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One man's trash is truly another man's treasure. Whenever you can save money, especially on something as expensive as home furniture, turning "trash" to "treasure" is a fabulous money-saving skill. For those who know where to go in search of free goods, treasure can come in abundance and well worth the simple effort.

Where should you start?

Online
There are many online communities that offer bartering, "free" postings, and items available for trade.

Sites such as swaptreasures.com, barterplanet.com, and your local craigslist.com community are fantastic resources when it comes to finding treasures for your home. Craiglist has two categories to check out. The first is the "Free" listings, the second is specifically items "For Trade." You will also want to look under the "For Sale" category and type is a search for FREE. This particular website is even a "live" community with online postings updated every few minutes, making new items available throughout the day as people post and delete their listings. Personally, I furnished my first home for practically nothing by using this resource!

Newspaper
You may wonder how a newspaper will help your search for free items when few, if any, furniture is advertised as such. This is where you have to get a little creative. By looking up where the weekend garage sales are going to be, you can plan to drive by the locations the Monday AFTER the sale is over. Often times, the items left unsold are sitting neatly on the corner, waiting for the trash man to haul them away. Ta-da! You have free access to the leftovers.

Your Friends
Pay close attention to friends who are moving, students coming home from college who need to clear their dorm room, and relatives who go through a "purge" of their garage clutter. Don't be afraid to ask if they have a piece of furniture you've been looking for. And if you live near a college campus, this is even better than knowing a student.

Our college campus was full of freebies on the last week of school before summer vacation. Students who excitedly carried sofas, chairs, and futons up six flights of stairs only months earlier, were all to anxious to dump their treasures once the school year let out. Perfectly good items would be stacked outside the dorm, abandoned and free for the taking.

Make-it-Yourself
When it comes down to the bare necessities, never underestimate the power of creativity. Did you find a piece of something you don't need? Is it the wrong color, broken, or ugly? No problem! With a little help, you can turn these things around.

When I came across the bottom of a pappazan chair, minus the top and cushion, I simply put a board on top and covered it up with a nice piece of fabric. Suddenly, I had a fashionable television stand that you would never guess had started life as anything different.

I also began to grab pieces that needed some extra help. I once received a cute bookcase with a bad spraypaint job from a girl's storage unit as she prepared to leave the country. By cutting out photos from a fashion magazine, I worked diligently to transform it into a creative decopage project. Talk about a conversation piece!

Whatever your taste, there are treasures waiting to be discovered that will keep your money in your wallet. Furniture doesn't have to be expensive. It can be free! You just have to know where to find it.

Learn more about this author, Lauren Von Lehe.
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