An illustration of Allison's profile. She has light skin, shoulder-length wavy brown hair and is wearing a striped maroon shirt with a necklace.

i’m a sneaky little scavenger by Allison E. '27

acquiring furniture in the bay area

have you ever wanted to furnish an apartment for as little money as possible? are you a sneaky little scavenger?

hee hee hee ha ha ha

here are some ideas, courtesy of me and my amazing summer roommate grace :D

1.  find furniture on the side of the street

in the words of one of my friends, “welcome to the wonderful wastage of the bay area”! i lived in downtown-ish San Jose this summer and there was SO MUCH FURNITURE ABANDONED ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD (smth smth college students ig) (seriously i think i found at least 35 pieces of furniture on this one street over 2.5 months, including like 6 couches)

large white malm ikea dresser
classic ikea malm dresser... almost almost decided to bring this one home
queen size bed frame leaned against a tree next to a car on the street
unfortunately my roommate only had a twin futon mattress so we couldn't use this
dingy leather-ish couch on the side of the road
couches are suspiscious

generally i would not recommend taking mattresses and couches due to potential small evil critter issues. however, metal, plastic, and even wood are less nefarious. i ended up acquiring an entire bed frame and a room divider thingy (i was sleeping in the living room so this was helpful)

black metal bedframe, slightly skimpy looking but it gets the job done
genuinely never realized how much a bedframe improves quality of life, and idek why
black room divider placed directly in front of a metal bedframe
privacy yay :D

2.  steal cardboard boxes from costco

so uh i did not realize this but there’s a bunch of random table-things that are useful in an apartment. dining room table, desk, nightstand, dresser, etc. etc. that is many items! i did not want to pay for and later get rid of that many items.

solution: STEAL BOXES FROM COSTCO

cardboard boxes from costco are shockingly sturdy objects, AND they come in extremely convenient shapes. the standard cardboard box (rectangular prism) is suboptimal for table use because it’s one convex solid and you can’t put your legs “underneath” the table surface, so instead you must place the box at arms length and eat dinner bent forward in uncomfortable supplication to the cardboard. Costco boxes, on the other hand, are open in the front and provide a convenient place to put your feet and/or other miscellaneous objects! This means they work not only as dinner tables, but as double-tiered nightstands, dresser drawers, and assorted elevated surfaces.

open-mouthed cardboard box stood on its side, with assorted items on the top surface and a large waterbottle on the bottom surface, with a futon mattress in the background

there’s even a little slot at the top where you can put your charger so it doesn’t end up tangled somewhere

 

3.  get yourself a roommate who has family in the area

chairs are kinda hard to acquire without the possibility of also acquiring small evil critter issues, so we borrowed 2 folding lawn chairs from my roommate’s family

blue foldable camping/lawn chair next to a cardboard box

these chairs were actually amazingly comfy

4.  make your roommate acquire free stuff from santa clara students

free microwave! and free desk fan thingy! lowkey have not encountered a microwave with a physical windup timer instead of a digit pad, but it was in perfect condition.

white microwave with a black door and two physical knobs as timers

highkey SUPER clean, great find by my roommate

5.  what is a trash can? who needs that

all you need are trash bags and a hook (you don’t even need a hook)

[i don’t have a picture but just imagine a large black trash bag hooked to the side of the fridge]

6.  buy a couple things ig

i shelled out for a nice futon mattress to sleep on, a $10 ikea clothesrack, and an $8 rug for shoes. also like $8 for two very sturdy very plastic home depot buckets that turned into footstools, secondary tables, and waterproof surfaces (since all the rest of our surfaces were cardboard 💀)

afterword:

large room with two camping chairs, upside down home depot buckets, cardboard boxes, a clothes rack, a room divider, and a bed behind the divider. quite messy

the final product! our living room / my bedroom :D

i have tragically become the stereotype of a true tech bro 😔 BUT i did save a lot of money on furniture so i consider that a win. moral of the story? maybe find summer housing that’s already furnished. but also rent is cheaper if you don’t 🤷