new council tenants, need help to get funding for new carpets, furnishings etc

dktreesea

When you get a council flat here, the council have a second hand furniture store, and you just go along and pick what you need. The people there have a list, saying you can get things like a cooker, a washing machine, a fridge, beds, a sofa, a chest of drawers, and a home start kit which has brand new kitchen stuff in it. Isn't it the same down in England?

As to toddlers and carpets, the first thing we did when we bought a house was rip up the carpets and polish and seal the floorboards. Floorboards, unlike carpets, are easy to wash. Which is great when you have toddlers. Likewise linoleum.

dmg24

dktreesea wrote: »

When you get a council flat here, the council have a second hand furniture store, and you just go along and pick what you need. The people there have a list, saying you can get things like a cooker, a washing machine, a fridge, beds, a sofa, a chest of drawers, and a home start kit which has brand new kitchen stuff in it. Isn't it the same down in England?

It varies from area to area, as it does in Scotland.

seven-day-weekend

To the OP,

You need something to sit on, something to cook on and something to sleep in. You don't need carpets. The something to sit on could be camping chairs. Many people (including myself and my husband) start off like this. I have been married for nearly forty years and it is only this last ten years that I have had a new (as opposed to second-hand) sofa.

Bang the nail heads down, borrow a sander and sand the floorboards, get some cheap rugs from IKEA http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/20139765 or http://www.ikea.com/gb/en/catalog/products/40108715 and/or either freecycle or buy from second-hand shops the rest. We have just purchased a brand new room-size remnant of decent lino for £22 from a carpet warehouse.

Do NOT go to Brighthouse/Crazy George's.

Get the rest of the stuff when you can afford it.

BLT_2

millym wrote: »

As others have said try ebay and freecycle/freegle. I did, and was amazed at the quality of stuff that people give away. There are always people getting rid of carpets, as they can't really be sold second hand.

I got some great stuff on ebay - tv for £10, coffee table for £3 etc. Still using them now. They do seem very strict about crisis loans. I had to move because of complex medical reasons, and even so, had to appeal.

If you wish to appeal, you must do so as soon as possible, as there is a time limit, but be aware that it took months for mine to be sorted out. Good luck in your new home!

Not having a carpet on the floor could only be considered a crisis in the UK In many 3rd countries even having a bed of your own is considered a luxury.

BLT_2

lidlest wrote: »

I remember when we got our council flat, we had hardly any money and the whole place was bare (no lightbulbs even lol).

We managed to pick up a couple of chairs from the street and luckily my mum had a spare microwave, we slept in a single bed I'd had forever and watched our tiny TV that used to be in my partners childhood bedroom. Over the next few months we managed to buy some wallpaper from the pound shop, some really cheap carpet offcuts and we decorated best we could. If you happen to like bright blue wallpaper with lime green carpet it was all good LOL

My son was about 6 months old when we moved in... the whole place wasn't decorated till he was 2. I still remember those times as some of our happiest even though we didn't have a pot to p*ss in. Although we got housing benefit we survived on my husbands £600 a month wage no additional child tax credit or what have you then.

You'll be just fine, get on with it

Yep, same here, got married, had very little and was happy as can be, 15 years later I had extremely expensive furnishings etc etc and didnt want to go into the house as I couldn't stand the sight of the woman.

The moral being, it doesn't matter what you have, it is who you are with. Struggling together can actually be fine.

rozzeratti

When my husband and I were offered our housing association house we jumped at the chance! We knew that we wouldn't have a cooker/carperts for the new house for awhile because at the time neither of us were working and it was around xmas time. We got buy with a microwave and a toaster for 3 weeks and we managed to throw off cuts of what I call "pub style" carpet down. It's very different now, we both work - pay our dues and what ever is left we buy with our own cash what is needed next on the list. It's taken us a long time, only 1 month ago I got wardrobes for the first time in my adult life. I'm 30 and DH is 37. There is always something you will want or need but at the end of the day we make do with what we got. I am ever so greatful for my housing assosiation house. Be warned though, there are so many people out there who would do anything for a council house, if it's not lived in you have had it! I know with the housing association they come around with notice to see how things are!! they only need to give 24hour notice...!

lepusfelix

I have just this month moved into a council property. I had been saving my JSA and DLA since May, and had accumulated £800. over the course of the month, I have carpeted, decorated and furnished and begun to settle into my new home. It is not easy to be independent, and even though I am great at budgeting, my difficulties with independence are a major hardship for me. I chose to buy carpet and underlay separately, and laid the carpet myself, as well as decorating for myself as well.

When I initially signed the tenancy agreement, I was overwhelmed with a lot of different things to do, mandatorily for my own wellbeing and safety. It is a wonder I have survived the last few weeks with my head intact. Also, as part of this wonderful new home, I have sacrificed a lot. I have no curtains now, and my girlfriend in America will have to wait an indefinite amount of time to see me again. We are both autistic, and our near-constant online contact is definitely helpful to both of us, but the upheaval of this move has left me in fairly bad shape. Trying to establish some sense of every day life when I am no longer sleeping on my ex's sofa, living supported, is tough, but nonetheless a great step forward into hopefully becoming independent and productive in life, and being independent and productive is important to me because there is no way my girlfriend could immigrate here until I can prove I have the means to support her without government funds for at least a year. This would equate to thousands of pounds of savings and a real job.

So I will try to get to that point within the next year or so. As for carpets, you can save a huge amount by fitting them yourself, but you need to save up first. Being on benefits is not actually a barrier to that, you just need to intelligently manage your money.

Dognobs

8 years I have waited for my home to have carpets in the whole house! I have 3 kids never had any problems

gingergee

i moved into my HA without any money etc (we were botoom of list, was total fluke we even got it lol). We floored one room, so we had some where half decent to sit etc. then lived for 4 months with scraps of carpet glued down upstairs. Then when we had saved up, we carpeted upstairs. Its not easy but can be done. xx

Cherry_Bomb

I remember my first place was a ground floor HA flat. No wood but bare concrete floors. I had a LO too so wanted to get the floors sorted asap.

We bought end of rolls from various carpet places and used polystyrene sheets as underlay (some parts of the flat we had to use cardboard). It was far from ideal and looked bloody hideous but it did the job until we could afford some proper flooring.

We've since moved and lived in various places and it's still a novelty now moving in somewhere that already has flooring sorted