Shopping – Filling a home U.S style

Before we left for Florida we had pretty much our whole house packed up and put on a ship to Jacksonville. All the furnishings and decor Rob and I had built up over our last 2 homes together.

We started the process of choosing a home relatively quickly and within a few weeks had an offer accepted on a beautiful house that felt like home.

Move in day and our furniture is all brought in. Well it looked like dolls furniture!! We’d obviously realised this house was bigger than our English home but it looked ridiculous! 😂

Now we hadn’t really budgeted to buy new furniture for a whole house since our old stuff was still in good condition. That meant my job was to find and buy items to fill the empty spaces, without breaking the bank.

I mentioned in my previous shopping blog about not knowing any of the shops and brands. I didn’t know the furniture shops either so I started trawling through all the shops followed by 3 kids who would rather be in a pool than spending hours in & out the car, in & out of shops.

The worst thing was we couldn’t afford anything in those shops without an extra mortgage! Even the shops that were ‘outlets’ were still over the top price wise.

So I started asking the few friends I’d made where I could find cheaper but still good quality items. I was directed to a few websites and told about looking for coupons. We did order a few items with a sale and then a coupon, I felt comfortable we’d got a bargain. The postage time here though is ridiculous, often over a week even for small items. Amazon is extremely popular for quick delivery and generally that’s still 2 days.

I then found a few shops like homesense in the Uk. Where you wander round rummaging through shelves, but have to buy otherwise next time you go, the item is gone! Spent a lot of money buying “just incase it goes” 😂

The other ways we managed to start filling the house was something called swip swop. Facebook groups by area where people sell all kinds of items, generally at very good value! We bought big items this way. Sofas, coffee tables, bed frames etc.
I still regularly look through the sites for a good bargain.

I also discovered curb alerts. Where people would put on an fb group an item they left curbside outside their property. Free to the first person to get there. I raced for a few items that way!
Or on bin day if an item is in the curb you can take it, not ashamed to say I grabbed some good stuff over the last 2 years!

My favourite curbside find ☝️

Now I know what you’re all thinking, why didn’t I just go to ikea? There wasn’t one!! The nearest ikea was 2 hours away. Rob had even mentioned this before we moved and I assumed he was wrong. Ikea finally arrived in jacksonville November 2017 and now I enjoy visiting on a regular basis to restock my basics – candles, straws and bag clips!

Stay tuned to my blog, I’m working on publishing a new vlog. House tour! See the house we had to fill 🙂