Are you a new arrival looking to furnish their apartment in Spain with free furniture? I was in a similar situation over 7 year ago and after going through the hassle of getting an apartment, it turns out the apartment was empty and I had to furnish it. Here are some tips on how to make your apartment or room in Spain look decent without spending (too much) money on furniture.

The Dilema with Furnishing a new Apartment

Let’s be honest – when you’re studying abroad or working for just 1-2 years, and you’re not sure whether you’ll be staying on after your studies/work visit, buying brand new furniture makes zero sense. It’s expensive, a pain to transport, and what happens when you leave? You have to find a way to get rid of it!

Luckily, cities like Madrid and Barcelona have a constant flow of expats, students, and even locals moving in and out, leaving perfectly good furniture up for grabs.

Where to Find Free Furniture in Spain

Wallapop: The Free Furniture Goldmine

Wallapop is the leading second-hand marketplace in Spain. This marketplace platform has tons of free furniture if you know how to search:

1. Search “muebles gratis” or “free furniture”
2. Set the price filter to “0€”
3. Sort by “nearest to you”

Just be ready to move fast as the free good stuff goes quickly! For this, you can save your search and activate the notifications to get alerted whenever there’s a new upload. In addition, be ready to handle the transportation because this is one of the main reasons why people donate their furnitures (so they don’t have to transport it).

Keep in mind that while Wallapop offers genuinely free items, some sellers may list their items at 0€ simply to attract attention, with the actual price revealed in the description. Always check the full listing details before contacting the seller to avoid disappointment and wasted time.

Local Facebook Free Stuff Groups

There are a lot of amazing Facebook groups where people gather to donate, recycle, and foster circular economy in their local community. For example in Madrid and Barcelona, the following groups are active

• Trash to Treasure – Madrid
• Free Your Stuff Barcelona
• Madrid Free Cycle
• Buy nothing – Barcelona families

If you’re outside of Madrid/Barcelona, a simple search on Google for this kind of groups in your city should reveal relevant groups you should be looking at.

However, these groups do have drawbacks. With no rating systems or accountability mechanisms, you may encounter people who don’t show up for pickups, promise items they never deliver, or repeatedly take without giving back. Since these communities rely solely on goodwill rather than formal penalties, it’s wise to approach arrangements with realistic expectations and always have a backup plan.

NoLoTiro & ReMad

NoLoTiro is a Spanish freecycling platform. NoloTiro literally means “I don’t throw it away”, and it does tend to have its supply of free furnitures up for grabs.

ReMad on the other hand is a Madrid City Council’s initiative for upcycling and is particularly great for quality furniture that locals don’t want to trash. Items on ReMad tend to be reserved very quickly, so you have to check regularly and move fast!

Waki: A New Arrival in the Spanish Circular Economy

We created Waki to facilitate donating items people no longer need and to make hunting for items (like furnitures) even easier. The long term goal of Waki is to improve on all these platforms, with features that facilitate the donation and hunting process, including an appointment manager, rating machanism to foster reliability in the comunity by penalise jilting and not showing up for appointments. Our aim is to help students and newcomers easily connect with the circular economy in Spain.

With Waki, you can:

• Search across multiple free furniture sources at once
• Get notifications when items matching your needs appear
• Arrange pickup or delivery seamlessly
• Connect with other students for shared pickups

I wish I’d had Waki when I first arrived with nothing but a suitcase and a dream! Download it now from your preferred app store and get started with hunting for the things you need to get started with life in Spanish!

Happy hunting!