What furniture do I need for my first apartment?

A bed and mattress first, then kitchen basics, then a couch, then a table and chairs, then lamps and curtains. The $1,200 allocation in this article is $400 for bed and mattress, $300 for a couch, $150 for a table and chairs, $200 for kitchen basics, and $150 for the rest.

Is it cheaper to buy furniture used?

Yes, for everything with no moving parts. A table, chairs, shelves, lamps, and dishes are as good used as new. Buy the mattress new, for hygiene and for the back, and buy anything that plugs in new, because a used appliance with no warranty is a repair bill waiting to happen.

Should I buy furniture before I move in?

Buy the mattress and kitchen basics before moving day, and the rest over the first three months. Furniture is the only move-in cost that can be spread over time, and buying it all up front takes $800 out of the cushion for no reason.

Home › Moving Out Cost Calculator › How Much Does Furniture Cost for a First Apartment?

The first-keys ledger · Table No. 43

How Much Does Furniture Cost for a First Apartment?

Four tiers, from a furnished apartment at $0 to furnished from scratch at $2,500, and the $1,200 worked tier in between. This article prices each tier through the move-in bill, allocates the $1,200 room by room, and shows why furniture is the cheapest line to cut.

Filed October 31, 2026 · figures checked against 2026 sources

Four tiers, from empty to done

Furniture is the most flexible line in the move-in bill, and the most deceptive, because it is the only line the mover can set to zero and the only line that can quietly double. The four tiers below are priced on the defaults in this calculator, a $1,200 apartment on $3,200 of take-home pay, with everything else held constant, so the furniture line is the only thing that moves. At $0, the apartment comes furnished, the one-time bill is $2,950, the target is $9,295, and the months to save at $400 a month from $3,000 saved are 16. At $800, the bare-minimum tier, the bill is $3,750, the target is $10,095, and the months are 18. At $1,200, the worked tier in this calculator, the bill is $4,150, the target is $10,495, and the months are 19. At $2,500, furnished from scratch, the bill is $5,450, the target is $11,795, and the months are 22. The spread from the cheapest tier to the most expensive is $2,500 in the bill and six months of saving, which is the largest single saving available in the whole move after the roommate decision, and it is available to anyone willing to buy used, borrow, or wait.

Furniture tier	Furniture	One-time bill	Savings target	Months to save
Furnished apartment	$0	$2,950	$9,295	16 mo
Bare minimum	$800	$3,750	$10,095	18 mo
Worked tier	$1,200	$4,150	$10,495	19 mo
From scratch	$2,500	$5,450	$11,795	22 mo

The tiers are anchored in the published guides, not invented. A 2026 moving-out guide puts bare-minimum furniture, even at the cheapest flat-pack prices, at $500 to $1,000, which is the range the $800 tier sits inside. A Canadian moving guide's worked example budgets $1,200 for basic furniture in a one-bedroom, which is the worked tier in this calculator. The $2,500 tier is the furnished-from-scratch figure the guides use for a mover starting with nothing, and the $0 tier is the furnished apartment, which is rarer than it looks: a furnished listing usually costs more in rent, which means the $0 furniture line is paid for every month instead of once, and the calculator's rent ladder is the place to check whether that trade is worth it. A furnished apartment at $1,400 a month costs $200 more every month than the $1,200 unfurnished one, which is $2,400 a year, which buys the $1,200 of furniture twice over in the first year alone.

What $1,200 actually buys

The worked tier of $1,200 is an allocation, not a shopping list, and it is worth stating as one, because the allocation is where the money goes and where it can be cut. A bed and a mattress take $400, which is the largest single item and the one that should not be bought used unless it is from a source the mover trusts completely, because a mattress is the item the mover spends a third of their life on. A couch takes $300, which is the second largest item and the one that is easiest to buy used, because a couch from a departing tenant or a secondhand shop is usually sound and usually cheap. A table and chairs take $150, which is the item most often skipped, because eating standing up feels temporary and then becomes permanent. Kitchen basics, pots, pans, plates, glasses, utensils, and a kettle, take $200, which is the item most often underestimated, because a kitchen is twenty small purchases rather than one large one. Lamps, curtains, a shower curtain, cleaning supplies, and the miscellaneous that fills the first two weeks take the remaining $150, which is the line that always runs over, because it is the line nobody budgets for. The allocation totals $1,200, and the point of stating it is that the mover can see which lines are negotiable: the couch can be borrowed, the table can wait, the kitchen can be built one pot at a time, and the bed cannot.

The order matters more than the allocation. The bed comes first, because sleep is the first night's problem, and a mattress on the floor is a bed for the first week and a back problem by the second month. The kitchen comes second, because cooking at home is the difference between the $320 groceries line in this calculator and the $600 a month that eating out costs, and the kitchen pays for itself in the first month. The couch comes third, because sitting on the floor is tolerable for a week and miserable for a month, and the table comes fourth, because a table is a surface and a surface can be improvised until it cannot. The lamps and curtains come last, because they are the items that make the apartment feel finished, and a finished feeling is a luxury that can wait until the cushion is funded. The mover who buys in that order spends the same $1,200, but spends it on the things that matter first, and the mover who buys a couch before a bed spends the same money and sleeps badly for a month.

Used, borrowed, and bought once

The cheapest furniture is the furniture that is not bought at all. A bed frame, a table, and a set of chairs from a departing tenant, a family member, or a free listing cost nothing but the truck to move them, and the $1,200 tier becomes the $600 tier, which is a mattress and kitchen basics, and the one-time bill falls from $4,150 to $3,550, and the target falls from $10,495 to $9,895. A couch from a secondhand shop costs a fraction of a new one, and a couch is the item where the secondhand discount is largest, because couches are bulky, hard to move, and frequently abandoned by movers who cannot take them. The items to buy new are the mattress, for hygiene and for the back, and anything that plugs in, because a used appliance with no warranty is a repair bill waiting to happen. The items to buy used are everything with no moving parts: a table, chairs, shelves, lamps, and dishes, which do not wear out in a way that matters. The rule is simple: buy new what touches the body or the wall socket, and buy used what does not, and the furniture line falls by a third without any loss of function.

The new insight

Furniture is the only move-in cost that can be spread over time, and that is the fact that makes it the cheapest line to cut. The deposit is due on moving day. The first month's rent is due on moving day. The truck is due on moving day. Furniture is due whenever the mover buys it, and a mattress on the floor is a bed, and a borrowed table is a table, and a kitchen built one pot at a time still cooks dinner. The mover who spends $1,200 on furniture before the keys change hands has spent money that could have stayed in the cushion, and the mover who spends $400 on a mattress and builds the kitchen one pot at a time, and buys the rest over the first three months from the monthly budget, has the same apartment by month three and $800 more in the cushion on moving day. Furniture is not a moving-day cost. It is a first-quarter cost, and treating it as one is the easiest $800 of saving in the whole move.

The second trip, and the first month's real spending

The furniture line has a second half that the table does not show, which is the second trip to the store. The first trip buys the bed, the couch, and the kitchen. The second trip buys the shower curtain, the plunger, the light bulbs, the cleaning supplies, the trash can, the toilet paper, and the dozen small things that a first apartment does not have and that a family home always did, and the second trip costs $100 to $200, which is why the $150 miscellaneous line in the $1,200 allocation is the line that always runs over. The practical move is to budget the second trip explicitly, as a line of its own, rather than discovering it in the first week, and to buy the cleaning supplies and the toilet paper before moving day, so the first night in the apartment is not spent discovering that there is no toilet paper. The first month's real spending is always higher than the first month's planned spending, and the reason is not furniture. It is the twenty small purchases that furniture stands in for, and which the $150 line is meant to cover, and which the mover should expect to exceed by half.

Sources

A 2026 moving-out guide (bare-minimum furniture $500 to $1,000 even at the cheapest flat-pack prices; basic furniture $500 to $1,000 in the month-one breakdown). A Canadian moving guide's worked example (basic furniture $1,200 for a one-bedroom; truck rental $300; packing supplies $100; internet and utility setup $150; first month and deposit $3,000). A second 2026 moving-out guide (upfront costs $2,500 to $5,000 including basic furniture). All tier figures were computed by this site's calculator under the stated model, with the furniture line as the only variable.