<p>Hello parents, I’m a student looking for some advice from more experienced hands. Next school year I’ve got a room in an apartment in NYC that is, as the thread title says, unfurnished and on the 6th floor with no elevator. I’m planning to go back to school a couple of days earlier than I normally would have to furnish the room, but a few logistical questions are bugging me:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>I was thinking IKEA, since I can get all the big furniture items I need there at one go and flat-packing should make it easier to haul furniture up the stairs, but I wonder if that’s the best deal. I personally really like the IKEA aesthetic, so that’s a big plus for them. The downside is that I’ll have to get them to deliver, or find someone to help me drive the stuff over. (I’ve just been told by a friend that their delivery is $99 no matter how much I buy, which is good.)</p></li>
<li><p>Craigslist looks like it has some pretty good deals, but I wonder if the effort requires outweighs the savings to be gained from buying used or picking up stuff free.</p></li>
<li><p>Am I missing something? I keep feeling like I am. I mainly want to get the big items (bed, mattress and bedding, desk, desk chair, probably a bookcase, some way to keep my clothes - it occurs to me I don’t know if I have a closet) done before school starts. Once that’s done, I can take my time to populate my room with everything else I need.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I don’t drive. I’m not sure if my new roommate does. I might be able to find someone who is able to drive and help me schlep stuff, though I’d prefer not to if there is decent delivery service.</p>
<p>Since I expect to renew the lease at the end of the next school year, I don’t mind paying a little more to get decent furniture plus delivery, but I don’t want to pay more than I need to, either. Any advice?</p>
<p>If you’re going to buy a bunch of stuff from Ikea, pay them the $99 for delivery. Inform them when you buy that you are on the 6th floor. There should not be any problem with that – e.g., extra charge or refusal to climb the stairs – but if there is, better you should know about it upfront.</p>
<p>You keep feeling like you’re missing something because you are anxious. I know that feeling well. :)</p>
<p>Maybe some sort of nightstand or bedside table. And a table and chair or two for you to eat from, and a couch and a few chairs for company. TV stand??</p>
<p>IKEA has a desk that attaches to a cubicle bookcase that you can also put baskets in. </p>
<p>Definitely pay to have someone else bring it up the steps. Those boxes full of particle board pieces are heavy and you don’t want to worry about finding parking, etc., etc.</p>
<p>And, once you’re settled, do a big grocery shopping with all the staples and have it delivered. For your fresh stuff, like veggies and meat, go once a week and carry it up.</p>
<p>(My first apartment was “only” a fourth-floor walk-up in NYC.)</p>
<p>I think you have the costs/convenience issue analyzed very well. If you reaaallly want to shave pennies, I supposed you could leave the IKEA dresser and bookshelves out of your first purchase, and pull clothes and books out of your cardboard boxes for the first few weeks. That’d give you a chance to see if there’s a free or discounted opportunity on CL for dresser and bookshelf. </p>
<p>That said, my son who’s lived in NYC for 7 years now post-college without a car finds it hard to negotiate a Craigslist used furniture situation, exactly because of the delivery problem you figured out. He has a friend or two with vehicle, but there are too many logistics and timings to solve among all the parties.</p>
<p>If he notices something on CL that’s within a mile of his apartment, he’ll sometimes make an offer on that. If it’s close enough, he can hand-carry it home with his roommate (in his case, a wife!). </p>
<p>Wise to check on extra IKEA delivery fees for any walkup, especially 6 floors. If obnoxious, you might get them to deliver to your apartment lobby at an exact appointed time-window when you’re home; then muscle them upstairs yourself. Just don’t leave any box for a minute unattended in the apartment lobby (unless of course you have a doorman! :)</p>
<p>You should also look at bobs furniture. My bobs dot com. Inexpensive real furniture that comes assembled. They will deliver at a price…</p>
<p>I would figure out what the Ikea assembly will take in terms of time before deciding what a good deal it is. (says the person that waited 6 months until company was coming to assemble the tv stand)</p>
<p>In another city, someone without a car solved this by renting a Zipcar (hourly) to do his own furniture delivery of one futon double mattress. He was able to fold the item and fit it into the sedan – just barely! He drove back for the frame.</p>
<p>The issue for you would be the size of the IKEA flat boxes. and Does NYC have Zipcar? Again, it’s all money, just arranged differently.</p>
<p>…and isn’t sure if roommate can drive, or possibly another friend. That’s why I engaged in discussion of vehicle options, slim as it is.</p>
<p>The weight of the boxes - particleboard- might be a key factor to this decision, as MDMom noticed. It all depends on physique, but I hear it’s not easy to get those particular boxes up flights of stairs.</p>
<p>Fat fifty something and svelte twenty something muscled small bookcases up one long flight. Not really very fun. BUT keep those steps in mind when you pick things out. DD and I checked out weights in the store to make sure we could handle them.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice and VeryHappy, thanks for the reassurance! Regarding driving or delivery, I’m thinking that if I’m going to rent a vehicle and inconvenience a friend to drive my furniture home for me, I might as well pay a professional to do it. I asked a friend who loaded and drove her own furniture home when she was furnishing her new apartment and she said it was not worth the trouble. I suppose it’ll be delivery then.</p>
<p>I just spent a month traveling with a non-rolling duffel bag weighing between 35 and 45 lbs - bad planning, my fault - including a 40-minute horrorshow trekking up and down the (very hilly) old city of Granada with it, so I’m certainly not keen on having a repeat of that come September. I’m prepared however for the possibility that delivery guys will refuse to climb six floors, so at least if it’s flat-pack I know I can carry it up myself or with a friend, however unpleasant that may be.</p>
<p>I’ve assembled IKEA furniture before, though it’s always been shelves so nothing too complicated. I have to admit I take a lot of pleasure in putting things together with my hands - I sometimes wonder if I missed my calling as an engineering major (engineer parents! I grew up around disassembled parts) - so I don’t mind the assembly process. On the other hand if I can find cheap, sturdy furniture that comes assembled, there’s no reason not to take it.</p>
<p>Bob’s Discount Furniture looks good - very good, actually. I can’t find a delivery price listed on the website, so I’ve emailed them and I’ll see what they say. It’s nice to have an alternative to IKEA.</p>
<p>Wow, that must be some kind of customer service record. Five minutes later Bob’s has replied… delivery charges range from $40 to $230. No mention of charges or conditions for a walk-up, so I’ve just fired off another email asking them to clarify about that.</p>
<p>Make sure your big items can go up the stairs & around corners. Spaces tend to get narrower/smaller as you go up.</p>
<p>S lived on a 5th fl. walkup in East Village for a year. He said he got very good at remembering stuff the first time so he wouldn’t have to go back up again!</p>
<p>I did the math and figured that the difference between IKEA and Bob’s is about $500 to $700, depending on how much stuff I get. I could get half my stuff from one place and the other half from another, but then I’d be paying two delivery fees and have double the inconvenience, so I’ll probably go with one or the other. I expect to stay in this apartment for two years, possibly up to three years, but almost certainly not longer than that.</p>
<p>Is the extra cost worth the added quality + not having to assemble the furniture? I’ll probably see if I can sell the furniture to whoever takes over my lease, and the difference in resale value might also make it worth springing for better quality furniture.</p>
<p>I’m not terribly cash-strapped, but $500-$700 is a lot of money. On the other hand, I don’t want to have to worry about my desk or bed falling apart when I’m writing my senior thesis or whatever. A friend of mine has a VIKA table - it was probably $20 or $30 or some obscenely low price like that, and just a couple of years in it was already sagging in the middle under the weight of her books.</p>
<p>zoosermom: Thanks for the reminder. I wouldn’t have bought or picked up a used mattress in any case, but I forgot about the bedbugs - couches, armchairs, etc. </p>
<p>Incidentally - as a film student, I’ve had to move gear in and out of dorms and apartments, mostly walk-ups. With everyone splitting the work, it’s manageable, though I’ve sometimes cursed under my breath when I’ve found out that so-and-so lives on the fifth floor. I remember one particular shoot where the director was on the fourth or fifth floor and we had to bring dolly tracks downstairs - we ended up with a relay system where someone would pass it down the stairwell to someone on a lower floor, and then run down two flights to pick it up and so on… I also remember swearing I’d live on the ground floor or in a building with an elevator. Now I’ve bested them all - but you don’t turn down a rent-controlled apartment 20 minutes from school!</p>
<p>Definitely giving the delivery guys a nice big tip…</p>
<p>Actually, I recommend unassembled furniture. D lived in a 5th floor walk-up in NYC and I don’t think assembled furniture would have gotten around every corner of every staircase. It was different on every floor. Furniture in pieces in boxes is lighter and easier to negotiate if you have folks to watch it or help you carry it up. I definitely recommend delivery fee.</p>
<p>When she left the apartment she sold the furniture to the new tenant to avoid the headache of taking it apart because it would not have gotten down the stairs.</p>
<p>However, consider the possibility that two or three years from now the new tenant doesn’t want to buy your used Ikea furniture. Keep the assembly instructions, so you can take it apart, pack it up, and reassemble it in your new digs. Or give it to a younger sibling.</p>
<p>Don’t forget you can save money by the time-honored method of using cinder blocks, milk crates, and boards for shelving, even for desks. If you should come across any raw materials, that is. :)</p>