast bar, a coffee table for your living room, a TV stand, additional sofas or chairs, and so on.

Measure Your Rooms Before You Go Shopping

It can be hard to look at a piece of furniture in the showroom and know whether it’s going to fit in your home. The last thing you need is to get a piece of furniture home, possibly paying a hefty delivery fee to do so, only to discover that it doesn’t fit where you wanted to put it.

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Measure your rooms before you go shopping. You should measure not only the length and width of the rooms, but also the height of the ceilings so you can install ceiling fans. Draw up a floor plan of the room you’re trying to furnish, and make sure to include exact measurements. Note the location of things like windows, doors, stairways, corridors, outlets, and vents in the floor or wall. Include the height and width of windows, stairways, doors, and corridors. Take this floor plan and a measuring tape with you when you shop for furniture, so you can measure pieces and compare those measurements to the dimensions of the rooms where they will go.

Buy Expensive Pieces Secondhand

A whole house full of brand new furniture isn’t in the budget for a lot of people, and that’s okay. You might only be able to afford to buy a few new pieces, and maybe not even the most expensive stuff. However, there are plenty of used furniture stores and secondhand stores where you can pick up good quality furniture on the cheap. Visit thrift shops and consignment stores in your area and keep your eyes peeled for bargains. Browse Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace. Go to yard sales, garage sales, and flea markets. Examine secondhand items carefully before you buy them to make sure they’re still in good shape and clean, or at least able to be cleaned.

Bring Eclectic Styles Together

If you’re buying a lot of your furniture secondhand, you’re probably not going to find many matching sets – although you’d be surprised at what you can find at a good secondhand furniture store. An eclectic look can be just as striking as a matchy-matchy one. Use a few striking items to draw attention to your favorite pieces, and match things like wood type and color or decorating style instead.

Furnishing your home doesn’t have to be a chore. You can have fun shopping for used furniture and styling it in your home. With a little patience and planning, you can put together a well-appointed, lovely home.