Furnishing Your New Digs (for cheap and free!)

I hope everyone has a friend like my friend Jeff (commonly know as Jefe) -- he's always up for doing something ridiculous (preferably late at night and involving a certain amount of bad beer), always calls me on my ridiculousness, and is at least eight feet tall (hugs from him are a full-bodied affair). Jeff also turns out to be amazing at sticking things into a U-Haul. When I was leaving Chicago, I figured I'd have to leave a ton of stuff behind, until Jefe totally Tetris'd just about everything I owned, fitting it into a tiny truck.

For those of you who don't have a Jeff in your life (and he's occupied with his own move to Philly this month, so no renting my friends), you'll need to buy some stuff when you get here. Here are a few cheap(er) options for procuring home furnishing when you arrive:

One argument for considering New Haven a real city: there's an IKEA. (Argument against: I saw a possum on Canner Street this week. Seriously. A possum.) Ask Mike or Dale to tell you about the big building next door they use as a billboard.

There should still be quite a few tag sales going when you get here. (If you're not from New England, you might know these as "garage sales", "moving sales" or "someone with a bunch of junk on their front porch for sale.") Walk around the East Rock neighborhood on a weekend or pay attention to telephone poles for adorable hand-made signs.

The Office of International Students and Scholars is having their own, giant tag sale on Sunday, August 23rd from 10am - 1pm. In addition to used items, they'll be selling new futon and bikes! Here's the PDF flier for this.

There are a few great Goodwill and Salvation Army stores near here. Visit the Goodwill on Dixwell to buy some of the old junk that was in the CLC office.

Freecycle is active in New Haven. While I don't know anyone who's gotten anything from it, I do know several people who have given things away. Everything on here is free; you can also put up an ad asking for something.

Trash picking stuff totally works. At the end of the month, take a stroll around to see if anyone is trashing something you can use. By now, the majority of bookshelves in my living room came from the street. They're not heirlooms, but they're also nothing a little Lysol and some elbow grease couldn't make usable.

Dale Mail, of course. Me and the roommate's first full day of bonding consisted of buying a futon, then me assembling the futon and watching football while he made a pie. (We're a pretty modern couple.)

And finally ...

The GiveAway Room. Throughout the spring and summer, YDS students, faculty and staff have contributed their old junk stuff to be donated to our new students. There's a room in the basement of Fisher Hall (one of the Divinity Apartment buildings) which doubles as the world's most exclusive used furniture showcase. Housewares, decorative items, and lots of actually useful stuff (including computer things and school supplies) are all yours for the taking. The GiveAway Room will be open every day during BTFO. Come prepared to haul away what you want! There's an incredible amount of stuff in there this year; I've seen a Motorola phone, several futons, books, and someone's entire collection of wrapping paper go in there. All yours for the taking. (Please. We need to get rid of this stuff.)

Happy scavenging!

-Kate