This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of CORT for IZEA. All opinions are 100% mine.

Did I ever tell you about the time I moved to Japan on a whim, with nothing more than a suitcase worth of clothes? It was the most adventurous thing I’ve ever done in my life, although my poor mom almost keeled over when she got the phone call. Here’s how it happened (I’ll long-story-short it for you, don’t worry). My boyfriend at the time was a Sailor stationed in Misawa. I went to visit him for a month. About two days before I was supposed to leave, he asked me to stay and marry him. So I called my mom and said I wasn’t coming home, asked her if she could send me a few boxes of my stuff and take care of my cat (I didn’t want to put her through quarantine).

Very long story short, after six months, written permission from Rich’s CO and a whole lot of medical exams to make sure I didn’t have any issues that couldn’t be handled on base, we finally got married in the judge’s office on base. We managed to get housing pretty quickly. A really great tower apartment with loads of closet space and a pantry. Oh, how I miss that pantry. One thing we didn’t have, though, was furniture. Not a single piece. No bed, no dresser, no dining room table. Not even a little nightstand. Since Rich married me after his move, he didn’t qualify to have my stuff shipped over. We ended up renting furniture from the base. Two years later, when Rich got out of the Navy, we moved back to the States to live with my mom. I was so happy that we never bought furniture because I had no place to put it! We rented a storage unit for all of our stuff and got away with the cheapest one because of our lack of furniture.

Why furniture rental makes so much more sense for military families

Japan wasn’t my first military-related move. I was actually a Navy wife twice. The first marriage didn’t work out because I was way too young to be married at the time, but I did go through two moves during it. Once to Maryland and once to Maine. In Maryland, I once again had very little furniture. Through the year there, I did pick up more pieces. When it was time to move, it was a logistics nightmare. All my stuff ended up in storage in Maryland before making it to Maine. Storage that probably cost more than my beat-up furniture was worth.

If I had to do it all over again, I’d just go with CORT and rent furniture. Let me tell you why it’s the smartest option for military families.

More cost-effective Let’s start with the most important factor to young military families, shall we. I’m talking about money, my friends. Military families have to be incredibly budget-conscious to make ends meet. Young families just starting out are in an even tighter spot. When you think about the overall cost furnishing a house by buying everything outright, it’s really quite staggering. We’re talking thousands of dollars. Even if you just go with the bare minimum- a couch, a bed, a place to sit during dinnertime- you’re still looking at over $1,000 for the most inexpensive finds.

With CORT, you can furnish THREE whole rooms for a very reasonable monthly cost. The Standard Package comes with everything you need to be comfortable in your new home, from a sofa and mattress right down to the little details, like a mirror and lamps. The discounted military pricing fee on the Military Packages are significantly less than it would be if you bought everything in a furniture store and had to make monthly payments.

We haven’t even touched on storage fees! If you move overseas, your weight limit is much lower than if moving state-to-state. I know so many people who either paid a small fortune to rent a storage unit or ended up selling (or even giving away) half of their furniture for a fraction of what they paid for it.

So much more convenient! Convenience is another important factor to consider for military families. If you’ve ever dealt with a move, you know how trying it can be, watching all your expensive loaded up into a van and taken away. Even with the best movers, strange things seem to happen to military families when they move. My aunt is a Navy wife. One time, the movers packed up their live lizard! Another friend found an entire garbage can still full when she unpacked at her new home. Can you imagine?

Then you arrive at your new destination and play the waiting game. Delays in shipping leave you sitting on the floor eating off cardboard boxes that you’re using as makeshift tables. You get really good at DIYing the weirdest furniture. I once made an entertainment center for the TV out of old coffee cans! Good thing we drank a lot of coffee!

When you rent furniture from CORT, they bring it right to you when you need it most. Plus, when it’s time to move, you don’t have to worry about going over your weight limit because of your furniture! Just schedule your pick up and be done with it. It’s furniture on-demand- there when you need it, gone when you don’t. So much less hassle!

Incredibly flexible Flexibility is a must for military families. Most of the time, you’ll get your orders and stay in one spot for a couple of years. That’s how it’s supposed to work in theory, anyway. Sometimes, though, things come up and your whole family gets relocated to a new base with very little warning. CORT has a “Military Out” clause that lets you out of your lease early if you’re relocated. CORT also has plenty of flexibility when designing your package. Choose from their packages that already have everything you need and on extras to make life even comfier.

Super stylish! All of the above are enough reasons to go with furniture rental, right? What about style, though? We want our living spaces to reflect our personalities, not just be another cookie-cutter room, right? You have to see the gorgeous collections at CORT. They’re all far more stylish than anything I’ve ever owned! Don’t you just want to dive into that couch and start reading? How about this dining room set? It’s so fun and modern! They have collections for every taste and home decor theme, from hip and modern to traditional and sophisticated.

It just makes so much more sense to go with furniture rental when you’re an on-the-go military family. It also makes sense to go with the national industry leader in the furniture rental space!  Visit CORT Furniture Rental to learn more about their Military Packages.  

What is your biggest challenge when moving? Have you ever used CORT before? Tell me in the comments.