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.