My 1st place in college was totally furnished by the U. When we moved off campus in college and law school, we only moved into furnished places. When I finally got my own apt after graduating, I bought the table, chairs, curtains from prior tenants and just brought over my old dresser and had a single mattress on the floor. It was so easy to clean my little place with barely any furniture!
My S got things from ikea and online. It was very nicely furnished—better than my 1st places by far but we didn’t have online resources back in the day.
I had a door and bricks for my desk—very handy to have such a large flat surface and very economical.
I was hesitant to post on this topic, but since my experience was so different than my son’s I thought I should give is a try.
My first rental was while I was in the USAF after growing tired of life in the single men’s barracks. It was small 1 bedroom apartment in a sketchy area of San Antonio TX, with suspiciously stained green shag carpeting, a small kitchen, and a window unit AC (very noisy). Initially, all I had was a twin mattress on a metal frame, an AM/FM clock radio to wake up with (and listed to music), and an ironing board and iron (so could press my uniforms). It was a bleak place but I could afford it on enlisted pay, and slowly, over time, other things were added – a ratty sofa complete with duct-taped tears, and a small black and white TV with a broken antenna.
Flash forward 40 years or so and I helped our son move in to his first apartment. His financial situation was totally different than mine after a few high paying college internships and a very interesting signing bonus from his new job. His first apartment? Penthouse level in a new apartment building surrounded by tech companies in Mountain View CA. Small, expensive, but very nice with a garage parking. Since he had no furnishing outside a few computers, he did buy everything new and he was definitely opinionated on what he wanted: we shopped at Restoration Hardware, Herman Miller, and Design Within Reach. We bought electronics - McIntosh (tube based) and Sonus Faber speakers, a large 4k TV. And we bought kitchenware All-Clad. We did all this shopping over a few days! His rational was that if he was going to buy, he wanted it last and “match my aesthetic” (his words). It’s been two years and his place still looks pristine. His world starting out is much different than mine was.
I didn’t include my first off campus apartment. My roommates and I were moving in for the summer term. I was the only one who stayed at the end of the spring term. Frankly, I’m not sure what we planned to do for furniture…but then this happened.
The guy across the hall knocked on the door. He asked if we might be interested in ALL the furniture in his apartment, and the dishes too. Since we had nothing, I said sure! Well…he and his friends moved in all their furniture that had been “appropriated” from the dorms. We had four twin beds with mattresses (we used one as a couch), dressers, desks, chairs, and even dining hall dishes and utensils.
When we left, one of the roommates took all the bedroom furniture for her first “real” apartment. I took the dishes. I think the rest was left just left there.
Honestly…I’ve wondered off and on how they appropriated all that stuff…but they were graduating and moved out and I never asked!
Daughter bought IKEA (or so) bed & mattress for first rented apartment Junior year. Senior year a tiny writing table and equally tiny side table with drawers was added - that’s all that would (barely) fit in her room.
For the common living room there was used furniture that her room mates had already acquired from other students leaving the city. Her 3 personal pieces moved 3 times by now in as many years. First apartment outside of Manhattan (unsurprisingly) accommodated more space in her room - so a tall shelf-unit from Ikea was added.
This year was the first time that she actually started with a completely empty apartment. She’s big into thrift stores, so all major living room furniture came from some local “Buy Nothing” Facebook group (or whatever those are) for that city. With that source, the new roommate and her spent a few hundred dollars - delivered, and have been accessorizing/personalizing since then.
My first apartment was senior year of college, and I bought furniture (bed, recliner, table, dresser, some kitchen stuff) from a friend who had to leave school due to losing SS benefits and her ill mom needed care. Didn’t want to pay to haul it from GA to TX. Still have the dresser and the pyrex pans.
We didn’t buy a sofa til we’d been married almost six years. Still have the sofa (ugh).
I’ve been buying brown furniture made of real wood of late. FB Marketplace has worked well. Am repainting some of it. Our 1990 IKEA dressers are finally in their last legs. The Billy bookcases live on. Bought a dining room set w/china cabinet from a work colleague as she was unloading stuff from her parents’ home. That was over 25 years ago.
My craft room is a mix of IKEA and Costco. It’s a small room, so I focus on efficiency.
S1 got Ikea stuff when he first moved to CA; former DIL bought most of it when they split up. He moved to an apt with other folks, so didn’t need a lot. Now that he has a house, he’s been filling it gradually.
S2 and DIL pay $325/mo for a 2 BR furnished apartment. They haven’t bought much in the way of household goods, because they don’t want to leave stuff behind if they have to evacuate. When he was in college, everyone left the stuff they didn’t want to ship home in the front lobby, free to all. He acquired a very nice kitchen in this manner – but it’s sitting here in our basement. If they decide to move to the US, we’ll offer him whatever stuff they want.
My first apartment was a TINY studio in NYC so not a ton of furniture. Big purchase was a discounted Castro Convertible loveseat. Also got a cheap table and bookshelf from some local place.
S also had a small studio as his first apartment and got furniture from Bob’s Discount.
D’s first apartment was her tiny grad school apartment with two friends which was furnished with a combination of a bed and rug from home, a desk from Wayfair, and a cheap Home Goods dresser. Living Room had a cheap IKEA futon and stuff that was used in their college rooms.
Furniture is almost entirely about comfort and functionality for me – not appearance. So I care about things like how comfortable my recliner is or how soft/firm my mattress is. I don’t care about other seats besides my recliner that I will not use. I don’t care about tables, inn tables, desks, lamps, … beyond how functional they are for their intended purpose.
I drove to my first apartment directly from campus, with no furniture. I arrived in the evening to an empty, unfurnished apartment and slept in a sleeping bag that night. The next day I used a portion of my sign-up bonus to buy furniture. It was not a particularly memorable experience. I bought a few items at furniture stores, generally the least expensive option I could find that served the intended functional purpose. I still have the kitchen table today, which is a small glass table, with 2 rolling chairs. It works well for its functional purpose, so no reason to change it. One key exception was my recliner. I bought a quality recliner from La-Z-Boy that was not among the less expensive options. However I found it very comfortable, and it lasted many years, until my GF broke it…
More recently my parents gave me a new recliner as a birthday/Christmas present this year because they noted that my existing recliner was in poor condition when they visited. It had a variety of tears, as well as broken sprigs in the seat bottom, giving it bucket seats. Nevertheless, I found it comfortable, so I kept using it.
Finding a new recliner was an involved process that took me many weeks, and included 2 different exchanges for something else. I eventually settled on a La-Z-Boy Reed rocker recliner with swivel base. The sales docs say the chair is intend for petite persons under 5’3", yet I find it fits me better than recliners intended for my size (I am >6ft). The armrests are at a natural distance, my feet can comfortably touch the floor without shoes, and my head rests on the soft pillow area of the chair if I lean back. It took months to break it in, but now I enjoy the new recliner and find it quite comfortable.
DD has always filled her places with vintage finds - MCM table & chairs that needed new upholstery (looks amazing and could last another 20+ years), coffee table, bar cart and lamps, it’s a bit eclectic, just like her, but all ties in nicely. The only “new” pieces were her bed (platform), her couch and her drawing/sewing desk that can enlarge as needed to accommodate fabric cutting. I don’t think she took anything from her old room.
I’m happy that she doesn’t buy crap furniture - I was always a vintage shopper. I like items with character and pieces that will last.