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I actually do this. I have rented 2 king size beds, a sofa, a 200l fridge, 40 inch led tv, small ac and a dining table for around $120 per month. In return i g
by rishav_sharan 7y ago
I actually do this. I have rented 2 king size beds, a sofa, a 200l fridge, 40 inch led tv, small ac and a dining table for around $120 per month.
In return i get complete peace of mind, free maintenance and the ability to update my furniture for no reason other than i want to.
I personally am pretty happy with renting most of this stuff but will be buying my own dtuff once i have my own house
- mehrdadn 7y agoSorry but do you find this ends up being wasteful at all? I don't know how many of/how much these items can be reused, but it feels like it would promote far faster consumption than ownership.
- dawhizkid 7y agoHow did you come to that conclusion? The effect is the complete opposite...instead of a lot of people that move frequently (i.e. younger people) and buy/toss a lot of cheap Ikea furniture every year, you rent high end, long-lasting furniture that is delivered/removed for reuse.
- Retra 7y agoWhen I moved frequently I bought an inflatable bed or cot. I didn't buy a king sized bed and throw it out every two years. That's insane.
- seem_2211 7y agoI think the answer is there are different options for different people - some people (like yourself) are happy buying an inflatable bed and sleeping on that. Others would prefer to rent a king sized bed. I don't think one is necessarily right or wrong. Choice is a good thing!
- mehrdadn 7y agoI think the distinction of interest in the parent comment wasn't inflatable vs. king sized, the distinction was throwing away king sized every 2 years vs., well, not doing that.
- Retra 7y agoWaste is not a good thing. And when choice leads to waste, it is not so simply a good thing either.
- diminoten 7y agoI refuse to use a cot or inflatable bed as my primary location for sleeping. Sleep is too important to cheap out on it.
- Izkata 7y ago> and throw it out every two years. Um, they're not throwing it out. Someone else uses it afterwards.
- maccard 7y agoI'm a little skeptical of this - I know for car leases this is true, but is there really a market for 2 year old ex-rental sofas?
- Veen 7y agoThese days I tend to buy big furniture items — sofas and the like — second hand. I can't afford really high-end quality furniture new, but, if you're careful, you can find well-made furniture at low prices in charity stores. My house is furnished with a mix of crappy Ikea stuff and very nice second-hand furniture; I much prefer the latter.
- mehrdadn 7y ago> if you're careful, you can find well-made furniture at low prices in charity stores. My house is furnished with a mix of crappy Ikea stuff and very nice second-hand furniture; I much prefer the latter. But this illustrates exactly the problem. "If you're careful" -- meaning you wouldn't want the average one you see. Meaning there's going to be considerably more waste when people have to buy second-hand than if they just kept their own that much longer.
- Veen 7y agoI wouldn't want the "average" new sofa either, especially not in a price bracket I consider reasonable. I agree that it would be more efficient if people kept their sofas for a decade, but they don't, and me buying the sofas they don't want is a better option than them ending up on a trash heap. Plus, I'll probably keep them for ten years. I buy high-end furniture second-hand so I can do exactly that, rather than getting a new Ikea piece of junk that falls apart in a couple of years. I suppose the ideal scenario would be for manufacturers not to make rubbish and for people to be able to afford good furniture that lasts for decades, but we don't live in that world.
- esoterica 7y agoSleeping in an inflatable bed for two years is what’s insane. When I crash on a friend’s air mattress for a weekend I feel like death afterwards, but two years? I’d rather buy and throw away 10 beds and then withdraw the equivalent amount of cash from by checking account and set it on fire than sleep on an air mattress for 2 years.
- mehrdadn 7y agoWell that's one reason why I said I'm not sure how many of/how much these items can be reused. For something like a wooden table/chair, and a TV/monitor/etc., sure, it might get reuse. But for a sofa or mattress? I don't know about you, but unlike with a desk or chair, I wouldn't just buy any random 2-year-old sofa or mattress a stranger throws out... whereas I'd keep using the ones I've had for the past couple years in a heartbeat. The other reason is, if everyone just "updates" stuff for no other reason than "because they want to", then that's obviously going to tend to cycle through products more rapidly than if people didn't just "update" on a whim, even if the second-hand-ness wasn't an issue.
- 52-6F-62 7y agoPeople just toss that stuff? I must be a sucker, because I've been carrying some of it around for close to a decade...
- meesterdude 7y agoConversely, all of craigslist I bought a leather recliner couch for $50, a 40 inch TV for $250, and a dining table for $125. That's $425/yr vs $1440/yr, and I bought those 3 years ago - which would be $4320 @ $120 * 36 months. It's a good option for certain lifestyles, but can equally become surprisingly expensive if not manged.
- jijji 7y agoyou can buy all of that on craigslist for ~$700 ... $100 for each bed, $100 (or free) for sofa, $200 for fridge $100 for tv, ac for $50 and dining table for $50.. If you plan on relocating in six months to another city, that might make sense...
- JMTQp8lwXL 7y agoI wouldn't buy or accept a free couch or bed from Craigslist. There's the potential for bed bugs. Anything with non-porous surfaces (outdoor furniture) is fine.
- someone-knows 7y agoI just bought a couch on Craigslist and limited my search to wealthy neighborhoods only. I think I got a great deal.
- diminoten 7y agoSure, if you wanted vastly inferior quality...
- Cthulhu_ 7y agoI'm sure Craigslist has a wide range of quality; the challenge however is figuring out which is which and base it on people reporting about it themselves.
- jordanpg 7y agoMy main objection to this sort of thing is the logistical overhead of living with it and dealing with the eventual returns. You have to keep track, mentally or otherwise, of what's rented and what's not. You will treat the rented things differently, even if only subconsciously. When the time comes to return it, you have to deal with a website or a flurry of emails. Probably there is some boxing and taping and printing and packing and mailing. You have to verify the return is received and monies are refunded. I guess some money is saved, and perhaps reuse is encouraged, but at the expense of cognitive cycles and time. I'd rather just buy. The ecological wastefulness argument strikes me as, like recycling, operating on very, very thin margins.
- mrfredward 7y agoThe best way to reduce waste would be to buy used. Also the cheapest, though it's probably highest on the cognitive load side.