Furniture accumulation

Now that we're mostly unpacked and situated, we've begun the process of accumulating the bits of furniture we got rid of in New England. And because we're living in a one-bedroom apartment, we're almost done. Between craigslist and Goodwill, we've gotten:

2 black Ikea leather sofas, $260
1 black Ikea coffee table, $45
1 black Ikea TV stand, free
2 black DVD shelves, $35
1 metal wine rack, $150
1 black wood dresser, $350
1 Ikea Expedit bookcase, $80
2 barstools to use as nightstands, $30
1 black side table, $10
1 small stool to use as side table, $6
2 desks, $15 (total! from Goodwill)
Office chair and lamp, $129 (Staples)

For a grand total of a little over $1100. Not bad, huh? Not including the cost of renting a U-Haul cargo van, twice, for the sofas and the desks. (Another $130 there.) There is an amazing Goodwill just a few blocks from the apartment; I'm very excited about that.

The only things left to get are dining chairs, maybe another bookcase, and possibly a futon or day bed for the office, since the leather sofas aren't really long enough to sleep on. I'm considering going back to Goodwill and getting a chair at a time, for a collection of 7 or 8 all different ones, rather than holding out for a set that might sort of go with the one original chair I have left.

Also, we've gotten most of the pictures hung. So we're pretty close to being done.

One final thought: this process of buying used furniture, then getting rid of it all, then moving, then getting new furniture is, of course, a logistical hassle. But I realized it's also an opportunity to continually redecorate. The furniture we have now is very sleek and modern and dark, a far cry from the overstuffed mish-mash of things we had in New England, and the two-households-merged-into-one chaos of San Diego. We never have to worry about rearranging the furniture, or reupholstering, or redecorating; we can reinvent ourselves every time we move.