Checklist for Furniture Shopping
For months and months I’ve been complaining that my bedroom is a wreck. Jay and I have collected a hodge podge of furniture through the years and that basically results in a bedroom that looks like a college dorm. Our living room couch is also pretty uncomfortable so we’ve been meaning to replace it. So we finally decided to go furniture shopping. I used this checklist of course because as you know — I don’t do anything without a list!
1. Know What You Need: With all the furniture that we’ve acquired we’ve also gotten used to having a lot of extra space for our clothes. This is very important when you’re looking for new furniture – you must have a clear picture of what kind of space and storage you will need.
2. Get Your Measurements: When Jay and I first moved into our new apartment we bought a couch that was way too large for the space we needed! (We did measure – but I don’t know what went wrong!) Anyway – this taught us that you have to double and triple check your measurements! Also consider the size of your door — you don’t want to buy a piece that won’t even fit through the entrance!
3. Set a Budget: It doesn’t make sense to look at furniture that you can’t afford. I’ve been there before – you fall in love with a piece, you feel bad that you can’t have it and then you end up feeling defeated and buy nothing. Know your budget and then your expectations should match.
4. Do Your Homework: We ended up buying our furniture at Bob’s Discount Furniture because they have the best value (and everything matched!!!) But we did check out a few other furniture chains to compare prices and sets. I wrote out measurements and descriptions for each of the sets that we liked so we could compare them against each other.
5. Sleep On It: After we picked a bedroom set and sofa that we really liked we went home without buying anything. I like to do this because impulse buys can be the very worst kind. I wanted to think about where each piece would go and make sure it would all fit and that I liked the piece we chose the next day too. Good thing we did this because when we went back to make our purchase – we actually picked a different set and sofa! And it was cheaper than our first choice! Having a little extra time to think it over and make sure we got what we wanted really paid off!