We just finished our first year of “slomadic” living, trying out different parts of the country and different styles of life with urban living in Omaha, Nebraska and beachside living in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Along the way we learned a lot, but one of the more interesting lessons has been that the amenities we thought would matter were not always the ones that ended up actually improving our daily life the most.

When you are choosing temporary housing, it is very easy to get caught up in possibilities. You imagine the hobbies you might take up, the routines you could develop, or the conveniences that seem absolutely essential before you arrive. Reality tends to simplify things pretty quickly.

One example for us was paddle boarding. Before leaving for Omaha, we hauled our inflatable paddle boards all the way from Texas because we were convinced we would use them constantly. We never even inflated them once. Then, when we moved to South Carolina, we did not even bother bringing them down to the water. To be fair, the presence of alligators may have influenced that decision a little 🙂

Laundry was another area where we probably overthought things. Before leaving home, we spent a lot of time debating whether in-unit laundry was essential. In the end, the shared laundry facilities in both Omaha and Myrtle Beach worked perfectly fine. Because we were no longer dressing up for work every day or constantly cycling through “professional” clothes, we actually generated much less laundry than we expected. We never had major issues with broken machines, crowded laundry rooms, or rude neighbors. I wake up pretty early and was always able to take care of laundry before anyone else was even awake. What initially felt like a possible quality-of-life dealbreaker turned out to be mostly a non-issue.

Walkability was also more nuanced than we expected. In Omaha, I loved being able to walk to the YMCA for swimming workouts, but in Myrtle Beach I still swam just as much despite driving fifteen minutes to the pool. Similarly, in both cities we often bypassed smaller nearby grocery stores and drove to the larger stores that better matched the way we actually shop. It turns out that the idea of walkability sometimes mattered more to us than the reality of how we behaved day to day.

At the same time, a few amenities surprised us by how much they improved daily life.

The first was having a king bed instead of a queen. That may sound minor, but when you are 6’7” and living somewhere for months instead of taking a short vacation, comfort matters more than novelty. Sleep quality affects everything.

A functional kitchen also turned out to be incredibly important. Even though we enjoy eating out and exploring local restaurants, having a kitchen made life cheaper, healthier, and more convenient. It gave us flexibility. Some days we wanted to go out. Other days we just wanted something simple at home without turning every meal into an event.

And perhaps the biggest surprise was how much we both enjoyed having a view. In both Omaha and Myrtle Beach, we found ourselves appreciating the scenery far more than many of the more “practical” amenities we had stressed over beforehand. Whether it was looking out over downtown Omaha or waking up near the ocean in South Carolina, having visually pleasant surroundings added a surprising amount of value to ordinary days.

I think the larger lesson here is that there is a difference between aspirational amenities and lifestyle-supporting amenities. Aspirational amenities are the things that sound exciting when imagining a new life. Lifestyle-supporting amenities are the things that quietly improve your daily routines over and over again.

That distinction matters financially because amenities cost money and limit options. The more accurately you understand what actually improves your quality of life, the easier it becomes to spend intentionally instead of reflexively upgrading everything.

As we prepare for our next stop in Santa Fe, we already find ourselves evaluating rentals differently. We are much less concerned about paying extra for amenities we only think we might use, and are more focused on the things that consistently improved everyday life during year one.

That may end up being one of the biggest benefits of this whole experiment. Not just discovering where we want to live, but learning what kind of life actually makes us happy once the vacation feeling wears off.