Finding Home — A Series.

A Guide To Choosing a Good Urban Spot, in Parts.

Jul 10, 2025

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A place to live is a Physiological need that is right at the base of Maslow’s hierarchy (so it’s pretty fundamental), and I have — for better or for worse — a lot of experience with living in different places. I’ve lived in suburbs, rural areas, and of course in lots and lots of urban locales (by my count I’ve lived in at least ten place in the last ten years). Since I’ve been thinking about where to live, and Because I have a kid now and don’t really want to be moving every year, I’ve been thinking a lot about finally finding a long-term home (and I know of a few other friends who are right now as well).

Because of this, I thought it could be helpful to write a grand series about the things I think about when finding a home. Some of these things are personal preferences, some won’t align with your own needs, but some are I think pretty universally applicable, even if you’re not thinking about all of them.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, based on his original 1943 Paper "A Theory of Human Motivation" and later clarifications. It depicts the five levels as: Level 1: Physiological. Air, Water, Food, Shelter (e.g. Housing, protection from exposure), Clothing, Sleep, Reproduction; Level 2: Safety Needs. Personal Security, Financial Security, Health and Wellbeing, Safety Nets (laws, insurance, emergency services), Stable Environment; Level 3: Love and Belonging. Family, Friendship, Romantic Relationships, Community, Group Membership, Affection and Intimacy; Level 4: Esteem. Self Respect, Respect from Others, Confidence, Recognition of Achievement, Reputation; Level 5: Self Actualisation. Creativity, Personal Growth, Moral Development, Pursuit of Meaning, Purpose Driven Action, Peak Experiences (intense moments of joy, insight, or transcendence) — By Hamish.croker - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=164544166

This series is going to be specific to urban living and apartments/flats, but I think a lot of the considerations I make are completely relevant to other housing formats, it’s just that there are some details that probably won’t be.

The series will cover:

location (with a possible extra post on thinking about what city to live in)
floor plans (layout, unit sizing, etc.)
rent versus buy (but mostly thoughts on renting — including purpose-built rentals and dealing with landlords)
furniture and homewares
ideas for living (keeping stuff off the floor, vacations)
pitfalls (air conditioning, laundry, rent control)
And possibly other topics as they come up, or as they’re suggested!

I hope that this will end up being really comprehensive, and something the community can refer back to, as well as consider improvements to over time. Finding a home is complicated, but there are so so many mistakes you can all avoid, and huge potential to find a home that you really love, even in unlikely places.

Cinq Personnes.

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