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It's getting tougher and tougher to find the sites that have help "for free" or without becoming a member. A few years back, there were some great ones.
Try The Family Handyman. You will also find quite a few "blog" sites out there, created by folks who have refinished their own furniture pieces. The nice thing about the amateur sites, is that many will jump right in and give you tips on "what NOT to do", because they've made mistakes.
I'll give you a couple quickies that I've learned. Those heavy duty Scotch Brite grill scrubbers? You know, the ones that look like dark-green Scotch Brite on steroids? Fabulous tools to help you with the stripping process. They are especially helpful with curved or round pieces.
Those dollar store tablecloths are perfect for drop cloths and are much cheaper than products sold as drop cloths. May I suggest that you shop there for your stripping tools as well? Many of these projects are so messy, that it's sometimes better to not have to clean up your stuff afterward. If you have disposable tools and drop cloths, you just wrap everything up and toss it, tools and all....voila! Clean up done!
Paper towels are your friend, but if you've got any old cotton T-shirts, old flannel shirts, old cotton sheets, etc., that you can tear or cut into nice-sized wiping rags, you will lose your fondness for paper towels, perhaps. We have a rule in our house. When you go through your clothing and start tossing out damaged stuff, put aside a few articles of clothing in a drawer to WEAR only for painting and staining (or bleaching) projects. Everything else gets sorted according to fabric type. Fine, lightweight, loose-woven clothing is used for straining paints and other solutions. All other low-lint, absorbant items are cut into large rags and sent to the shop to be used as disposable rags. Only then, do items get tossed in the trash, and because we generally buy cotton or cotton blend fabrics, there is very little to throw away.
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