It’s that time of the year. Housing Services will cast out lottery numbers on students and… It’s that time of the year. Housing Services will cast out lottery numbers on students and flip the whole social order of campus on its head. It’s the time when your friend becomes the person in your clique with the housing number in the teens because – let’s face it – who doesn’t want to live in Bouquet Gardens?

For those of you living on campus again next year, this period has become a time of uncertainty. A transitional period from one dorm to the next, a time of waiting to see where and with whom you will be sharing your space with next year.

For many students however, the thought of campus living for yet another year has become unbearable and thus have turned to off-campus apartments and houses for better accommodations. For these students, the next few weeks become a period of relentless searching among an immense pile of coal, for their diamond in the rough.

Perhaps the most important part in the quest for comfortable off-campus living is the furnishing. Once the right place has been chosen, students – unless exceptionally lucky – will need to furnish it.

As simple as this task may seem, it is often overlooked or underestimated by students moving off campus for the first time. Couches, tables, dishes, pictures, beds and dressers are all necessary components in making one’s place a home. The search for these items can become tiresome and the cost for them expensive. However, if students know the right places to look, furnishing a house or an apartment can be easy and cheap.

Ikea is a wonderful place to get new furniture for cheap. It is a gigantic warehouse located in Robinson Township near the airport. Here, you can find beds for under $100 as well as dressers and creative-lighting options.

The catch, you ask? All furniture at Ikea comes in pieces. That’s right people – you will have to assemble every piece of furniture you buy. This could be either very pleasing for those who take satisfaction in their own achievements or very unnerving for those who are less confident in their ability to follow directions written in Dutch.

Another option for students who will conduct this search is eBay. eBay can provide you with all kinds of creative decorating options for cheap. And probably the best part about eBay is you usually only pay what you feel the product is worth. With eBay, you can find objects and furnishings from all over the world and have them shipped directly to your door.

My favorite option for finding cheap furnishings, however, has to be Craigslist.com. Here, you can find everything from beds and mattresses to televisions and fish tanks. Craigslist.com enabled me to purchase a whole living room set complete with TV stand for under $100.

And the savings didn’t stop there. With the help of Craigslist.com, I was able to purchase one dresser, two beds, a glass end table and a partridge and a pear tree for $175. My roommate even purchased a 30-inch flat screen TV for $150.

Craigslist.com has it all, and it’s not just for furniture. The only drawback is that with most items you have to pick them up yourself because craigslist.com is a local system of selling products much like your local classifieds.

So this summer when you are at home working hard on your summer job, don’t bother saving up hundreds of dollars for Jennifer Convertibles.

By golly, don’t even consider stashing away a penny of your hard earned money for furniture or anything of the like. Splurge and buy yourself all that you feel you deserve and more. When you return to Pittsburgh in the fall, borrow about $200 from your parents and furnish your house. And with whatever is left over, maybe you too can own a fish tank or even a flat-screen television.

Please be informed that Brandon Edmonds will not be answering any e-mail at [email protected] because he will be shopping for next year.