Tips for Finding Cheap Bedroom Furniture

Finding cheap bedroom furniture for your home can be a real treasure hunt. Sure, you could go dumpster diving at the end of the month in apartment complexes to find your bedroom furniture. But there are other ways to get furniture on the cheap.

Here are our tips:

Neighborhood sales. Garage, moving and estate sales are a great way to fill out your bedroom collection with nightstands, dressers, stools, wardrobes and other pieces of bedroom furniture. If you're a bargain hunter, then you know you need to get to the sale early to get the best deals and beat the crowd.

Craigzlist. Think of craigslist.org as the world's largest garage sale. Here, local sellers can advertise their furnishings for free. Just select your locale and click on the "Furniture" link in the For Sale section. Make a few calls on your favorites, look at the online photos if they got them and shop 'til you drop in the comfort of your own home.

Swap meets. This is another good place to go shopping for cheap bedroom furniture. As they say, "one man's junk is another man's treasure." Before you start shopping in earnest, do your homework. It's easy to get carried away with the give and take of bargaining, but you need to be sure you're getting what you're paying for.

Thrift stores. Sure, they don't sound that appealing as a place to get cheap bedroom furniture, but you'd be surprised at the quality of stuff some people just donate. One shopper even landed a lovely Ethan Allen nightstand at a local thrift store for $5. That's not only cheap bedroom furniture, but good quality too.

IKEA. If you aren't a second hand furniture kind of person, there's IKEA. The upside of IKEA is they have a lot of cheap bedroom furniture, from nightstands and dressers to platform beds and stools. The downside is it all has to be assembled and if you never did well building Erector Sets or following food recipes, you won't do well with IKEA furniture.

Discount furniture stores. These stores typically sell discontinued models or overstocks. They may also handle open box or slightly damaged goods, such as furniture used in showrooms. Don't despair. You can still get good deals. Just keep an eye open and look the furniture over carefully before you buy since many discount houses have strict or non-existent return policies.

And that's just the beginning of your journey for cheap bedroom furniture that is not only inexpensive, but a real treasure to have in your home. With a little patience, you can also find some pretty good bargains on some really good bedroom furniture.