New Home - Furniture Lead Times?

TrixMix666

Hey,

Long time since I’ve posted, I’ve just moved into a new home and begun the process of furnishing it, I don’t know if it’s a knock-on from Brexit combined with COVID but everything seems to be one ridiculous lead times.

What does everyone do to manage or mitigate these types of issues? As it stands at the moment I won’t have a bed for 8 weeks, a wardrobe for 12 and a sofa for 16 (almost everything else seems to be on a minimum of 4-8 weeks lead time from the big-box stores with a few items like my coffee table at 16-18 weeks). This definitely wasn't something I had planned or prepared for, and I’m really at a loss as to what to do, one item on a longer lead time might have been manageable but I wasn’t prepared for this...

The only thing I’ve been able to source with next day or within 5 days delivery are all of my appliances which seem readily available and I stock across most major UK suppliers (AO, Curry’s, Argos).

Anyone else going through a similar thing, how’ve you managed it and what advice can you offer?

[Deleted User]

I know the feeling. I’ve just moved too. 

I’m just beginning to grin and bear. 

Belenus

I'm not surprised that you are seeing such long lead times.

Lockdown meant people were buying more stuff for the home as they were saving money on not going out so demand went up.

There were also supply problems with materials such as foam for chair and sofa cushions.

We ordered a GPlan sofa on 31st July. It was delivered on 3rd December, over 4 months later.


Can you buy inexpensive second hand furniture for temporary use? Try  charity shops that stock furniture, Gumtree, eBay and Facebook marketplace etc.

TrixMix666

Belenus said:

I'm not surprised that you are seeing such long lead times.

Lockdown meant people were buying more stuff for the home as they were saving money on not going out so demand went up.

There were also supply problems with materials such as foam for chair and sofa cushions.

We ordered a GPlan sofa on 31st July. It was delivered on 3rd December, over 4 months later.


Can you buy inexpensive second hand furniture for temporary use? Try  charity shops that stock furniture, Gumtree, eBay and Facebook marketplace etc.

Unfortunately don’t have the budget to furnish the house twice over

greyteam1959

You can pick up perfectly adequate furniture for a few £'s.
Freecycle / Freegle & lots of other places have lots of stuff for nothing.
Some of it 10 times better stuff than what you are going to wait weeks & weeks for.
You are just not looking in the right places.

theoretica

First month in my house I slept on an inflatable mattress and lived out of boxes/mostly sat on the floor.

Is there a local social media group of any kind?  You might find people happy to pass things on for you to pass on in turn.

TrixMix666

greyteam1959 said:

You can pick up perfectly adequate furniture for a few £'s.
Freecycle / Freegle & lots of other places have lots of stuff for nothing.
Some of it 10 times better stuff than what you are going to wait weeks & weeks for.
You are just not looking in the right places.

It wasn’t really a question about being frugal, although I’ve never heard of Freecycle or Freeletics, I don’t have a vehicle capable of collecting furniture so anything I buy would need to have delivery included.

I’ll be totally honest, I had always thought Next, DFS, Dunelm, SCS, Barker & Stonehouse, Made.com etc were the “right places” maybe I’ve got it all wrong (these all come up as the major retailers when searching for furniture, sofas etc on google).

TrixMix666

theoretica said:

First month in my house I slept on an inflatable mattress and lived out of boxes/mostly sat on the floor.

Is there a local social media group of any kind?  You might find people happy to pass things on for you to pass on in turn.

I’ll have a look and see what’s out there, most things are listed as “Collection Only” and I don’t have an adequate vehicle to pickup furniture unfortunately.

theonlywayisup

There are a couple in your list that I wouldn't touch with a bargepole. 

Have you tried John Lewis?  They have 'sofa in a hurry' section which boasts 7 days.  

searchlight123

Most of IKEA furniture is 'off the shelf' if their styles suit your tastes?

Sotts

When i moved in February my bed was delivered in 5 days and my sofa in 7.   We ordered as soon as we exchanged contracts and everything was delivered the day we moved in.
We went online to order.   Furniture 123