Don’t Decorate the Apartment You Don’t Have

My wife and I recently went through an apartment search while relocating from Washington, D.C. to New York City. During the process, we became attached to a few places we really loved, and then lost them. We found ourselves mentally decorating several different places and wasted a lot of time doing it.

I’ve always heard people say that once you’ve pictured yourself living in a certain place, it’s really hard to go back. And it’s actually true. You start dreaming about how great your life would be if you had all the wonderful things it offered, and then you start searching for the furnishings that will make it the perfect place to live. But you’re just hurting yourself by imagining yourself in it, and you’re further hurting yourself by shopping for anything, really.

In the future, I we will no longer shop for an apartment or house that isn’t 100% ours. You will always find a couch to fit a corner perfectly, but until you know what exact corner you are looking for, there is no point in shopping. You’re simply investing too heavily (emotionally) in something that may never come to be.