Why I Left My New York Apartment
I’ve struggled to convince myself of the merits of living in New York for a few months. Paying high rent for what I was getting didn’t seem worth it anymore considering I was spending a lot of time inside my apartment.
The large reason I left New York was because my apartment stopped doing its “job.”
My take on New York City housing is that wherever you live, it needs to serve you a purpose.
What is the “job” of your apartment?
Think of it like this—
If you are the “employer” and your apartment is the “employee” and other apartments on the market are “candidates,” you are choosing to pay this particular “employee” $1200* a month out of your pocket to do what for you?
That’s how I want you to approach this.
Personally, my apartment’s job is twofold:
a place that is safe to sleep and keep my stuff
a place I can get ready in so I can leave it each day
It’s important to know what your apartment’s “job” is. Knowing this helps guide you when you’re apartment hunting because it shows you what your must-haves are.
It’s in this lens of these 2 job requirements that I search for new apartments— both in California and in NYC.
To fulfill job #1, the apartment needs to have building security, be in a safe neighborhood, etc.
To fulfill job #2, the apartment needs to have strong water pressure to wash up, big windows for natural lighting for makeup, etc.
While I have other preferences, these are the make or breaks.
My Apartment’s “job” radically shifted
Historically, the only time I’m in the apartment is when I’m sleeping or waking up and getting ready to leave. But suddenly, the “job” of my apartment changed. It needed to serve me in new ways.
Those new requirements included:
a productive space to sit (ideally at a desk) and get work done
an acoustically sound area for virtual presentations and calls
a place to serve coffee 24/7
an area to be creative and write
a lounge space to kick back and watch movies
literally a place to be in all the time and do all the things
At the cost of what I was paying it for, it wasn’t meeting my new needs and it’s not the apartment’s fault. There was a radical shift for everyone.
My NYC lease was coming to an end. My company wasn’t renewing our WeWork lease, which was a space I leveraged about 4-5 days a week because it had a desk and AC. I wanted a place that ideally had washer and dryer machines because paying $20 for laundry to a laundromat that was unpredictable on when they could close again, was not worth it.
I Could Have Stayed in the tristate area
Now logically, I could have moved to a bigger 1BR with a private bath in the neighboring areas like New Jersey or Pennsylvania paying equal, if not less, in rent.
Sure.
But that seemed like a defensive move and that goes against one of my very life principles which is-- to always play life on offense.
I didn’t want the situation to push me into a suburban location. It’s in the fabric of my DNA to go after something so I need this move to be offensive. What was I reaching towards while still getting my living situation needs met?
For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to improve my Korean (a perpetual personal goal) and grow closer to my Korean side of the family.
This lit a fire in me. I knew I had to do it.
And I did.
Greetings from my new home — Seoul, South Korea.
*$1200 was an estimate of my monthly rent for my own 1 bedroom. I shared the entire 3BR/1BA Manhattan apartment with 2 other girls.