New home, new furniture

A new home can often feel empty, without any real personality, and with the costs involved in moving, it might be a long time until you can put your own stamp on the rooms.

UK lifestyle blogger and Bromford customer Sarah Bailey knows a thing or two about making a house a home, so has kindly penned this guest blog with her top tips on tracking down that unique (but money-saving) piece of furniture. 

Getting the keys to your new home can be daunting, there is so much to think about, what might the neighbours be like, do you have enough money to get things sorted – if you are moving between places, having bits for your home might not be such a big deal, but what do you do when it’s your first home and perhaps you don’t have that much money to spare in doing the place up. So here’s a few tips I have come up with over the years:

Ask around the local area and find out what is available, most towns have a shop that sells second hand furniture and sometimes white goods. In Lichfield we have The Michael Lowe Charity, which offers access to a warehouse full of assorted furniture such as beds, sofas, sideboards and most furniture that you can think of, the charity can also help to the purchase some items for the home if you can prove the need.

If your local area doesn’t have a warehouse of its own then check around the national charities, ones such as British Heart Foundation, Sue Ryder and the Salvation Army all provide such shops- where large items can be brought at a highly reduced price.

Once you have sorted any large items needed, of course local charity shops and car boots can often be a wonderful source of small everyday items needed, also if you have access to the internet checking out sites such a Preloved, Gumtree and local selling pages on Facebook.

Of course sometimes it’s nice to have brand new things and while on the rare occasion they can be found in second hand stores sometimes heading to your local high street or logging onto the internet can pay off.

Head for the sales – they seem to be on more than off these days, so as soon as you see those big red signs take a peek, of course sales are for the not so fussy if you are dead set on what you really want to own, take to the internet, check prices across shops, look for vouchers and try and get what you want at the best deal possible.

Really when it comes to moving home and decorating be it a full make over or a couple of new items, planning is the key – think about what you need, don’t just go grabbing things because they look pretty.

What are your top tips for being shopping savvy?

Sarah is a Bromford customer and blogger, she is most often found blogging away at her own blog Life in a Break Down, or running a meeting place for UK Bloggers.

Follow her on twitter @Life_BreakDown