Turning Nightmares Into Dreams
Moving is likely to be a nightmare no matter how you slice it. The best you can do is decrease the overall impact. This is often done through planning in advance, but there are additional strategic approaches which many fail to consider. One of the wisest actually involves a more minimalistic, spartan, downsized lifestyle.
Do you own your things, or do your things own you? Ask yourself: how much time, effort, and money is involved in purchasing, maintaining, and moving all your “stuff”? Take a simple couch. The couch cost $1,000 new. It cost $200 to move and install. You wash it regularly.
It’s been through five moves where its transport cost ended up being about $50 per move, in terms of time, incidental damages, repair, and moving help. That’s another $250. Hours involved in moving it come to about twelve per year—for entertainment, for guests, for new furniture patterns; the list goes on.
What is your time worth? Let’s assume $20 an hour. At least one time you drop the couch and injure yourself or someone else. It’s not untoward to assume a TCO, or a Total Cost of Ownership, for such a couch to be around $2,000 over the course of its usage in your family.
If you’ve got chairs, refrigerators, washing machines, lamps, desks, cabinets, wardrobes, etc., each will have a similar TCO. It’s not untoward to expect in ten years’ time, a complete furniture set acquired unused will have a TCO of around $20k, or $2k a year.
Re-examining The Question
Now do you own your things, or do your things own you? But in contrast, what if you live in an apartment that comes pre-furnished? Well, you can save that $20k and substitute rent for it. In the short-term, an apartment that is furnished will save you money, even if it’s luxurious.
For the long-term, you want to own the property for greatest maximization of resources. Still, if you go the luxury route, you may find permanent living in such an arrangement suits you. It makes sense to know the options out there.
For example, at www.carmelapartments.com/renoir-house, you can find: “…the quintessential New York City rental experience. Residents indulge in newly redesigned apartments with modern kitchens, baths and barnwood-style flooring. Renovated Lobby, corridors, and elevators paint a perfect picture of luxury living.”
Meanwhile, at http://www.carmelapartments.com/carmel-vintage-pleasanton-ca you can find an experience that is: “Beyond an apartment for rent in Pleasanton, CA…” the site goes on to note that: “…Vintage is a contemporary community that is as much an escape as it is a destination. A place where beautifully appointed homes, resort-style amenities, rolling lawns and parks, and boutique shops come together to create a distinctly new leisure lifestyle.”
A Valid Contender
Going the apartment route can save you time and money in terms of moving by allowing you to maximize your quality of life while minimizing the associated hassle to maintain it. Minimalistic, spartan living can be substituted for luxurious living arrangements in a way that, during a properly balanced interval, won’t end up costing you anything extra.
Every move will have its own difficulties, even if you only have two suitcases full of belongings and bounce between furnished apartments. But in America, if you go with luxurious furnished apartments on a rental basis, and keep your actual belongings scant, you can enjoy total amenities without having to deal with the collateral costs they would otherwise foist upon you. Don’t let your things own you, use that which you need to at your own discretion, and be flexible.