The Great Furniture Debacle
Mistakes from an Expat in Portugal
When you travel to a new country and don’t speak the language it’s fun. When you move there, it’s different. Mostly because there are things you have to get done like buy furniture for your apartment or go to the hospital.
Challenges
While grocery shopping can be a challenge whether traveling or living in a new country, it’s usually not going to cause months of discomfort if you make a mistake. When I first arrived in Portugal, even though I used the Google translate camera, I accidentally bought fabric softener instead of laundry detergent. While I have made a thousand more mistakes in the past year, what I refer to as “the great furniture debacle of 2022” was the among the worst.
I truly hope you can learn from my mistakes!
I moved into my apartment in Porto, Portugal on December 15th after living as a nomad for sixteen months. When you move to a foreign country without speaking the language or knowing anyone, there will be challenges.
I moved into an unfurnished apartment and thankfully I did not listen to all the people who told me not to order from IKEA.
IKEA showed up the day I moved in, when they said they would. They carried everything up to my apartment (I paid extra for that but it was worth every penny). I hired a Task Rabbiter (through the IKEA website) who showed up immediately after my bed and a few other items were delivered. He put everything together and spoke perfect English. I learned later this was the exception, not the norm but there’s always google (or Deepl which I prefer) translate.
IKEA
I only ordered a few essentials from IKEA. My bed, a closet/armoire (they don’t have closets in the old buildings here), a work desk, a work chair, kitchen items like pots and pans, dishes and cutlery.
I really wanted some cute furniture and when I stayed at an airbnb in Lisbon, the owner had great pieces. So I ordered from there.
Two months later (with no couch) and after giving this furniture company €4,000, they refused to bring the items up my seven flights of stairs. This was four pallets of furniture. And there was nothing I could do, no one to pay, no place to beg. No one spoke English on the customer service number.
It took three more months and a lot of crying before my money was returned.
I learned, the hard way, to count on and trust in IKEA.
But eventually I also found two other places to order furniture from. Unfortunately it’s challenging no matter how you cut it. Unless you have someone helping you, who speaks Portuguese.
Other Furniture Companies
If you do move here and need to purchase furniture in a timely manner the only places I can personally recommend are: IKEA, Comforama and Kinda. Beliani has great options, great prices and even great customer service but they told me I would get my furniture in 2 weeks and it took 7. While I’m sure there are others I can advise you to NEVER under ANY circumstances order from Sklum, it doesn’t matter how cute and cheap their products are; they’re poor quality and they will happily take your money and never deliver your furniture.
But a year later, through all the pain, trials and tribulations I can adamantly say "it was worth it". My apartment is cute and comfortable and I love it here sooooo much!! I love Portugal, the people, the cities, the food, the entertainment but mostly the people and the beauty.
Conclusion
There will be growing pains no matter where you go, no matter what you do. Life is a series of growing pains. And yet, I've met more people I can count on here, I'm invited out regularly by Portuguese friends and I feel completely at home--even if I don't speak the language... yet. So no, I wouldn't change it for the world.
Recently I was invited to go see a Miro exhibit with a Portuguese friend and at the time of this writing, I'm enjoying a "Hawaii like" sunset from my balcony!
Thank you for reading my words and following me, I appreciate you!
Resources:
**If you’re interested in moving to Europe, I recommend this book.
**If you’re interested in moving to Portugal specifically, all the information you will need can be found in this facebook group.
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Have you posted photos of your place? Fun read.