<p>An ad for Rooms-to-go popped up. Anyone buy there?</p>
<p>We totally furnished a one bedroom apartment for out grad school kid for less than one year’s worth of rental cost if you rent. Here is what we did. The first day in the new apartment, we took the kid to a mattress place that could deliver THAT day, and bought a mattress, foundation and frame. We then went to Target and got a small kitchen table, and two chairs, and a desk and chair, and bookshelf. All needed to be assembled. Rugs came from big lots (our kid had hardwood floors). We happened to be able to drove with I’m in a van, and took a small leather loveseat we had. But if not, he would have looked at Craigslist or a used furniture store for something like that. </p>
<p>Honestly…at $100 a month, you will be spending $1200 a year…to rent. I would buy.</p>
<p>DS sold it all when he left two years later. </p>
<p>We spent way more than that - but it included linens, pillows, sleeper couch, desk, office chair, several dressers, shelving units, full mattress, bedframe,etc… It’s amazing how much furniture you can fit in a 325 sq ft apartment!</p>
<p>Big Lots can have decent cheap furniture as well. We have a dresser from there that we got when S got tired of his bunk beds with built in storage. It’s lasted for years. Not fancy but it was cheap and surprisingly sturdy. </p>
<p>Thanks for all of the suggestions of places to look for cheap furniture, some of which I wouldn’t have thought of. </p>
<p>I went to Ikea. You will more than likely spend more renting furniture over the course of 3 years that buying inexpensive stuff. The Ikea stuff will last longer than 3 years so after graduation they will have some stuff they can use.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I used Cort furniture when D was in law school as D was not plan on staying there after graduation. The process was seamless: they worked with the management at her apt building, which housed a lot of grad students and apartment was set up when she got there (it was really nice furniture and I did pay for upgrades like pillow top mattresses), and they picked it up at the end of the school year (since she she came back to work in NYC for the summer). When she wanted different furniture, she ordered it on line and it was set up. </p>
<p>When it time to come back to New York, they came picked everything up and no hassles. (we sent dishes, sheets, etc before she to there and the building was able to store her stuff. The people at Cort were pleasant to work with and we had no problems over the 3 years.</p>
<p>The one thing I learned from undergrad, everything you purchase, will eventually have to be moved and it would have cost too much to purchase furniture and have it moved back to NYC when she finished school. For our house, it was a perfect solution and worked out great. </p>
<p>“Big Lots” are incredibly low quality. Do not waste your $$$ there. </p>