Before and after: $15 yard sale fix up (Photo by Carly Fisher)
No matter how many times you’ve decorated, cleaned, or rearranged the furniture, it seems there’s always something missing in that quest to make a house a home. But when you’re changing the interior of your living room faster than you can pay the credit card bills, sometimes you have to get financially crafty. Venus Zine shares some tips to help you walk away with twice the items for half the price.
Hit up Craigslist
I know, I know, I’m beating a dead horse by advising people to use Craigslist, but I can't stress how convenient it is to find furnishings — sometimes brand-new, brand-name items — for half price. Before making a trip to another chain department store, check out Craigslist’s "free," "garage sales," and "furniture" categories. Much like the personals section, a lot of what’s listed is crap, but with patience, you could walk away with, say, a brand-new Brita faucet filter and replacement cartridge for $10 or two Ikea area rugs for the price of one (I did).
Take a walk
While Craigslist and online syndicates of your local paper serve as useful tools for locating garage sales, don’t forget that not everyone is computer savvy. Sometimes a simple walk around the block helps you find a treasure. You might discover an additional five garage sales or notice a cool desk someone has left out on the curb for garbage pickup. Besides, you might as well walk off any lingering seasonal depression.
As with most garage sales, going early is best if you plan on competing with other bargain hunters, so rise and shine to get moving around 10 a.m. when most sales start — Saturdays are often better than Sundays for finding the most sales. Find out what day your local garbage pickup is and take a stroll the afternoon or evening before for any last minute throw-aways.
Estate and moving sales
Estate and moving sales are the best for turning someone else's house into your own. As opposed to buying a $5 whisk at the store, you might find a whisk and four other items for the same price. Plus, the “everything must go” mentality gives you more bargaining power because sellers would rather make a couple bucks less than kick it to the curb. On the other hand, while you could very well come across antiques and original artwork, the prices for these items are often hit or miss — particularly if the sale is run by a professional company.
Local newspapers and estatesales.net are good sources for sales in your area in addition to finding out the names of local professional estate sale companies. Many of these companies let you to subscribe to mailing lists for press releases on upcoming sales.
Dollar stores
I bet you pass several dollar stores a day without stepping into one. Though the discount stores carry a lot of random stuff, you can often score all sorts of household accessories such as kitchenware, shower curtains, and closet organizers.
Can’t fit art into you budget but sick of looking at bare walls? The dollar store often has a selection of funky picture frames perfect for sticking in a collage or some cut-outs from the latest issue of Venus Zine (ahem). While my mother, a dollar-store regular, weened me on national discount havens such as Dollar Tree and Dollar General, a great way to find the best dollar stores in your area is checking out reviews on yelp.com.
Liquidation warehouses
Most urban areas have liquidation warehouses because, in addition to high business turnover, there is a lot of pressure within the hospitality market to keep up with the latest decorating trends. Make their trash becomes your gently used room fixture.
Chicago’s Cooper Used Hotel Furniture has complete rooms from national four- and five-star hotels such as the Mirage in Las Vegas or Hotel Allegro in Chicago, according to Marian Miles, the office manager. Find steals like a complete 12-piece bedroom set from $299 to $599. In Los Angeles, Hotel Surplus Outlet liquidates high-end antique-looking items from swanky stays like Casa Del Mar, The Beverly Hills Hotel, and The Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas. Buying in bulk might help you negotiate a better deal, so if you don’t need 20 chairs, try going with a group of friends and split the bounty.
If your city doesn’t have a liquidation warehouse, online outlets such as overstock.com and nationalwholesaleliquidators.com often have half-priced, brand-new items — sometimes with free shipping. Plus, user ratings allow you to gauge how well the item will hold up. If you have a competitive streak, liquidation.com has an eBay-esque bidding forum. Miles says Cooper’s is currently updating the company’s Web site so customers can shop at cooperhotelliquidation.com.
The waiting game
Fallen in love with a coffee table from Crate and Barrel but don’t have the dough to get them now? If you can hold out, you could save up to 70% by waiting until the latest trends become last season’s overstock and are sent to the clearance section and outlet stores for companies such as crateandbarrel.com/outlet, urbanoutfitters.com, westelm.com, and anthropologie.com to name a few.
While shopping online is convenient, rummaging on foot gives you the advantage of checking out multiple bargain bins at once at outlet malls, while also getting a healthy amount of exercise. outletbound.com/usa50.html is a great tool for finding outlet malls in your area.
Patience is key
Just like sifting through items at the local thrift store (also a great place to find dirt-cheap digs), you might not find what you want or need on the first try. Go with the mindset to have fun, and if you happen to land the perfect end table in the process, consider it an added bonus.
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