Why not just rent a bed?
Photo: Toa Heftiba/Unsplash
Even if you don't have the time, thousands of euros, or a talent for design, you can expertly furnish your home. With Feather, you can do so multiple times a year.
Jay Reno used to live like a migrating bird that doesn’t follow the changes of the seasons. To be completely honest, he also only flew when he was in a hurry to find a new flat. When he was still living in New York, he moved five times in six years. Each time he spent huge amounts of time going to Ikea, lugging and then assembling furniture pieces in order to furnish the new place.
For anyone who moves frequently, renting furniture is undoubtedly a better option than buying each time, and Feather will save you not only money and time, but also a lot of stress.
Jay’s nomadic lifestyle is nothing out of the ordinary. Before settling down permanently into their first home, the average American will move twelve times after graduation. Which is great news for Ikea.
Not so great for Jay Reno. But the news got better in 2017, when he founded Feather, a startup aimed at finding the solution to his ever-repeating hassles with moving. The straw that broke the camel’s back was when he once couldn't carry a newly-delivered sofa up the stairs and had to leave it in the snow. He thought of everyone who must have been in the same mess at some point. In the first month, his website had 300 subscribers. They used it to rent furniture.
Photo: Shutterstock
And they still can, but for now it is limited to users living in the greater New York and San Francisco areas. The use is simple; a customer goes to Feather’s website, picks out a sofa, coffee table, or lamp, rents it for a minimum of three months and pays for the duration. Thus the subscriber is living life per month as it is understood by the subscription economy, all the while allowing the chosen items to also be delivered to his or her home, and assembled. Most importantly, there is no waiting for delivery. Or better still, the wait is not excessive; the selected items are delivered within three days of ordering.
The latest option is for subscribers to rent entire kitchens, or even purchase a chosen design piece. Feather will also make sure that the furniture is suitably cleaned, and that it was never used by more than three customers before coming to you. Once you’re done with it, grow bored of it, or decide to move and redecorate, you can simply return it.
For those who move often, but care about how their homes are furnished, renting furniture is undoubtedly cheaper than buying each time.
For example, a bed will set you back 27 dollars a month, and if you’re thinking of getting a dining set for your apartment, you can get it in a package from 140 dollars, depending on how long you intend to keep it. If you get so accustomed to your pieces that you decide you want to keep them, you get out your wallet and pay 900 dollars.
It’s also good to know that the transport of the furniture, carrying it up the stairs, and assembly, will cost you exactly 0 dollars. Except ... if your chosen piece cannot be taken through the door and needs to be taken apart and then put together again. There are no other unforeseen or hidden expenses.
Even though some find the price too steep, this way of renting furniture can save you a lot of time and stress. In addition to the subscribers, investors recently expressed their trust in Feather, by investing 3.5 million dollars of initial capital in the company. It looks like they believe in the growth of this type of subscription economy.
Photo: Eduard Militaru/Unsplash
Feather is certainly not the first, nor last startup that set out to revolutionise the furniture market. Others tried it with 3D furniture, robotic furniture, or transforming furniture, as well as delivering second-hand furniture – and now Feather is trying to get users used to renting.
Their ambition is also to give back to society. They are trying to slowly introduce the idea that forgotten mattresses, coffee tables, or various living room furniture pieces, do not belong out on the pavement and that we need to rethink the concept of ownership. Seeing how around nine million pieces of furniture end up in landfills in the USA each year, that makes sense.
So, if we can rent flats, cars, and even films, why not do the same with furniture?