Bored with current flat: how to stay put?

[ertalia]

We rent a nice flat in a desirable area of West London. Can get to work in 30 minutes. It's not extortionate for London pricing. Has access to green space. So ticks a lot of boxes. Would be a 'dream' property if you asked a few years ago.

If we moved we could afford a bigger place or better area but IMO it's just a waste of money. We tell people we live here and most people are like ooooh nice. But I'm always the kind that wants bigger and better.

How do you alleviate the boredom of staying in the same flat for a couple of years? It's unfurnished which helps. The kitchen needs a repaint but don't have time for that.

Most people stay in the same place for a few years without getting bored. You can make the interior nicer, buy furniture that you like. After a while the actual property becomes secondary to everything else going on in life.

But we're not all the same.

If you want to move, just move.

The advantage of renting is the flexibility to easily move if you want to. However it’s still a cost with deposits and removals etc and decent, not extortionately priced properties in west London are hard to find. I would stay put and maybe buy some lovely new furniture or furnishings to brighten it up - you can always take those with you if/when you do move.

Buy lots of artwork you love. We switch our extensive collection of artwork around, like some sort of national gallery rotating the archives. We deliberately chose fairly minimalist neutral decor when we renovated a few years ago so that it works with any piece.

We love our house and the part of London it’s in and have really only ever considered moving somewhere bigger for more wall space for said artwork - hence we settled on the rotation option, which makes us cheerful every time we do it.