I moved during COVID-19 and furnished my new home mostly for free. Here's how.

Much of the furniture came from Facebook Marketplace.Klaus Vedfelt/ Getty Images

• Cheryl Rodewig had to move into a new apartment during the coronavirus pandemic.
• Previously, she had sold everything to travel the world, so she needed to furnish cheaply.
• She couldn't go into thrift stores to browse, so she turned to free listings on Facebook Marketplace.
• She ended up spending $588 in total to furnish her apartment — and looks forward to someday passing on that furniture.
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Moving is always stressful, but moving during a global pandemic takes it to a level that didn't exist prior to 2020. Make it an international move on short notice with next to no belongings — like mine was — and you've got what an optimist might call a challenge.

After flying back from Paris in March, thanks to a trip with spectacularly poor timing, I had a few items at the top of my to-do list: find a city to live in, rent an apartment, and outfit said apartment with the essentials so I could shelter in place for the foreseeable future.