No matter how in love you are with your current apartment, there comes a time when you have to admit to yourself that you’ve grown out of it. Here are seven clear signs that it’s time to start looking for a new place that has 5 additional square feet of space.
1. It’s finally time to assemble that shelf you bought to organize your five DVDs: Face it: You aren’t in college anymore. The days of scattering your tiny collection of DVDs all over the living room floor are done. If you want to start living like an adult, you’re going to have to face the reality that getting organized by adding a small shelf is going to take up 5 square feet of space that your current place just doesn’t have.
2. You keep getting hurt because the final square of your hopscotch court is cut off by a wall: Moving is a nightmare—the packing, the expense of renting a truck, carrying all that furniture up stairs… But if you’re getting injured because you keep smashing into the wall at the end of your hopscotch court, it’s time to finally admit that you need a new apartment where you can actually fit that 10th square.
3. You’re ready to have a kid, but there’s nowhere for a child to stand: Starting a family is pretty much the biggest lifestyle change one can make, so if you’re thinking about it, you’re going to need to seriously consider a bigger place. If you don’t have the 5 square feet of space it takes for a toddler to stand, you’d better start driving around your neighborhood looking for for-rent signs.
4. You have to crawl under your grand piano to get to the bathroom: Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to take a shower without having to wriggle across the floor? Move to a place with the extra 5 square feet of space you need to actually squeeze past your piano. You’ll be kicking yourself for not doing it sooner.
5. You can’t open the door without spilling your bucket of minnows: Nothing is worse than trying to scoop up a bunch of flailing minnows before they die when you’re already late for work. If this happens more than once, it’s time to start looking for a new place that’s the exact same size as your current one plus enough room on the floor to fit a bucket of minnows.
6. You want to add a home gym consisting of a single 3-pound dumbbell and a weight lifting glove: Sure, when you’re 21, you can consume all the pizza and beer you want and somehow still have a six-pack, but that doesn’t last long. When you realize you can no longer stay in shape by pure magic alone, it’s time to move somewhere where you can set up a dedicated fitness area with a single 3-pound dumbbell, a weight lifting glove, and maybe one of those grip things.
7. You can only recline 18 of your 19 recliners at a time: Ugh, talk about frustrating. You get home from work ready to relax and start pulling the handles on all 19 of your recliners to find that there’s only enough room to recline 18 of them. Infuriating. Time to call your building manager to ask if there’s another unit available that is exactly like your current one but with just enough additional space for a recliner’s footrest.
