How to Furnish and Decorate Your Room on a Budget

Looking for a place to stay during your studies in Leiden, you may either choose a furnished room or an unfurnished room. Of course, those choosing unfurnished rooms then need to get some furniture, but those choosing furnished rooms probably still want to decorate their rooms. Either way, here are some tips on getting cheap furniture and decoration for those living in Leiden.

1. Facebook groups

There are several ‘buying and selling’ Facebook groups for those looking for a good bargain. It only takes a click to firstly join the group, then go through the posts and see if someone is selling what you’re looking for. Or, you can also ask by posting a question about whether anyone has it. If you’re lucky, you may even get stuffs for free! The following groups are the most popular groups to buy and sell furniture and decoration in Leiden:

For Sale in Leiden

Leiden Housing

Leiden Swap Shop

Rooms/Housing & Furniture Leiden University

Leiden – BUY / SALE / EXCHANGE:

Leiden for Free

2. Thrift stores

There are thrift stores in Leiden that supply secondhand stuffs usually on a weekly basis. You’re likely to find exactly what you’re looking for there as most stores are big, and the prices are fair. Here are the list of some thrift stores in Leiden (unfortunately the websites are in Dutch, but I’d suggest you to just come to the stores):

Vereniging Kringloop Project Leiden – Volmolengracht 13

Kringloopbedrijf Het Warenhuis – Willem Barentszstraat 12

Kringloopwinkel Leiden – Lammenschansweg 141

Het Boedelhuis – Oude Vest 175

Used Products – Hooigracht 88

For free stuffs:

Weggeefwinkel – Middelstegracht 36

3. IKEA

You may wonder why I put IKEA here, especially with the fact that there’s no IKEA in Leiden (the closest one is in Delft). Actually, if you want new furniture and/or decoration instead of secondhand, you should check out IKEA’s website as they offer different sale items on a monthly basis, meaning that you can save some money! You may want to use the delivery service from IKEA to transport big furniture to Leiden, which may sound costly. Nevertheless, it’s still worth a look.

How to Transport

If you prefer a cheaper alternative than renting a car to transport your furniture, you may consider to use bakfiets. It’s a tricycle with a big carrier which you can borrow from most of the thrift stores. Not only is it cheaper, but also it is a fun experience!