You just need to know where to look and be prepared to pick the items up or arrange for their delivery:
Facebook Marketplace & Facebook Groups
An absolute treasure trove, Facebook Marketplace is a fantastic place to start your search for free furniture. Simply set the filters to a maximum price of $0 and start your search. The results will vary depending on your area of course, but in metro Sydney, there is plenty of furniture available for free. In addition to Facebook Marketplace, there are also local groups you can join where people advertise their furniture.
Gumtree
Gumtree used to be the go-to for free or cheap furniture until Facebook Marketplace took over. That said, not everyone has Facebook, so it is still a worthy place to check out and see what you can find.
Your Local Freecycle or Buy Nothing Group
Freecycle and Buy Nothing are two different independent places where you can get not only furniture but a bunch of free stuff. They exist to help the environment and to help save users money by reusing items instead of throwing them out and sending them to landfill. There are Buy Nothing groups on Facebook (join your local one) and the Buy Nothing app, which is separate from the groups. Freecycle is a website and there are also local Facebook groups.
Council Clean-Up
Lots of people put free furniture out on the kerb during scheduled council clean-ups. Simply check when there is a clean-up in your area and look around for free furniture.
Ziilch & Nextdoor
A bit more of a targeted approach than looking for furniture at your local kerbside cleanup, these sites allow users to register and arrange to pick up free furniture and things near you. At the time of writing, registration is free and you can search for used furniture in your local area.
With a bit of patient searching, you might be able to furnish your entire house for free or for very little. I found there to be plenty of quality usable furniture online for free or at a huge discount from the mark-up of retail. Of course, depending on your area, this might differ, but overall I'd check before committing to buy new. You could save some money and stop furniture from going to landfill.
What lovely things have you gotten for free online? Is there anywhere else I've missed where you can go to furnish your home for free? Please leave a comment below to let us know.
