I've told this story before...a co-worker left a toxic relationship on short notice. I rented him a spare bedroom for a few weeks until he found an apartment (6 weeks later). He had no furniture as he left everything behind except his clothes. I let him borrow a bed and an extra couch from the basement and he moved to his new place. A week later he went to an estate sale and for $900 bought a full bedroom suite, kitchen table and chairs, couch, love seat, end tables, lamps, etc. He basically bought most of the contents from a house for less than $1000.
He used that stuff for a while and gradually replaced it with stuff he bought on sale or used.