For the entirety of my adult life, I never stayed in any one spot. I rented basement apartments, condo closets dens, regular apartments, lived at home, etc. By my calculations, I had moved 11 times in the period between 2011 and 2016 mostly due to school and employment circumstances.
The brevity of these living experiences led me to meet many interesting roommates (for another day…), but also adopt the mentality of “own less”. “Own less” meant for every new purchase I made, I’d have to find a way to either throw something away or make it fit in my car upon the inevitable move. This worked very well for a period of time as it optimized my frugal habits but it got exhausting having to live knowing this particular roof over my head was temporary.
Finally when I got a full-time job, I decided it was time to get settled. I signed a one-year lease with a former roommate and we were in business. “No more moving!” I cheered, until I realized a big problem: that I owned zero furniture. Nothing except clothes and a laptop. For the past 5 years of my life, I had been subletting or renting furnished rooms. All of a sudden, I was going to be walking into a completely empty apartment.
Where do I start? What do I do? Where do I go?
I started to think about the things I’d need: a bed for sure. A desk. A dresser. A lamp. Probably a book shelf. Unwisely, the first place I started to google was Ikea and was quickly unimpressed with their pricing.
Then I took a breath and realized a few things:
