You always notice that couch that’s in the backdrop of your childhood photos. Concentrate hard enough, and you will feel its soft and supple texture. You will recollect how it was an ever-present centerpiece of comfort for the entire family. How it moved with you when you relocated and was almost 15 years old by then. And then how the family eventually passed it down to you when you moved out at 16. You then used that couch for a couple more years before you could hear the springs creak and it became unusable.
Most of us have stories like these from our childhood, inherited items that gradually wear out. However, stories like these are becoming increasingly rare, and will probably cease to exist by the time our kids decide to share their experiences with our grandkids. Why? We move a lot, have less room and are reaching a point where we don’t care as much about buying homes and decorating them.
The numbers check out, too. 30% of those between the ages of 20–29 now spend their time abroad; less than 60% of Americans now live in the same state they were born in. The reason for an increase in our general mobility is because the timeframe between graduating from high school to college and ‘settling down’ is increasing. The average age of marriage has risen to 27 among women and 29 among men (in 1990, it was 23 and 26 respectively). Moreover, people born between 1990 and 2000 are now 2 times more likely than the average American to be paying off student loans. Also, consider how most American millennials now live: two-thirds of them are renters, and most of them tend to live with roommates rather than alone. 62% of them live in urban areas, where they have less space to fill, fewer ways to fill it and hence, a reduced inclination to devote their funds to their living space. When they do have the money, they spend it on vacations, tech, minimizing debt; or simply save it.
The conclusion to this whole glut of numbers?
In the days of streaming and ride-sharing, subscription services galore!
Today, people aspire toward freedom and flexibility. ‘Owning’ has become a lot less vital, and millennials care more about the ‘ease of access’ and ‘the experience’, even when it comes to home furniture. Buying furniture is impractical for all those millennials who live in a world of looming student loan debt and moving from one apartment lease to the next. Given how much of a pain moving within the city can be, renting your home furniture is a no-brainer compared to packing it all up and taking it with you every time you start a new lease.
With millennials now moving away from home for education and employment in large numbers, platforms offering FaaS (Furniture as a Service) are becoming increasingly popular. Established furniture retailers, such as IKEA, are also working on FaaS offerings. Enter a new crop of home furniture and decor based rental services, who have picked up on the renting trend. From furniture to artwork, there is an abundance of commitment-free ways to decorate your space while sticking to ongoing trends within your budget.
CasaOne is one such destination for subscription-style home furniture and decor. Keeping millennials in mind, their select offerings are skewed toward mid-century modern that don’t compromise on style — from a plush velvet sofa to a minimal coffee table.
How it works: on their site, you can select exactly what furniture you want, as well as the length of your rental term (which can be anywhere from 1 month to 12 months). The goal is to make renting more convenient than buying. What’s more? CasaOne delivers and assembles all the furniture you rent for you, which makes moving even less of a hassle. Bonus: all your lease payments go toward owning the furniture you rent.
Home furniture used to be a signifier of taste, an indicator of social status and a testament to one’s stage in life. Between our parents’ generation and ours, these notions have changed drastically. Although furniture styles and what’s fashionable continues to evolve, the sociological shift in where it fits in our lives is telling. Simply put, we think of furniture differently because, in truth, we think about our life trajectories differently.
