Furniture Subscriptions Are Going Mainstream & The Planet Is Thanking Us

Here in Brooklyn, it's not uncommon to see a stack of books, a fan, or even a couch strewn on the sidewalk. That's just where belongings end up when they're outgrown by their owners. If passersby are interested—and have easy access to a U-Haul—they can take them home and give them a second life. And, if not, it's off to the landfill they go.

According to a report from the U.S. EPA, furniture accounts for 9.8 million tons of trash every year. With a less than 1% recycling rate, it's the least recycled category of waste. When I attended an event for Junkluggers, a local trash removal service that clears out people's homes and offices during big moves, I learned that they collect upward of 10 tons of waste every single day. They charge a premium for the service (it starts at $228)—and plenty of people are willing to pay it. After all, depending on what you're looking to get rid of, there just aren't many ways to dispose of furniture these days.

Both furniture subscription companies launched about two years ago when their respective founders grew tired of the drudgery of moving furniture from apartment to apartment. 

"Each time you move, the layout of your space is changing. Its style is changing. Your personal style is changing. Life is just changing so rapidly," Jay Reno, founder and CEO of Feather tells mbg. His idea to offer things like couches, end tables, and lighting on a pay-by-the-month subscription service has since ballooned to a multimillion-dollar business that's now active in New York City, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Orange County. (To give you a sense of how big it's gotten, a Google search of the word feather shows the company's site before the bird outgrowth.)

Fernish, which started in Los Angeles and quickly spread up to Seattle, has a similar origin story. "You think about urban professionals and they're constantly changing different professional opportunities or relationships," founder Michael L. Barlow says of his inspiration to start the company. It's since been featured on the front page of the New York Times Sunday Style section, in an article that declares furniture rentals have "become almost posh." 

Both companies have seen early adoption from millennials, many of whom are also forgoing homeownership in favor of increased mobility and freedom. Their customer appreciates well-designed, high-quality home goods but is put off by the idea of being stuck with them forever.

"The relationship people have with their stuff is changing, and you're seeing that in other areas too," says Reno, referencing other popular subscription models in clothing (Rent the Runway), transportation (Lyft and Uber), and music and entertainment (Spotify and Netflix). "The customer who is coming to us realizes that when it comes to ownership of physical stuff—there could be a better solution."