As any tiny homeowner knows, saving money is not the only driving force behind choosing a house that is smaller than some family rooms. Some will pour those savings into getting a nicer piece of land so that they can be more in touch with nature. Others are more motivated by environmental/carbon footprint concerns.
But regardless of the reason you chose this lifestyle, the last thing you want to do is waste a lot of money on furniture. That said, we all need furniture. We need something to sleep on, sit on, and eat on. So the first and best way to save money is to keep those priorities in mind. Here are a few others:
Buy À la carte
When you are shopping for luxury items among brands like Marge Carson Furniture, you will need to fight the urge to buy complete sets. Look for the stand-alone pieces like the Marge Carson Isadora chair & a half. You don’t need a whole couch. And you certainly don’t need a whole living room suite. So don’t pay for one.
The same thing applies to the bedroom area. Bedroom suites usually involve an awful lot of really large furniture, the vast majority of which is not required for a good night’s sleep. The best way to save money on furniture is not to buy furniture you don’t need.
Use Found Money
Found money is the money that comes to hand that was not really in the budget. It could actually be money you found. You would be surprised at how quickly that sort of thing can add up when kept in the right way.
It could also be a nice, fat tax refund. Instead of upgrading a perfectly good computer, why not pick up a statement piece for that dead corner?
You can also fashion a savings account for the things you didn’t buy. Put $20 into it everytime you decide against eating out, or $40 everytime you decide not to go to the movies. After a few months of quantifying what you didn’t buy, you will have plenty enough for some much needed furnishings.
Buy Dual-purpose Furniture
A tiny home does not need both a 27” 5K iMac and a 4k TV. The one can serve the purpose of both. This may also be true for the desk and the dining table. Those do not have to be two pieces of furniture, especially if the computer is a laptop. Just buy one piece that can serve both purposes.
A footrest that serves as a coffee table, that serves as storage is the kind of out-of-the-box thinking that expands the budget in a house that doesn’t provide much room for expansion. Items like Murphy beds and fold up tables also serve a dual purpose. They do their business when needed, and free up space when not needed.
Use found money to buy only the furniture you need, and only that which serves more than one purpose. Utilizing this strategy will help your tiny house into a perfect home.