Furnishing your first place in Canada
You arrived recently, the apartment is empty, and everything seems to need buying at once. You do not know the stores yet, you do not know what a fair price looks like here, and the names for things are not the names you are used to. Most people buy a bed first and work the rest out over a few months. That is usually the right order.
What you get
- Plain answers about what a piece costs here, so you can tell a fair price from a bad one
- Advice on what to buy now and what can wait until you are settled
- Mattress and bed sizes explained, because the names are different in different countries
Step by step
- 1
Tell us about the place
Send a message with the number of rooms, and the size of the apartment if you know it. Photos of the empty rooms help more than measurements do. If you have a move in date, say so.
- 2
Come in and sit on things
Bring the list. Sitting on a sofa for five minutes and lying on a mattress for five more is the only way to know, and it costs nothing to do it twice.
- 3
Take the time you need
Furniture is worth sleeping on. Measure again at home, check the doorway and the turn on the stairs, and come back. Nothing about furnishing a whole apartment has to happen in one afternoon.
Quoted after a visit
Quoted after a visit. What it comes to depends entirely on how many rooms you are furnishing and which pieces you choose, so there is no single number worth putting here.
- People who arrived in the last few months and are starting from an empty apartment
- Families who need a whole place furnished at once rather than a piece at a time
- Anybody who would rather ask questions in person than work it out from a website
About newcomer furnishing
A bed and a mattress. You can eat at a folding table for a month and you cannot sleep well on the floor for a month. After that, somewhere to sit, then somewhere to eat, then the rest.
Four common ones. Twin, also called single, is 99 by 191 cm. Double, also called full, is 137 by 191 cm. Queen is 152 by 203 cm. King is 193 by 203 cm. If you are bringing bedding from another country, check it against these before you buy a bed, because the names do not match everywhere.
Yes, and most people do. There is no requirement to buy everything in one visit, and nothing about the service assumes you will.
What this usually involves buying
Come and sit on it
Bring your measurements. The doorway, the turn at the top of the stairs, and the wall it has to go against. Those three numbers prevent most of the problems.