Algorithms are supposed to predict what’s next, but scroll any platform right now, and chances are you’ll find the past dominating the cultural conversation.
“Laguna Beach” is returning for a reunion, twenty years after the hit reality show aired. Jay-Z just sold out multi-night runs at Yankee Stadium for albums he released in 1996 and 2001. Hilary Duff is having a TikTok-fueled resurgence with her comeback shows selling out almost instantly. And even fashion cycles are bringing back Juicy Couture and early 2000s aesthetics. (Hi, low-rise jeans and baby tees.)
We’re having a “millennial summer,” and it’s not just about nostalgia; it’s a shift in power back to one of the last generations to experience monoculture in real time, now with the money to revive it.
It’s easy to see why culture is shifting its focus to millennials. The generation accounts for roughly 28% of all US retail spending — more than boomers — totaling about $1.1 trillion. (Caveat: Gen X issss outspending millennials, but there are fewer people born in that generation, making them a less appealing target for marketers.) Brands are rediscovering the audience that’s now running households, leading teams, and making the bulk of buying decisions.
Charlene Polite Corley, vice president of Inclusive Insights at Nielsen, told Business Insider the shift is less about revival and more about power. “Millennials are maturing into the leadership position of the culture; what we deem cool or nostalgic is now surfacing back to the top,” she said.
And brands are following the money. Gen Z may drive culture online, but millennials are converting. They’re buying concert tickets, booking the travel, and showing up for experiences. Data shows that millennials helped create the experience economy, especially as traditional milestones like homeownership feel less attainable.
“Take Gap’s recent campaign using Kelis ‘Milkshake’ song,” Corley said, referencing the hit 2003 song. Using a song from the early aughts had an impact that went beyond engagement, with the brand reporting a 5% year-over-year increase in sales.
Millennials’ influence extends beyond what they buy; it’s also how they engage. “Millennials can straddle the analog and digital age,” Corley said, noting that the generation can “drive conversation and build community online and in more traditional spaces.” That ability is rooted in a structural advantage: millennials came of age during one of the last eras of shared media consumption, when entire audiences watched, listened, and reacted together.
The question now becomes how long brands can rely on nostalgia before it starts feeling like the Marvel Universe — played out.
Nearly a decade ago, real estate developer Chad Dale made a purchase that changed the way he thought about how people live together.
Dale and a small group of his friends had decided to pool their money to purchase a vacation home on Whidbey Island, about an hour from Seattle. With five families with young children cycling in and out of the four-bedroom, one-bath farmhouse sharing meals, splitting chores, and weathering the inevitable frictions of living in close quarters, Dale realized that sharing property was a great idea in theory, but not sustainable in practice.
“There were a lot of people sharing an intimate space — it was a little too intimate,” Dale told Business Insider. “There were lots [of things] about that place that were great, and lots that weren’t great.”
The vacation home experiment’s shortcomings sparked an idea for something bigger and more permanent.
For years, Dale turned over the same question: What would communal living look like if it were designed to last?
He found his answer in co-housing, an arrangement where people have private homes but share amenities and collectively manage common spaces. Not to be confused with co-living, which is when people have private rooms in shared homes, co-housing is unlike a typical rental setup in that residents also often have an ownership stake or governance role in the housing community. It’s a housing model that is gaining traction as people seek more sustainable, community-oriented housing.
An ‘adult version’ of a co-op community
The rooftop of Shared Roof.
Andrew Storey
Dale is the developer behind Shared Roof, a 35-unit community that opened in 2023 in Seattle’s Phinney Ridge neighborhood.
Dale financed the project with the help of 13 other friends and family members, each of whom invested in the building. Contributions ranged from $50,000 to $5 million, and ownership stakes in the building’s LLC are proportional to each person’s investment. At Shared Roof, there are no HOA fees; residents still pay monthly rent, but it goes directly to the LLC rather than a traditional landlord.
“It’s a business model that you see sometimes in office buildings, but I’d never seen one done in a mixed-use building,” said Ray Johnston, who helped lead the project as a founding partner of Johnston Architects. “The things that Chad and his friends came to the table with were exciting.”
Designing the building took careful planning
The building was designed to promote community interaction.
Andrew Storey
Shared Roof is meant to feel more like a European block than a typical new build in Seattle. Dale points to places like Amsterdam, where design encourages neighborly interaction and sustainability, as sources of architectural inspiration.
The five-story building wraps around an interior courtyard, with underground parking below. No two units are alike; residences range from about 2,000 to 5,000 square feet.
“One of the more interesting challenges in the project came on the fourth and fifth floors, where many of the long-term investors live, and the units were highly customized to serve the needs of different families,” Johnston said. “It required thoughtful, more detailed spatial planning than in typical multifamily projects to make those individualized layouts fit together under one roof, but it also presented an opportunity to create spaces that reflected how the residents wanted to live.”
While residents have private homes, they share a suite of amenities, including a library, an art room, and a rooftop greenhouse. Street-level retail — such as a café, a brewery, and several restaurants — help keep the community connected to the surrounding neighborhood.
The building has solar panels on the roof, electric heat pumps, and energy-recovery ventilators.
Andrew Storey
For Dale, co-housing was a way to get the community and amenities he and his friends craved without paying peak city prices or having to move away entirely.
Still, living at Shared Roof isn’t cheap. Some larger units in the building have a monthly rent of $8,000. To ensure affordability, Shared Roof participates in Seattle’s Multifamily Tax Exemption program (MFTE) and has set aside about 20% of units for moderate-income renters.
“It was incredibly important for us to have as much diversity — including income diversity — in the building as we could,” Dale said. “We’re huge supporters of infill diversity, rather than separate diversity. In my opinion, that’s not the correct approach.”
It’s a multi-generational building
Chad Dale and his wife.
Courtesy of Chad Dale
Nine of Shared Roof’s investors live in the building, including Dale, who lives with his wife and their three kids in a 1,800-square-foot, three-bedroom unit.
Dale views being surrounded by a mix of younger couples and older residents as a unique plus to their living arrangement.
“There are groups of people that benefit from being together, and our model was really about a generational, family-oriented approach,” he said.
“My folks and my wife’s folks are all in Michigan, so my kids didn’t get a lot of interaction with older people. To see my neighbor with Parkinson’s interacting with my 7-year-old — they’re both winning.”
The building’s gym and library room.
Andrew Storey
The kids also have plenty of other children their age in the building, and with so much to do there, from hanging out on the rooftop trampoline to playing on the 5,000-square-foot turf soccer field, hangouts are often — sometimes more than parents would prefer.
“They come home, crack the door, toss their school bag inside, and then leave because all their friends are around,” Dale said. He added that “while that’s really cool, and exactly what I was hoping for, it’s an unintended consequence.”
‘I love our life here’
John Ware and his partner, Liesl Langley.
Courtesy of John Ware
John Ware, a technical program manager, and his partner, Liesl Langley, had been living in a large home in Phinney Ridge, but were looking to downsize as they entered the empty-nest years. After hearing about Shared Roof through word of mouth and touring the building, they were sold.
Ware and Langley are investors in the building and were among the first couples to move in. They’re in a 2,000-square-foot apartment with three bedrooms and 2.5 baths. Inside, it’s finished with hardwood floors, walnut custom cabinetry, and high-end appliances, including a Liebherr refrigerator.
Ware’s apartment.
Courtesy of John Ware
Fancy finishes aside, Ware said one of the biggest draws to living at Shared Roof is the community he and Langley have become a part of.
“I used to live in a building that had about 90 units, and I probably knew a third of folks, but we know every single person who lives in this building. We have a group chat on WhatsApp, so that folks can stay in touch with what’s happening,” Ware, 54, told Business Insider.
He and his partner have become the building’s unofficial — and, in practice, official — social directors. Every year, they host an Oscars party, and in the weeks leading up to it this month, they’ve been holding a movie night every week.
Ware said it’s little things like this that make co-housing worthwhile.
“We travel here and there, but after we’ve traveled for a while, I just want to be home, because of where we live — not just Seattle, but our neighborhood and community,” he added. “I love our life here and love this place.”
For some residents, co-housing is a lifeline in a pricey city
Mary Jo Wagner and her son.
Courtesy of Mary Jo Wagner
Mary Jo Wagner, a spa owner, fell in love with Shared Roof after visiting a client who lived there.
“I had just come to visit her one day for dinner, downstairs at one of the restaurants, and I was just thinking to myself how amazing it would be to live in a community like this,” Wagner, 53, told Business Insider.
Wagner moved in with her adult son in 2024, but he has since moved out. Over the past year, she downsized from a two-bedroom to a one-bedroom unit with her dog. Her apartment is among the roughly 20% of units set aside in the building for moderate-income earners.
“The median income in the city is so incredibly high, so it drives up all the prices of the regular rental units that are available,” Wagner said. “The fact that Shared Roof participates in this MFTE program is absolutely amazing because it is more affordable.”
People sitting outside the wine bar.
Andrew Storey
Wagner said the building’s amenities, along with its retail stores, including a wine shop and a bakery, also helped seal the deal. She especially loves the building’s library and the rooftop garden.
“I live in a small one-bedroom unit, but if I want to have my friends or family over for a larger gathering, there are spaces in the building to do that, which is just amazing.”
For Wagner, Shared Roof doesn’t feel like a typical apartment complex. Beyond the extra amenities, the connections she’s made there feel genuine.
“Everybody kind of looks out for one another,” she said. “It feels a little bit like being a part of a large family.”
Several months before Palantir moved its headquarters to Miami, an entity with ties to the company’s billionaire CEO, Alex Karp, put down roots in the city.
In June, Hibiscus East LLC purchased a home on Miami’s San Marino Drive for $46 million, according to property records.
Like several of Karp’s other properties, the LLC is registered in Delaware. It is connected to an attorney’s office in Manchester, New Hampshire, and an accounting office in Bedford, New Hampshire, both of which appear on documents from previous real estate transactions that are linked to Karp.
The nearly 10,000-square-foot newly built home sits on San Marino Island, one of the exclusive Venetian Islands in Biscayne Bay. A YouTube video of the home posted by listing agent Dina Goldentayer showcases the property’s waterfront and pool.
Goldentayer declined to comment to Business Insider. Representatives for Palantir and an attorney for Karp did not respond to requests for comment.
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Last month, Palantir announced it was moving its headquarters to Miami from Denver. The company has not revealed publicly why it’s making the move. Before setting up in Denver in 2020, Palantir was headquartered in Silicon Valley.
“Our company was founded in Silicon Valley,” Karp wrote in an investor letter that year. “But we seem to share fewer and fewer of the technology sector’s values and commitments.”
One of Karp’s Palantir cofounders, Peter Thiel, bought a home on one of Florida’s Venetian Islands in 2020, and his VC firm, Thiel Capital, later opened an office in Miami.
It’s not clear if Karp, who is worth $15.8 billion, according to Bloomberg, is moving to Miami full-time. He owns hundreds of acres of land in New Hampshire and, last year, made headlines for spending $120 million on a monastery outside Aspen, Colorado.
A handful of California billionaires have recently purchased properties in Miami, including Sergey Brin and Mark Zuckerberg. The real estate shopping spree comes amid an initiative in the state to get a wealth tax on November’s ballot. If passed, California residents with a net worth of more than $1 billion would be subject to a one-time 5% tax on their wealth.
Florida famously has a no-income tax policy written into its constitution.
“California’s a beautiful state, but now, because of all the political situations and all the tax laws, it’s just coming in our favor,” luxury real estate agent Saddy Abaunza Delgado previously told Business Insider.
Similarly, Howard Schultz, the former CEO of Starbucks, announced a move to Miami earlier this week — on the same day a millionaire’s tax passed Washington state’s House of Representatives.
The rush has caused prices to balloon in the 305. Zuckerberg’s $170 million purchase earlier this month on the island of Indian Creek set a Miami record.
“The influx of billionaires from California” will cause “escalation of the market,” Ana Bozovic, a founder of Analytics Miami, previously told Business Insider. “The market ceiling keeps rising,”
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Greg Kitzmiller, a 64-year-old American retiree living in Panama. It has been edited for length and clarity.
I was born and raised in Michigan, where I met my wife, Jen, and where we built our life together.
In 2016, I retired from my job as a manufacturing supervisor. My wife retired from her law career over a year later.
The year before she retired, my main goal was to find a place where we could live the best life during our retirement. I did a lot of research on various countries, andPanama kept coming to the top of the list.
For their retirement, the couple wanted to live in a warm place where their money could go further.
We were eager to escape the snow, so my first priority was eternal summer. We also wanted to stay close to the US to make traveling back easy. The fact that Panama uses the US dollar only added to its appeal.
We hadn’t spent our whole lives planning to retire abroad, but after watching HGTV shows, we both thought that this was something we could do.
Panama also offers a special Pensionado visa for retirees, which comes with incentives such as discounts on utility bills, medication, and even transportation.
Before making the move, we took a few exploratory trips to Panama. Our first trip was a weeklong in October 2017. After my wife retired, we came back in February 2018 for a nine-week trip, touring different areas to see if it felt like the right fit.
Coming from Michigan, they were eager to get away from the snow.
During that trip, the weather was beautiful. When we went home to Michigan and saw the snow on our driveway, my wife turned and said to me, “We’re moving, right?” And I said, “Yeah, we are.”
We sold our house quickly. We held a few garage sales, donated what we didn’t need, and fit our lives into five suitcases. In June 2018, we officially moved to Panama.
Our kids were OK with the decision.
We have two daughters in Texas and one in Alabama. We’re no further from them now than we were in Michigan. Moreover, the world has gotten so small. We can get on a video call with the kids and the grandkids anytime.
With the help of a real-estate agent, we bought our two-bedroom condo for $210,000 in Coronado, which is about an hour and a half from Panama City by car.
Our condo isin a country club community, where the golf course wraps around our building, and we have 180-degree views of the ocean and the mountains.
The couple bought a two-bedroom condo in Coronado.
Even though I’ve joined several Facebook groups, it’s the people we met at church that make up the core of our social circle.
Moving to Panama sparked an unexpected passion for writing.
When we started talking about moving here, one of Jen’s friends at work said, “Well, you should write a blog.”
It wasn’t that easy, since I’m not very tech-savvy, but I did it. I still maintain the blog and publish a newsletter. And, right after we got here, I connected with a writer’s group.
Being a part of that group led me to do a lot of things in my retirement that I never thought I would do.
Kitzmiller published his first book about his experience retiring in Panama in 2020.
I published my first book in 2020 about our experience of retiring in Panama. Since then, I’ve started writing in different ways, including a detective fiction series — I’m working on the fourth installment.
Writing wasn’t something I expected to do in my retirement, but there’s a strong community of artists, authors, and musicians here. When you surround yourself with other people who are talented in those ways, it fosters your own talent.
My retirement has been very fulfilling.
Our health is better, too. It helps that there is always an abundance of fresh fruit and vegetables around.
Kitzmiller says being surrounded by a thriving community of artists has encouraged his own passion for writing.
If I had it to do over, I would’ve learned Spanish when I was young. When you’re in your 60s, it’s hard to learn a new language. I almost always understand what’s being said, but don’t verbalize very well, unlike my wife, who is fluent.
Every day’s a little different. We have a few social groups, including one where we play dominoes every week. We rotate between houses, someone makes lunch, and we spend the afternoon playing.
Initially, we figured we’d come for 10 years and then evaluate if we wanted to stay. It’s only been eight years, but we’ve already decided that this is where we want to be.
We’re not planning to move back to the US. There’s honestly not much we miss.
Do you have a story to share about relocating to a new city? Contact this reporter at agoh@businessinsider.com.
When I visited Paris for the first time in 2022 during my inaugural solo trip, I fell in love with the city instantly.
Sipping my chocolat chaud while reading Hemingway’s “A Moveable Feast” at the legendary Café de Flore, enveloped in the charming Haussmannian architecture the city is renowned for, I whispered to myself: “I could live here.”
It wasn’t until two years later that I would finally make the move abroad after being accepted into a graduate school program and subsequently quitting my dream job at a big-time magazine to fulfill my newest dream of living in Paris.
Although moving to France from the US has come with plenty of benefits, such as a slower pace of living and a healthier work-life balance, one part of my journey has significantly suffered: my love life.
For a city that markets itself as the City of Love, I have found building a meaningful connection with someone in Paris nearly impossible.
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The language barrier has made it difficult to connect with potential partners deeply
I can speak French, but I still feel a language barrier on dates.
Naydeline Mejia
As someone with an intermediate level of French, I knew when entering the Parisian dating scene that language would be a hurdle, especially when going on dates with non-native English speakers.
During dates with people who didn’t feel comfortable speaking English or didn’t speak the language very well, we’d mostly converse in French — I found banter to be difficult and less fluid.
My personality also took a hit. Instead of my usual, flirty self, I felt more reserved because I couldn’t express myself fully in my third language.
Even during dates where the other person did have a good command of English, I felt as though we lacked a certain access to one another as we weren’t able to express ourselves in our mother tongues.
As a result, I convinced myself our connection would never reach deeper than center ground.
I’ve had some great dates, but intimacy doesn’t always translate into romance
For me, romance has been hard to find in Paris.
Naydeline Mejia
Another barrier to finding love while dating in Paris has been the differing dating customs.
In my experience, it’s not uncommon for French partners to want to go on regular romantic dates and engage in public displays of affection, like holding hands, even if we’re only seeing each other casually.
As someone who is used to clearly defined relationship boundaries and labels, like “friends with benefits” and “exclusive,” while dating in the US, I find it a bit disorienting to receive forms of intimacy usually reserved for a serious relationship from a non-romantic partner.
I have also observed that the “what are we?” conversation is not really common in France. After a few successful dates, it’s often assumed that you and your dating partner are exclusive. In comparison, in the US, a conversation around exclusivity usually precedes becoming “official” with someone.
The lack of a clear conversation around labels has often left me feeling confused about where I stand with potential partners or the relationship feeling unbalanced.
I have considered moving back to the US for a better chance at love
I’m not sure if I’ll find love in Paris.
Naydeline Mejia
While I can’t say my dating experience was that much better when I was living in the US, I do consider moving back home to New York to increase my chances of finding a meaningful partnership.
In my experience, there are many benefits to dating in your native country — from speaking the same language to upholding similar dating rules and customs, and, oftentimes, having shared experiences that can only be witnessed by someone from your hometown.
At the same time, some of the most beautiful love stories defy cultural and language barriers. I would be remiss not to try to work past the difficult parts of dating abroad in my search for a partner who makes my heart flutter long past the honeymoon stage.
Nevertheless, while concurrently navigating a seemingly never-ending dating pool, I have also been enjoying my alone time in this fairy-tale city.
In her essay, “Why Are All the Lonely Girls Going to Paris?,” writer Jenna Ryu argues that perhaps inhabiting this so-called City of Love is not about finding a storybook romance, but celebrating the beauty of solitude, especially as a young, single woman.
I have never felt more sure of myself and in love with life than during these past two years living in Paris. The love I would often reserve for a romantic partner, I have been pouring onto myself — and that has made all the difference.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Brian Jenney, 42, who lives in California. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
When I got into tech in my early 30s, I had no clue how crazy lucrative the industry was.
I started as a web application developer in 2015, earning roughly $60,000 a year.
Over the years, I became savvier at negotiating my salary, and by 2023, I was making over $250,000.
I’ve earned more than I could have ever imagined, without working in Big Tech, where people often assume the big money is made.
Here’s what I’ve learned along the way.
1. It was dumb not to negotiate a starting salary because it already sounded impressive
I used to have addiction issues, so I didn’t really work from the ages of 25 to 30 and lost knowledge that people gain from white collar jobs at this stage of life.
I was naive about the salary potential of my industry, and when people in tech said they were on $150,000, it blew my mind, and I began to feel underpaid.
In 2017, after two years in the web developer role, I landed a job at a startup. I was so impressed when I was offered $120,000 that I didn’t negotiate my salary, which was dumb in retrospect.
The environment was extremely fast-paced and high-caliber. I struggled with imposter syndrome as one of the team’s more junior members. I felt like one of the worst developers there and that I was already being paid more than I deserved. It discouraged me from asking for a raise.
In 2019, I joined the media intelligence company Zignal Labs. I was so happy about the job offer that I didn’t negotiate the salary, so my pay initially stayed roughly the same as in my previous job. It felt like I had plateaued, even though I had more money than I needed. An unfortunate symptom of working in tech is that you get drawn to wanting more.
Choosing this role turned out to be the right move, though. I had more room to grow and was in a better learning environment at a larger company.
During the tech hiring spree of 2020, my peers said they were getting crazy offers, and I didn’t want to miss out. That August, I joined The Clorox Company, a manufacturing firm, as a software engineer. By 2023, I was making over $250,000: the peak of my earnings in tech.
In 2024, I was laid off, and I’ve continued to work in various software engineering roles. I bought a business in 2023, and my focus has shifted to seeking out flexibility and time to build it, instead of maximizing corporate compensation.
2. I prepare for the pressure of job interviews by practicing with strangers
Interviews are like a carnival game where you can win big money by performing well, and you can’t get to the negotiation stage without passing them. They’re structured, learnable, and winnable with the right preparation.
When I have job interviews lined up, I do technical practice and use a platform called Pramp, which pairs you with strangers for practice interviews. I’ve found this helps simulate the nerves and pressure of real interviews better than practicing with friends.
I’ll try to do at least two mock interviews before an interview I really care about.
Jenney uses a platform called Pramp to practice job interviews.
Courtesy of Brian Jenney
3. I learned to ‘play the game’ of salary negotiation. Now I ask for at least 10% more.
Over the years, I’ve benefited a lot from people in tech being open about their salaries and career paths, which helped me understand what was possible and gave me confidence to negotiate and aim higher.
I’ve learned that salary negotiation is a game you have to play, and if you don’t, you lose money.
I began consistently negotiating pay in the late 2010s. I usually tell the employer that I’m really excited to start the job, but that I was hoping to come in at a higher salary range, usually 10 to 20% more.
I’ve found this to be very effective, and it has never gone badly for me. If an employer sounds firm on their offer, I usually try to explore whether a sign-on bonus is possible instead, but I don’t push aggressively beyond that.
I have more money than I need, even though I never worked in Big Tech
Jenney said a salary of $150,000 is more than enough for him.
Courtesy of Brian Jenney
I’ve interviewed with but never been hired by the Big Tech companies. Besides, I like working at smaller startups and non-tech companies where I think you can have a greater impact.
Big Tech employees are going to “beat me” on pay because their stock compensation will outpace my earnings. But I see my current lifestyle as comparable to theirs. I believe there’s a reason software engineers aren’t driving around Mountain View in Ferraris: they can’t cash out all their stock money yet.
There’s always more you can earn, but when my salary hit the $150,000 mark, I knew it was more than I needed. I’d rather prioritize jobs where I’m happy, I’m learning, and I can cover my needs while still saving. That’s all I really need.
Do you have a story to share about growing your salary in tech? Contact this reporter at ccheong@businessinsider.com
I’ve seen multiple articles lately about the boomer avalanche — all this stuff people have — and their kids not wanting it. I’m not a boomer, but at 46, I’m already aware that I have too much stuff.
Three recent events made me think about the burden our possessions would place on our kids if something happened to us. So I started decluttering so they don’t have to deal with my stuff.
I helped my mom downsize
The first event was helping my mom downsize.
She moved from a 2,000-square-foot townhome into a much smaller rental home. Doing a pre-move assessment, it was clear that all her stuff wouldn’t fit in the new place.
The author’s mom downsized from a two-story, 2,000+ square-foot townhome to a 900-square-foot home.
Courtesy of the author
She saw it as an opportunity and spent two months purging, donating, and selling items.
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When scoping out storage spots in her new home, my mom shared that she has a stack of boxes of stuff from her mom’s house. She doesn’t want it, but doesn’t feel like she can get rid of it, and has been holding onto it since her mom passed over 10 years ago.
My kids made sure grandma didn’t get rid of her little rocking chair. They both have memories of climbing on it at Grandma’s house. It’s now in our living room.
Sometimes, there are memories wrapped up in stuff
Decorating our house for the holidays was the second event that confirmed we have too much stuff.
Every year, my husband goes into our crawl space and hauls out a full 19 boxes of holiday decor — trees, lights, ceramic villages, wrapping paper. Our house ends up covered with holidays.
This holiday season, the author started a new tradition, donating decorations her family no longer uses.
Courtesy of the author
This year, when decorating, I decided to downsize and packed a giant box with ornaments, tablecloths, mugs, and random decorations we haven’t put up in years.
During this process, I was reminded how important it is to check before donating. My husband noticed a few decorations from his mom in the “donation box.” We’re keeping them. We may not display them, but there are memories in those figurines.
I asked my kids what they wanted us to keep for them. Stockings, our Advent calendar, and the holiday village — each of them had items they associated with their holiday memories. These things will never go into the donation box.
Our stuff can be so valuable to others
During our remodel last year — event three — my youngest and I learned how much the things we have sitting on a shelf can mean to someone else. My child’s donation of stuffed animals made a huge difference to volunteers and children at a local soup kitchen.
The author says she has way too many tablecloths.
Courtesy of the author
We had a repeat experience this year, but this time with tablecloths. I have too many tablecloths. The last count was over 20. Even if I can’t get laundry done for weeks, that is many more than we need. I challenged myself to get rid of half of them.
A friend who volunteers at a shelter and soup kitchen happily took the donation. A few weeks later, we learned those tablecloths had a new life as blankets for a family of four who were living in their car at the time.
I have a process to downsize my wardrobe
Remodeling our house was the most eye-opening demonstration of how many things we have. Our storage space is still crammed with stuff that didn’t make it back into the house after the remodel.
Finding a place for everything during the renovation was a huge challenge. We quickly realized we couldn’t fit 50% of our belongings (three bedrooms and my office) in the other 50% of our house.
Hooking hangers on seat belts maximized space and kept the clothes in place when driving.
Trisha Daab
Taking up the most space — the items in my closet, which filled my entire soccer-mom-sized SUV.
So today, for every new thing I add, I donate at least two items. I’ve designated a section of my closet for things I haven’t worn, and when the seasons change, anything in that section goes. And — the most fun — I invite friends to come “shop” in my closet.
Some things are my memories, not my kids’
In my office are multiple items that remind me of my grandma.
One of my favorite memories is being at her house, spending hours poring over her high school and college yearbooks.
Yearbooks from my grandma’s high school and college years are items I won’t be getting rid of.
Courtesy of the author
When it was clear the end was near for her, she had me take those yearbooks from the nursing home. She barely remembered who she was, but she remembered how much those books meant to me.
Seeing those yearbooks evokes memories of her, keeping her alive in my mind. But they are my memories of her, not my kids’.
And that’s really the thing, isn’t it? Wrapped up in all this stuff are memories and maybe a bit of guilt about getting rid of it.
So, I will keep cleaning out that closet, clearing out the storage unit, and reducing our holiday decor, but one day, my kids may have to get rid of those yearbooks.
Sometimes, a decision doesn’t make sense on paper, but it just feels right to your soul. That’s what my family’s big move was like.
Last year, our family of five sold our affordable home in rural southern Utah to move into a more expensive rental in a Denver suburb.
We had wanted a change for a long time, and the timing finally felt right. We could’ve stayed where we were “safe” financially, but all our family members were struggling in different ways.
I couldn’t shake the feeling that nothing would really get better until we were brave enough to make a big change — so we did.
Moving from Utah to Denver was a difficult financial decision
One of the hardest parts to accept about moving was leaving our extended family and a house that we had lived in for 13 years.
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Even more difficult was that our house in Utah was affordable. We were privileged to buy a house when prices were reasonable, and mortgage rates were low. We would have moved a long time ago, but we felt stuck in a home we had outgrown because it was cheap.
We knew that if we sold our house, we would be paying a lot more elsewhere. But the decision still felt right for our family.
We figured Denver was worth the price increase
We chose a Denver suburb because we love the outdoors and also miss the opportunities that a city provides. We have friends in the area, so we knew we would have a community once we arrived.
The author’s kids enjoy Denver’s nature.
Courtesy of Katy Anderson
We chose an area known for its “small town feel.” As soon as we moved in, I immediately fell in love with the neighborhood. We are surrounded by an abundance of mature trees, and are within walking distance of wonderful trails for walking and biking.
I’ve been amazed at the wildlife around us, especially considering we live in a Metro area.
Just walking the trails in our neighborhood, we’ve seen rabbits, coyotes, elk, raccoons, turkeys, and many different species of birds. We feel closer to nature here than we did in rural Utah.
After living here for a few weeks, we decided to purchase e-bikes so we could ride much farther along the trails, including to coffee shops, restaurants, city gardens, and parks.
This area also provides us with access to shopping, museums, concerts, and sporting venues. After living in a secluded town for so many years, having these amenities feels like a luxury.
We’re saving money in other ways
Our rent is high in Denver, and that has been the biggest adjustment.
Before we made the move, I was also worried about the cost of living, but I have been pleasantly surprised. Our kids even get free school lunch thanks to a statewide Healthy School Meals for All program. My kids have all commented that the food is of better quality. They actually want to eat the school lunches here.
We are paying much less for gas in Colorado, as we are driving substantially less. In Utah, we lived on the outskirts of town and had to drive 15 to 20 minutes to get to work or to the nearest grocery store.
When we moved to Colorado, we also immediately ended most of our subscriptions and streaming services. We’ve cut down on our discretionary spending and are eating more family meals at home.
We also chose jobs that would help us adjust to our new housing costs
We knew we would be paying more for housing no matter where we moved, so we chose a location with ample work opportunities. My husband is a psychiatric nurse practitioner, and I have picked up a part time job in addition to my freelance writing business.
We are all making more money in Colorado than we could in Utah, where the minimum wage is still $7.25 per hour. Two of my teenage sons were amazed when they realized how much more they could earn in their new city.
Right now, we are enjoying the freedom of renting. Buying a home in this economy feels daunting, and we want to take our time exploring Colorado to see where we may want to buy if it feels right.
For now, I am grateful that my kids have a chance to experience living in a bigger city with more diversity and opportunities. Overall, I feel like we fit in here in a way that we never did in our old town, and that is priceless.
Taylor Swift is the biggest-selling artist in the world by most reliable measures, so when she makes an unconventional business move — no matter how random or trivial it may appear — it’s worth paying attention.
On Friday, Swift unveiled the self-directed music video for “Opalite,” her latest single from “The Life of a Showgirl.” Upon release, the cameo-laden clip was available exclusively on Spotify and Apple Music, with its YouTube premiere scheduled for a two-day delay.
Streamers like Spotify and Apple Music specialize in hosting songs, albums, podcasts, and playlists — not visual works. Meanwhile, YouTube is famously a destination for music video lovers. So what gives?
As usual, when it comes to Swift, the answer seems to lie with her bottom line. In December, YouTube announced it would withdraw its streaming data from Billboard’s chart formulas because the music company tweaked its methodology so that streams from YouTube subscribers were weighted even more heavily than free streams. YouTube’s stance is that the ratio is unfair to fans.
Swift recently scored her longest reign yet on the Billboard Hot 100 with “The Fate of Ophelia,” the lead single from “Showgirl,” which charted at No. 1 for 10 weeks. With “Opalite” officially serving as its follow-up, Swift appears to be making moves to boost the song’s chart performance.
If fans were flocking to YouTube today to watch her new music video, none of those views would help “Opalite” reach No. 1 — and nobody wants to follow a personal best with a personal flop, least of all an athlete-style competitor like Swift.
Of course, this savvy tweak to the song’s promo schedule was paired with a physical release: a seven-inch vinyl single in “pearlescent blue,” only available in Swift’s online store for 48 hours.
How Taylor Swift moves, other artists tend to follow
Swift’s unyielding commitment to commerce isn’t just something to behold. It’s something to study. Swift’s sales tactics often become instructive for other artists.
Much has been made about Swift’s push to sell physical albums, for example, but many fellow pop stars have followed suit. Charli XCX released about two dozen vinyl variants for her 2024 album “Brat” and its deluxe editions. Sabrina Carpenter, a self-professed disciple of Swift’s work, released 13 vinyl variants last year for “Man’s Best Friend,” in addition to seven-inch singles, cassettes, and CDs. As a result, “Man’s Best Friend” scored the ninth-biggest vinyl sales week of the modern era, according to Billboard. (Seven of the top eight slots on that list belong to albums by Swift.)
“The Fate of Ophelia” reached No. 1 on the chart dated October 18, 2025.
So, it could very well mean that Swift’s strategic video rollout will start a trend as well. Although YouTube is the customary platform for music videos, customs can be changed, and she isn’t the only artist who cares about climbing the charts.
It could also be that Swift’s premiere delay will inspire YouTube to rethink its attitude toward Billboard. If one of the most influential celebrities in the world is delaying their content to your product, that could be bad for business — and it wouldn’t be the first time Swift convinced a major company to change its tune. Back in 2015, she criticized Apple Music for refusing to pay artists during a new user’s free trial. Within 24 hours, Apple updated its policy and tagged Swift in the announcement online.
It remains to be seen whether “Opalite” will affect the music industry beyond Swifties, but if the song’s lyrics are any indication, Swift is content to manufacture success on her terms — or, in her words, to make her own sunshine.
