Furniture Acquisition

Furnishing an apartment on a shoestring is an interesting project. It's amazing what you can live without and what becomes a priority when you're building from very little.

A list of what I currently own, after a few weeks of searching:

Bed, Fridge, Toast Oven, Gas Cooktop, Dining Room Table, Folding Chair (1), Coffee Table, Dressers (2), TV, Ikea Lounge Chairs (2)

A list of what I am still looking for:

Couch, Bedside Tables, Lamps, Porch Furniture (for my balcony!), Dining Room Chairs, Washer

Things I Plan to Live Without:

Oven, Kitchen Appliances, Dryer, Stereo

There are times when I feel like it doesn't really matter if I get more furniture, but the other night I realized there are some things worth getting. Two of my friends came over to help me hook up my UPC cable/phone/internet package. Great! I made dinner, we had some wine, they played with all the cables and Dutch instruction booklets. I put dinner on my lovely dining room table, which I had set with Ikea placemats and my new (used) candle holders from my favorite second hand shop. We pulled over my folding chair and the other two chairs that I own, which are more of a lounge chair to watch TV in. Sitting in those chairs, my friend's chins were about eight inches above the table surface. Not great.

Couch and dining room chairs... important so that if I have friends over, they have a real place to sit.