Since I had to dump my old table and couch (I didn't like them that much anyway, since I got them free from my friend moving out when I was moving in), I had to get new ones for my new place.

When you furnish or remodel, you want three properties:

  1. Good quality
  2. Good price
  3. Good timing

You can choose two. If you want good quality quickly, pay up. If want good quality cheap, wait. And if you want cheap quickly, go to Ikea.1

Both my roommate and I have decided to wait. I found this really nice couch, with good materials, modular design, and favorable reviews across multiple trustworthy sources. I even found the exact model for sale on a returned items marketplace, for a fraction of the original retail price. The catch? 4-6 weeks freight shipping. Since I ordered the couch a few weeks before moving into my new place, I had to wait only 2 weeks, though.

For our table, my roommate found a nice one on Craigslist. Good quality (as far as I can tell), cheap, just a bit of headache scheduling with the Craigslist poster.

Next time you want good quality cheap, consider waiting for a used model. You'll also reuse, an important R.

  1. In defense of Ikea, I have found their stuff not that bad. I have some of their stuff right now, taken with me from my previous place. ↩︎