Why I Rent: David – From New York to the UK

Relocating your family across the Atlantic is no mean feat, something that David (40) can attest to. Having recently moved to the UK from New York for his career in Financial Services, the family faced a long wait for their belongings to be shipped across. To fill the gap, David and his family filled their home with rental furniture pieces from Roomservice by CORT.

So, you have recently relocated with your wife and children from New York. Is this your first international move?

We’ve moved around quite a bit, and probably relocate every ten years or so. I’ve lived in the UK before, and my wife is English, so we are planning to remain in the UK for the foreseeable future. We’ve moved into a house but are just about to move out for nine months or so whilst we renovate the property and make it our own.

What is it like to relocate with children?

Painful! The relocation process is full of organisation, admin and stress. You are hoping that your children will be happy and safe, that they like their new schools and that all of their favourite toys are brought across from the previous country.

What has helped you acclimatise to your new home?

We brought a lot of things over with us on the plane and then had a shipping container arrive with the rest of our belongings about a month later. As we were moving from a small New York apartment to a much bigger house, having a combination of our own belongings and the rental furniture was really useful for filling the space and making it feel more like home.

Is there anything that you decided to leave behind in New York?

When we originally moved to New York, we were only expecting to be there for a year or two, and the furniture that we bought reflected this. In the end, we lived in the city for ten or eleven years, by which time a lot of our furniture was a bit worse for wear. The move seemed like a good time to get rid of a lot of our old furniture, and we do intend to buy our own furniture once we have finished our renovation work.

Why does furniture rental work for you?

It takes a long time to ship furniture across, so we really needed something to bridge the gap before our belongings arrived. We didn’t have enough furniture with us and we didn’t want to buy items that wouldn’t be right for us in the long term. Furniture rental meant that we could still have a lovely furnished home, and from a price and convenience perspective, it was the best solution. The other option that we had would have been to borrow pieces from friends, but we just wanted to arrive and have it all here when we moved in to make things easier.

What advice do you have for a family that is relocating?

Just be really organised! But in all seriousness, the sooner you make your home comfortable, the sooner you and your family can get properly settled in and feel more at home.

How did you discover Roomservice by CORT?

I think it was through Google. I looked at a few competitors but found Roomservice had the best range of furniture pieces and the best flexibility in terms of what you could borrow and for how long. Overall, the combination of the convenience and flexibility on offer at Roomservice was just right for us.

Tell me about your rental furniture. What sort of items did you rent?

We rented both larger items and smaller items. A lot of the smaller items were for the kitchen, like a toaster, so all of those things were sorted when we arrived.

The furniture we received was comfortable and clean – you definitely didn’t feel like you were getting someone’s leftover sofa. My favourite pieces would have to be a couple of really comfy armchairs. We’ve got a two-year-old daughter and the chairs were used frequently as a place to feed her and read some books to her.

How did you find the process?

Roomservice by CORT made everything very easy. There is a lot of organising involved when you move countries so it’s important that you don’t end up with additional stress. We were able to arrange the delivery to our new home whilst still in New York and the plans didn’t change at all, ensuring that we were able to get what we needed at the right time for us. Overall, I would describe the process as convenient, flexible and cost-effective.

Would you recommend Roomservice to a family that had to relocate?

Definitely! This is the first time we have rented furniture, but Roomservice were flexible and easy to work with. The pricing was very fair and through using them we were able to choose furniture to live with, but without rushing any big purchasing decisions.