What's "Necessary" for a home

[MgoSam]

So I am closing on a townhouse in a month. It's a 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom (one is a water closet), two garage, space.

I am planning to rent out the two rooms, and am going to leave them completely bare until someone moves in. I will be needing to furnish the kitchen, living room, my bedroom, the upstairs and main floor bathroom (the third floor basement is part of that bedroom).

My parents have a bunch of beautiful couches that they have sitting in their porch collecting dust. They said I can have them for the living room. I have a bed and dresser already for my bedroom. This means I don't really need to buy anything additional to furnish it. For the bathroom I will need a curtain, mats, towels, ect.

Any advice on planning to stock up a house? My goal was to spend zero on furniture, which is doable thanks to my parents. I would like to minimize expenses on the kitchen and bathroom, which my mom is going to help with by looking for deals on nearly everything, but I would like further advice. I am going to be buying a grill, but am toying with waiting until after Labor Day.

The house does come with a good refrigerator/freezer, washer/dryer, and dishwasher. I would like to buy a 1/4 cow eventually and so will look for a good deal on a chest freezer...but this will be well after I move in and am established.

[midweststache]

Cleaning supplies. Baking soda and white vinegar will go a long way for this.

I would make sure to clean the hell out of any porch couches... your future roommates may not like any critters that made a home in them while outside.

I would wait for other purchases until you rent out the rooms. You never know what roommates will show up with.

[Mother Fussbudget]

Get cleaning supplies at the Dollar Store (i.e. Dollar Tree). 
Furnish rooms from Goodwill / Value Village / Salvation Army, or whatever thrift store you like in your area.  You'll save $$ on furnishing the place, and if something gets damaged, or broken, there's no heartache - and you'll know how and where to replace it easily.  CraigsList (garage sales, estate sales) are a good second choice for specific items you can't find at the thriftstores.  Overpriced big box stores (Walmart / Target / Sears/Kmart) as the last choice in sources of home furnishings.  You can literally find ANYTHING there, but you pay 2x to 5x more for things than finding 'previously owned'.   Good luck

[galliver]

You seem to be missing a dining/kitchen table and chairs (depending on layout, barstools may be a reasonable substitute). You also want some kind of end tables or coffee tables by the couches. Whether for watching TV or congregating and socializing, people need places to put books/laptops/drinks. If you plan to have a TV on there, you need someplace to put it. Depending on the setup you might need a lamp or two for the place to be habitable/usable.

Cleaning supplies: vacuum, mop or swiffer (I use swiffer with a rag instead of the disposables; this device should be sized appropriately to the amount of tile/wood/linoleum your house has--don't do 1000+SF with a swiffer, you'll hate yourself), rags and/or paper towels, chemicals of choice (mine are Comet, Fantastik, Pledge Squirt-n-mop, toilet cleaner, baking soda, dish soap, laundry detergent; I'm not worried about them because they last forever, except the dish soap; everything else is $20-30/year). Get a toilet brush and PLUNGER which you don't want to not have when you need it!

Things I require/expect in a home but others may not feel as strongly about: dish drying rack in the kitchen, shoe rack by the door, microwave (if not built in), hand towels (the ones about 16-18x28-30" or so), kitchen towels in ample supply, separate sponges/rags for dishes and counters.

I'm also partial to shelves full of books and board games, and some kind of wall decorations to prevent barren-ness. My old roomie had printed fabric stretched over a giant plywood frame and some spray-painted thrifted frames that looked gorgeous. I'm not a minimalist, in case that wasn't obvious.

[MgoSam]

Thanks for the lists. I forgot to mention that my roommate has an extra dining t able that would be idea for my new house. It's currently sitting in my garage and he has chairs for it. They aren't that comfortable, but I can always get different ones afterwards.

+1 to cleaning supplies. Is it worth making homemade stuff? I've read a lot of articles where people make their own cleaning supplies and said that it was cost-effective, do you think it is worth doing so?

For the TV, I agree. It isn't a huge concern at the move-in, and my roommate (he's somewhat of a techie) said that he would take a look and suggest the best way to set it up on a budget.

[Melody]

All my cleaning stuff fits in my square bucket I use to mop with and this is too much, floor cleaner, window cleaner,multipurpose, toilet bleach and cream cleanser probably meet 98*% of needs . If you have dish detergent and toilet cleaner, plunger and brush, vaccum and mop, you can probably buy the rest on an as needed basis. You may wish to do this stuff on a kitty system with your housemates.