This is why I bought a house. I got tired of moving so much and having the cycle of "do I want to stay here?" because the option to not stay there presented itself.

I rented a shared room once (from college girls) that I hated (four 21 year old females in one place = mess/hair in drains/cat fights). I knew I'd only be there for six months, so I never unpacked and lived out of suitcases. When it was time for me to go, I simply grabbed my suitcases and left without saying goodbye (they didn't miss me, I'm sure).

Now, if I had to sublet? I'd do the same. Sorry, but my heart hurts for you. I'm someone who likes to plant roots and stay awhile and couldn't bear to go through decorating a space, calling it home and then having to pack up and move six months later. That sounds (is) just awful.

Might I suggest that if you have to sublet again, live out of your suitcases. Six months goes by really fast and you'll save yourself all the work of unpacking/decorating, packing/cleaning/moving, unpacking/decorating - phew! I just wore myself out typing that.

Good luck!

I recognise what you're saying. When I started at uni I lived in dormrooms and was planning to move in with my boyfriend at the time. However due to lack of money and other resources and a good available appartment, I moved to a temporary dorm outside town. I had fun housemates, but I've never felt home. Not even when I ended up leaving the bf and my temporary home became a home for 2,5+ years. Since then I've met someone else and moved in with him in two different appartements. The last one is the one we're currently in and I know we'll be here for many years to come. I feel complete, at ease and at home. I guess it's like a phase you're going through, being in places you don't want to be, like you're "on hold"? Just hang in tight and you may just find that perfect appartement in a month or two where you can stay for some time to come and grow attached to!

Just go with it. Think of it as a fun in-between. I was in a short-term sublease that I ended up staying in for 3 years. On the other hand, I've had places I felt I was settling into for the long haul that I ended up in for four months. The only thing you can count on is that life changes. Enjoy the cuteness, the train, the process...

It does sound like you're move fatigued, though. Maybe look for a two-year lease for your next place.

I can totally relate. This January I had to move out of the condo I rented for 3.5 years as it was purchased. Instead of panicking I chose to sublet for 6 months in Greenpoint (which to me, is a far cry from Williamsburg). Prior to this rental which I loved, I had always went with sublets because of the lack of commitment involved. I'd just wait it out and start looking since the market is opening up. Once you find a place to call your own for a longer time you'll feel more "anchored."

Why so concerned with feeling at home? I also have moved myriad times in the past decade and love every moment of it. New flats, new cities, new countries at times. I don't want a home. I want a life that exists as much of the time as possible outside of the place where I am forced to return to sleep. Am I truly alone in wanting a simple small space that is easy to maintain and keep clean reserved for meals and sleeping when not traveling that I can switch without thought and spend life out there in the world?

For what it's worth, I bought my place over 4 years ago. It still doesn't feel like home. But thanks to a negative equity situation, it's going to be where I live for a long time. It keeps the rain off and the cold out. So it's becoming somewhere I'll practice a few things. Who knows - one day it might feel like it.

Maybe you're just annoyed that you signed a six month lease for a place you wish you could stay in for longer?

I once had a 4 month rental following a breakup/move out. I actually loved that basement apartment even though it was a hodge podge of mix-matched furniture, had a broken oven for half the time, and a bedroom with a window that was covered by the front deck. Maybe it was because I knew my life was heading in the right direction? (My next move was across the country for law school)

As I see it, its all a question of attitude - after all, we're here for a good time, not a long time.. right?

Sounds like you are just ready to settle down and it has nothing to do with the space itself. I have lived in several sublets abroad where I didn't even have my own furniture or cooking supplies. It wasn't "home" but I didn't mind too much because I knew the situation was temporary. Think of your place as a very comfortable vacation rental rather than a home. I suggest just concentrating on other aspects of your life that make you happy and maybe pin some images so you can daydream about your next place!

I've seen places for rent on a short term lease and never knew how anyone could do it. I feel for you. Though even in a long term lease sometimes the place just doesn't feel like home. We had an apartment for 12 years in a city that went bad. I loved that little apartment and felt at home. I still miss it. The tiny stove. The view of the tree tops.

Now we've lived in a house rental now for 7 years. It's never felt like home. The location is wonderful. Million dollar views and no close neighbors. But the house is totally not my style and the owner doesn't like change. I've been looking for greener pastures recently. It takes just as long to find "the right place" when you live rural. And always on the lookout for those pesky "For Sale" signs in front of rental properties.

Some of us just can't commit to owning a house. The cost of upkeep, insurance, taxes in our area are sometimes as much as the mortgage! Unless you move into an apartment complex we renters unfortunately are all kind of on a short term lease. Things can change in a snap.

Sorry, but your first paragraph is pretty full of hyperbole. "..my current residence only has a 6 month lease and I'm calling it the most ridiculous thing ever. Seriously — ever."

What does this even mean? You signed a sublet and you're complaining that it doesn't feel like home? What motivated you to move into this place if you are looking for something more permanent? I mean, finances and availability can be huge factors, and I can sympathize, but a 6 month sublet comes with the explicit expectation that you leave after 6 months. There's no settling in and you usually get a good deal for the short amount of time. I don't think your complaints have anything to do with the fact that sublets exist, but that you chose one when your situation perhaps called for a regular lease.

My advice would be to not sublet any more apartments. Get one of your own that you can afford and that you can stay in.

If you're dreading digging through Craigslist once your sub-lease is up, you should try the Lovely app! A friend of mine recommended it after I moved to Chicago and I LOVE their interface and search options. Definitely makes apartment hunting a little less stressful. Works online and on your phone - now I search for apartments just to imagine the different places I could call home :)

http://livelovely.com/

I agree with Carrotsticks. Not to be rude or anything but you knew it was only for 6 months going in so what's the issue? If you wanted a place to call home then you should have found a location that had a longer lease or consider buying your own place. I would assume that since you knew it was only 6 months that you would have to look again for something else if they chose not to renew the lease.

hmmm this is interesting to me. My husband and I have moved like 10 times in the 4 years we've been married so I understand the tired of not being settled thing. It hasnt always been just because we feel like moving, it normally because of regular life happens stuff, like work transfers and that sort of thing. However we've come to the conclusion that sometimes it's actually better to be exploring and living and getting new experiences. We just signed a year lease in January on a condo and Dallas and already cant wait for it to be up so we can try a new city and have a new experience

Yes, we lived in a place as a family (husband, 3 yo daughter, MIL, I was molto-pregnant) for two months. We had just moved to a new city far away and wanted to live somewhere just long enough to find a longer-term rental. Because we didn't know anything about our new city, we thought it best to set up temporary digs, learn about the town, and take it from there.

For the 2-month lease, we landed a brand new man-si-on that we got for some crazy inexpensive rent, all things considering. We used the downstairs media room to store all our stuff from our small DC townhouse. We used the furniture that was provided--sparse, but totally adequate.

We were majorly uptight about not dinging, scratching, poking or sullying anything in the home. But living is living, and $h!t happens. We wound up sacrificing our $3000 security deposit due to scratches on the brand-new wood floor, thanks to landlord-provided bar-height dining stools and no rug underneath. Also, the owners were upset that the built-in grill-plate was discolored from use...normal, regular use. I was ready to contest the situation, but acquiesced when my husband said he wouldn't join the fight. (I still love him. :)).

I also learned that a mansion does not a home make. An awkward layout and lack of access to the outdoors made me more than happy to leave that popsicle stand for what we eventually found: something about 1/2 the size, lacking grandeur, but with a ton of cozy appeal. So for that, yeah, I was grateful for the experience.

@tarainsevenvalleys

In certain areas there are tenant protection laws that actually work to make an apartment a viable "home" for people. In my case, in Ontario, unless you sign a sublet you are entitled to stay in your apartment as long as you want as long as you pay your rent on time and are not causing trouble. The landlord can only raise the rent by a certain % each year (matched to inflation, usually) and they need to get an eviction order from a court for non-payment of rent or another major violation (like sub-leasing without landlord's consent, which can't be arbitrarily refused)... The one loophole landlords have in their pocket to evict someone is to request the unit for themselves or an immediate family member. They must actually live in the unit as their primary residence for a minimum of 1 year, and can't charge rent to their immediate family if they choose that option. They also have to pay your reasonable moving expenses.

All this is to say that I feel somewhat at home in my apartment. I can afford it and I don't anticipate my landlord wanting to move into it any time soon. Owning a home can have the same level of uncertainty if you have a mortgage. What happens if you loose your job or interest rates go through the roof? There is really only security in owning your home outright.

For many of us, buying a home is not an option, especially in Hawaii. Here, "median" prices for homes is $550,000, and it doesn't get much. Rents here are also high; my place in Honolulu is 450 sq. ft. in a 1950's era woodframe walk-up is $900. People will stay in smaller spaces for a long time (my neighbors have been here 25+ years) because the rent doesn't go up much. I would love to buy a small, older home, but I'll need to make at least $80k a year. That's not happening.

I’ve lived in only four homes since I left my parent’s nest as I hate moving. The shortest time period I’ve ever spent in any residence is 1 year. Residing for one year was not my original intent, it simply happened. I took a lease on a house 100 yards from my first apartment of 16 years, with an option to purchase. The owner, one of my neighbors, seemed like a nice person and was suddenly moving to Washington DC after his wife received a lucrative job offer there. The house seemed to fulfill all my needs at that time, hence it appeared to be a good match. I would lease the house and eventually buy it, they could quickly resolve their two-house problem. Moving day came and the first of many controversies over a crazy year occurred with the owner’s resentful adult daughter’s attempts to disrupt the move. Revelations of hidden neglect and damage in the house soon became evident. Nevertheless, I drew up renovation plans and tenaciously held onto the dream of eventually owning this house and remaining on the street with the people I knew for so many years. Finally, reality burst the bubble when the house inspection and two contractor quotes revealed that the house had profound issues and renovation costs would equal the home’s $150K asking price. Three months before the lease expired, I began looking for a new place, this time, 60 miles away in the country and dramatically closer to my job. I learned a lot from that experience which today I refer to as my homeowner test period. In the end I concluded that sometimes you need a stepping stone home, to get the place you really want.

I don't know from sublets but the title of this post made me laugh.

I hear you, there's temporary and then there's temporary. I had an internship on the other side of the country while I was in grad school, and those 12 weeks in corporate housing were rough. It was a really nice furnished apartment in a really nice building, but it was a really bizarre experience and I just never got comfortable. I think it's totally about whether you are able to hunker down in a place for a while and feel in control of the decision. My grad school house was temporary also, but I knew I would be there a while, I felt invested and settled in the place, and it felt like home almost instantly. I'd say just hang in there and next time pick a lease term that you can control (i.e. not a sublet).

I'm a military brat so as much as I love architecture and decorating, the concept of 'home' has always been attached to other people (my family) or myself (this is MINE, no matter how transient or small). On vacation any place with a bed, clean underwear, and my toothbrush is home - my husband still thinks it's funny when I say "let's go home" after dinner and am referring to the hotel. I mean it too. Yes, there's nothing like coming back to your real house after a trip, but while I'm away wherever I can rest quietly is home.

Here's the problem I have: We're kind of subletting, but not really. Basically we took over a friend of a friend's amazing and cheap apartment on the condition that if she and her husband want to move back in (they moved from NY to LA), we have to move out. So, it's ours for as long as we want it, unless... It's so frustrating. We pay directly to the landlords and we're living in it as if we'll be there for the next several years (which we will, unless... they want to come back). It seemed like a great idea at the time and we really needed to move from where we are, but it's turning out to actually be incredibly stressful.

Ohmanda, that deal needs a statute of limitations. One to two years tops, I mean, it is unrealistic for these people to think they can move back in 5 years and kick out the current residents. When you move out of a rental, you move on. Especially since these people have no financial relationship with you...they have no legal rights to the place once they gave up the lease. Was the owner involved in this deal? Because I highly doubt it is enforceable. If I were you I'd just send a polite email to the former tenants asking if they plan to move back in the next few months, because if not you are going to settle in more thoroughly for the long term.

Don't all rentals sort of feel like this? It's rare that you have a renter who really takes care of his "home". It's all about disposable easily changeable furniture, white walls, etc. I have had tenants that won't even invest in a new shower curtain and live with a moldy one as well as not even cleaning the tub or stove top for years. The sort of rentals we see on AT are not the norm.

@meecee

I'm an army brat too and I feel exactly the same. I like and enjoy my house. But my "home" is where ever my husband and I lay our heads.

We had to sublet once when my husband got a one-semester teaching gig at an awesome and very prestigious university (he was finished with grad school and on the market for a more permanent job). The worst five months of our lives. No joke. The sublet apartment was a generic shoebox but worse was the fact that we were completely socially isolated. No neighbors to talk to (that's okay, since I didn't want to meet the guy below us who yelled angrily at someone all day long) and no chance to really make a connection with other faculty or grad students at the school. Everyone just assumed we weren't worth the effort since we weren't sticking around very long. So, whenever we meet someone today and they find out that we lived in "insert cool, funky, university town here" they can't believe we didn't like our time there. There's nothing worse than feeling like you're living on hold, waiting for a future time when you can really "live."

you are not alone! I love moving and I love living in new places. In fact, though my current apartment is cute and I will truly miss my landlady, I just gave notice to move next month. So excited! I may do the store and sublet thing since i have no clue what's going to happen.

If one more person tells me "that's why I bought a house" I may have to scream. Not in everybody's budget, I for once don't think debt like a soul crushing mortgage is a badge of honor or a rite of passage. I'm fine debt free living for rent.

I spent five years as a consultant, the latter three of which involved moving from corporate apartment to hotel to corporate apartment to hotel. Most of these projects were several months long. Granted, I did have a permanent apartment, I spent more times not at home than at home.

That said, I found it perfectly comfortable and felt at home in most anywhere I stayed. Even when I changed rooms in the hotel, I knew the way to the attached/in-house gyms, local malls and eateries, etc. I pretty much felt at home whereverI had my roller-bag of clothing and my toiletry bag. It might take a couple of days at most, but it was usually an easy transition. I think -- as others have mentioned -- it's because I didn't really define my "home" as a space that I designed, but simply a place that I spent the night.

After quitting my consulting job, I did buy a house. Funnily enough, three years ago, I had a problem in which my house was flooded and had to be relocated into a hotel as it was being repaired. A friend asked me whether it was really inconvenient living in a hotel, and my response was: "Actually, it's kind of like going home."

no, you are not alone! but maybe we are in the minority on a home-decorating website. ;-) your words match how i feel exactly. i think i am also in the minority in that i genuinely love sharing a living space with other people.

Maybe this is the reason why I never feel at home in my apartment. Even though I have lived here for 2 years it's with a roommate and if my roommate leaves I have to leave, or find a totally new roommate. In the back of my mind I refuse to get comfortable and live in the moment.

For almost three years, my sister and I lived out of six plastic totes of varying sizes, one suitcase each and a couple of purses. We sort of roamed here and there across the States, not really settling anywhere.

We never really made any of our rentals during that nomad period "homes" but they were places that we hung up some clothes, put blankets on beds and cooked meals. It was fun and adventurous and we loved it.

We have been in our current place for just about a year, our lease is up next month and we are debating whether or not we want to stay or find another place. The rental market in our area is very tight and although our rent is a bit high, we love the extras that come with our apartment. We've accumulated quite a bit more than six totes and a suitcase each, so moving would mean hiring a van and some day labor. We have made this our home, for the time being, but still can't resist the lure of the nomad life!

Here in London, it's not unusual for renters to move frequently. When we were renting, I remember we moved every year, either because the landlord needed the property back, or due to problems with the property that we were not prepared to fix. It was a bit of an upheaval with young kids in tow. Coupled with extortionate rents, it is the reason we (and many of our peers) bought our own place as soon as we were able to.

Does your apartment have a cat? For me, no place is home without a cat. If you can't/won't have a cat, maybe a gerbil or some plants? It sounds like there are other things happening that might impact your feeling about your surroundings. I'd also try looking at this as a "special" transition time, perhaps a concentrated period of more writing (maybe just journaling) or photography or renewing connections with friends or exploring a new subject. Its sounds cozy. I hope it starts feeling better!

I don't live in Canada and have had to move three times due to the place we were renting being sold. The first one we were told was going on the market to be torn down as a parking lot three weeks into a one year lease. The second was the aforementioned 12 year apartment...besides the neighborhood going south, after the last 6 years there, the "new" owner wanted to rent to his brother moving from FL. And the house after that where after a year and a half our slumlords wanted to move their elderly mother in. We were month to month there and given 90 days to move.

We're in a situation now with an elderly widow as our landlord. The family does not want the land and the farm so I know as soon as she goes we will be out of here. I kind of picked a place that I wasn't in love with knowing we would have to move again eventually.

There is no law saying they have to pay your moving expenses here for sure! The amount of money we spent moving over state lines and then moving again 18 months later was ridiculous.

"Some of us just can't commit to owning a house. The cost of upkeep, insurance, taxes in our area are sometimes as much as the mortgage! Unless you move into an apartment complex we renters unfortunately are all kind of on a short term lease. Things can change in a snap."

I already said some of us can't commit to buying. All the money it entails. Not sure why you mention that in reply to me? Along with the other reasons I stated we've lived in more than one neighborhood that has gone downhill and house prices dropped as a result. I wouldn't want to own a place.

@portlandrules,

Interestingly, I think that you might be right. I've never really considered your view because that's not how I live - I decorate, buy good furniture and even invest in upgrading my unit. My last apartment was rented a month early so I could have a month of overlap to do light renovations. The original stove was gross, so I bought a new one and told the landlord to take the old one out. I replaced all the cabinet doors in the kitchen, as well as the countertop, sink and faucet (she paid for all that, as well as paint, but we put in all the work ourselves). We tiled our backsplash, replaced the bathroom vanities, re-tiled one of the bathroom floors, hung new light fixtures, patched a gazillion holes, put in new baseboards (to replace the vinyl gymnasium baseboards throughout). So yeah, I guess I'm not the typical renter.

But when I compare to the apartments of my friends, they live like you describe (perhaps cleaner though). Most don't even think about painting, and if something is corroding, like a faucet, they say nothing until it breaks. They don't clean the outsides of their windows, and they just generally don't care about the place they live. But, to be honest, I know some home owners like this, too.

I couldn't afford to buy where I live, and I love my neighbourhood. My apartment started out as a hole, but after about $1,500 to $2,000 of my own money and a month later I have an apartment worth considerably more (monthly) than I'm paying. I could afford the one-time investment in order to live in something I'm really happy with, but I couldn't afford it if it were on the market as-is and paying an extra $600-800 monthly.

what an odd, highly personal rant.

take it to your therapist.

First of all, I absolutely can relate and find this blog post to be incredibly refreshing and down to earth, just missing the emotional rather than physical explanation of why certain sublets just don't feel like home. And that's why you've got such a mix of responses here. I liked that it captures how a range of friends would react, but I don't feel like anyone has truly related back or has been sensitive to what this op-ed is expressing - of course we all have different experiences and we all want to relate. But what I'm saying is that...I totally get it. And that those judging above don't see the emotional undertones of what plays into your individual sense of home.

I think this would get more "get it" responses from New Yorkers, or the transplants of New York City, like I was for some time. For many of us, it's not necessarily that we can't buy a home, it's just that we like city life, maybe being slightly non-committal and some of us like the freedom of "who know's what's next" - it's an exciting inquisitive artist life. You test the limits of your comfort zone to feel new feelings and experience new excitement all around you, available to you, in this world. There's an emotional desire to have this freedom. And you have can have this freedom by subletting.

Subletting is especially appealing for those who are new to a city or like to move around in cities or experience new neighborhoods in their own city. Also appealing to people who maybe want to avoid the whole signing a lease, paying for a credit check, etc thing. Renting apartments and moving into a sublet rather than signing a lease IS a choice, like everyone has said above. Therefor it's not that you can't complain about it, or that the writer can't complain about it, because there's the emotional side of the whole deal that you never really sign up or expect. A sense of "home" is a totally subjective thing that's different for everyone, and so we all react on what "feels right" to us differently. Most of us use our former experiences and upbringing to form our sense of comfort and boundaries of preferences - but little things like smells and sounds and even energy can contribute to what "feels right" - right?

To relate back, I moved to New York in 2011 after signing a sublet through a friend of a friend who was leaving for the summer. Long story short, I knew what I was signing up for and I knew it wasn't going to be glamorous and I knew that it was going to be well out of comfort zone (more like a midwest city bubble world) and I knew that it would be a struggle to adjust and adapt. I signed up for that. But I could have never predicted at how emotionally distraught I became at how it never felt like "home" - it was the Brooklyn dream I had always wanted and had seen in the movies, but it just never felt like "home" to me. I wasn't sleeping, I wasn't comfortable, it didn't feel right.

So I moved into another sublet. I never lived out suitcases, mind you. But I did move around in the first sublet to another open room and then moved twice in the second sublet due to a screwy situation with the subletter. So all together I lived in 5 different bedrooms in my first 6 months of living in NYC. Never once did any of them feel comforting to me in any way, even though I was hardly home and I was living my dream. Some people just need a place to crash, and I discovered what my heart and soul truly needed was a "home"...

I went back "home" to Chicago for a few months and got the comfort back that I needed. I did some growing up and wanted to give NYC one more shot. I moved back, into a hotel, then a friends place, then a 1 month sublet, then a 6 month sublet, and still none of them truly felt like "home" to me BUT I did feel more emotional acceptance of my changing environments and had confidence in easily adapting from my transient experience in Brooklyn before. Surprisingly, I did actually feel MORE at home when I was living out of my suitcases at the Jane Hotel!

Throughout all of this, what I've realized is that, whether you're renting short term or long term, you have to get creative, both emotionally, mentally and physically with all the resources you have around you to MAKE it your home. Yes, it's a feeling, that sometimes you can't control because our sense of home is a deeply complex psychological and emotional thing different for everyone, but you can help to create it.

I guess that's why this blog exists.

P.S. @nisiepie "take it to your therapist" - may I kindly remind you that this website is called Aparment Therapy — I think for good reason.

Getting creative with home decorating and personal decisions to create comfort is kind of the only solution for all of us to make our house a home.

Also, feeling more at home with less stuff turns out to be the relief we get from feeling overwhelmed with the material world and consumerism. Totally makes sense.

This is a great piece by Graham Hill - basically on how minimal, small living spaces is more zen than big spaces with lots of status symbol stuff:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/10/opinion/sunday/living-with-less-a-lot-less.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

It feels like the future of what we need in this new era of oversaturation.

http://www.treehugger.com/interior-design/gizmodo-visits-graham-hills-amazing-lifeedited-apartment.html

P.S. @nisiepie "take it to your therapist" - may I kindly remind you that this website is called Aparment Therapy — I think for good reason.

"If one more person tells me "that's why I bought a house" I may have to scream. Not in everybody's budget, I for once don't think debt like a soul crushing mortgage is a badge of honor or a rite of passage. I'm fine debt free living for rent."

Nobody is saying you should buy, just identifying the issue raised in this piece as one of the (many) reasons why they chose to buy. I am acutely aware, though, that home ownership has become increasingly difficult. In London, house prices have rocketed in the last 10-15 years, with the average age of first time buyers now at 48. It's a vicious circle - with fewer people able to own, the demand for rental properties is high, and rents have kept pace, making it difficult for renters to save the 20% (sometimes 30%) deposit required on their first home. Like I said, it has happened in the last 15 years. For myself and many of my peers (in our mid 40s), having kids and buying our first property happened to coincide with the early 90s housing market slump; interest rates were low; and I think it was possible to secure 100% mortgages in some cases. Having said that, we bought in an unglamourous part of town, with a long commute into the centre, so we missed out on much of the excitement of city life, I suppose.

@tarainsevenvalleys,

I only mentioned it to make the general point that there is little security in renting or even owning these days. I was confirming what you said, I thought... Even if you commit to owning a house you aren't guaranteed to be able to stay there. Interest rates, a change in employment, other unanticipated expenses can functionally evict you from a house you "own". So I'm with you... I can't afford to buy either and I don't see it as any more secure. At least with renting, if your situation changes changing where you live is relatively easy.

Sorry to hear about all your crap luck with landlords.

I work a seasonal job (nine months in one place, three months in the other) and feel like I am continually packing everything up and moving it. As tiring as it is, I have gotten really good at it.
I know what it takes to make a space feel like mine, even for a short period of time. For the summer job (three months) some of my coworkers live out of suitcases the whole time, where I can unpack and settle in in about a day or two. Rugs are important, as is art for the walls and books. So are pillows and other soft goods. People will come into my space and say "wow, it looks like you really live here" to which I say, "yes, because I do!" I would go crazy if I felt unsettled for a quarter of my year. A few weeks of planning and packing a couple times a year is worth it for peace of mind the rest of the time.

i sympathize. i have been on the move since last august. the longest i've stayed in any one place has been 3 months. for a while, i was moving into different short-term rentals every 2-3 weeks. i am traveling for work and i won't finally return to MY place until mid-august. i'm over it.

i feel more at home if i completely unpack my suitcases, if i trek around my toiletries and make-up (even though they take up precious luggage space), if i set up a nice space to do yoga. but it still isn't home. i find myself constantly thinking about my apartment back in my old city (currently rented to a friend). sometimes thinking about things i want to add or change to it, but mostly thinking about all the things i want to take out of it. to get rid of my bookcases and just stack my books on the floor. to donate my VHS/DVD collection. to get rid of the ikea furniture that's falling apart anyway (after being disassembled and moved to new locations 3 or 4 times now).