If you want to find a good deal browse online marketplaces such as eBay. Or, if you want to get hold of some stuff for free, check to see if there is a Freecycle (www.freecycle.org) group near you.
Freecycle groups are an easy way to find people near you that give (and receive) free stuff.
Someone in your area may be selling furniture, equipment or décor that you would like to have in your ‘pub shed’.
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Ebay and Gumtree are packed full of used sofas, cabinets and coffee tables that you can snap up for as little as £20. Websites such as Free Cycle also have furniture for free – the only catch is that you often have to collect the items yourself.
Not convinced about used furniture? Most of the big furniture companies also sell ex-display models for a huge discount on the original price. These items are often in great condition and almost good-as-new.
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I love a good barter. Or a swap. An exchange of services for goods, or goods for goods. Maybe it’s because a good swap almost feels like a freebie.
Recently, I picked up a roll-and-a-half of shed felt – very useful when you have numerous coops and sheds as we do in our wannabe shanty town – from the very lovely Robin, who happens to run a very lovely B&B with his very lovely family.
A few hundred years ago, I put out a plea on the wonderful local Freecycle website, appealing for shed felt. I love Freecycle. I think it’s the ‘free’ part of the word that makes it so appealing.
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Moving house is always a long, tiring process with far too many things to think about. There’s not just the house to paint, possessions to pack and the travelling itself – but moving into a house sometimes requires new furniture.
Furniture is never cheap to buy with a brand new comfy sofa costing you upwards of £300 so what can you do? And since we are always been urged to recycle and recycle, we at the Echo challenged ourselves to furnish a house entirely of free second hand furniture.
Recyclers and environment lovers are likely to have heard of Freecycle before, but for those who haven’t it’s the site on which people can offer and request second hand items completely for free.
The Lincoln group had the following offers on Monday June, 29 with which to furnish your house completely for free:
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Avid recyclers and reusers will have explored the depths of Freecycle before but we wanted to see what was available for your garden from the website.
The Freecycle Network is another alternative to throwing away, especially for larger items, and offers people the chance to pass on unwanted items to a new loving home – for free!
We take a look what is on offer on Friday, June 26:
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Avid recyclers and reusers will have explored the depths of Freecycle before but we set a challenge to see if a house could be furnished with items from the website.
The Freecycle Network is another alternative to throwing away, especially for larger items, and offers people the chance to pass on unwanted items to a new loving home – for free!
Read more
One devoted Freecycle user is on the hunt for a very specific person, as they search for a new home for a pair of slippers.
The ad, posted on ChelmsfordFreecycleUK, includes the headline: Wanted, Elderly Gentleman with Size 9 Feet, and is offering a pair of navy blue slippers to the first willing taker.
The full offer reads: “An odd request but I have a brand new pair of size 9 Marks & Spencer velcro fastening navy blue slippers and I would like to give them to someone locally who could really use them.
“I offered them to a local old people’s home but they weren’t interested so I would like to find someone who would use and appreciate them and maybe is a bit tight on funds.
“Genuine replies only please no traders etc.”
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Here’s where people give the most away
Congratulations if you live in Southwark, Basingstoke or Newbury – you’re surrounded with some really generous people! According to our data, these are the top three areas when it comes to giving, with almost all Freecycle listings being offers of free stuff.
In London’s Southwark, nearly nine out of every 10 items mentioned were being given away. Milton Keynes saw around two-thirds of items on the listings website offered free to a good home.
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Freecycle? Nah mate I don’t really do bike rides.
When my cousin asked me if I’d heard of Freecycle I genuinely thought she was talking about some charity bike ride taking place across London, she then redirected me to what heaven would look like if it was online. Freecycle is a website where people give away stuff they don’t want anymore. They just GIVE IT AWAY for FREE! Admittedly this is better if you have a car to go and pick up your goodies in, but you can hire a man with a van for as little as £20 to do this for you. Through Freecycle we all managed to find bed frames that came with brand new mattresses and a couch for our living room! See? This whole furnishing a house malarkey isn’t actually that hard. It’s also worth checking out sites like Gumtree, Preloved and Snaffleup as again people often advertise a lot of furniture for free or at a fraction of the cost they paid for.
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11. Learn something new
We know you’re already paying 9k to do this in seminars, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try and learn some things outside of the classroom too. Check out Gumtree/Freecycle/the union pinboard and you’ll probably find someone for someone who needs to get rid of their instrument/craft supplies/foreign language dictionaries or similar. Once you’ve got your mitts on the kit, hit Youtube for free tutorials, and you might just get yourself a brand new skill for next to nothing.
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