Several months ago, my dad built me an amazing liquor cabinet. He’s the consummate craftsman, and the piece is absolutely beautiful.
I live frugally in a small studio apartment, and so the cabinet has become the centerpiece of the whole studio. But there aren’t a lot of places it can actually physically fit within the space.
So when we installed it in October, it sat in front of the window-mounted air conditioner. Fast forward to today and 80-90 degree Ohio heat, and I decided it needed to move to allow for better A/C flow.
In my “living room,” I need to fit my desk, couch, record player, coffee table, and the cabinet. The record player and cabinet sat on opposing sides of the couch, and my initial instinct said to just swap them. But I decided I wanted to explore the other options before committing to that.
For almost two hours, I rearranged those five pieces of furniture in different positions in this 10×10 foot space, only to arrive exactly at where I had initially expected.
But at that point, I was totally satisfied that it was the best option. It was a quick and easy test, and at the end I had no “what ifs” or unexplored options.
When there isn’t much downside risk or opportunity cost, it’s worth exploring options that you may expect won’t work out. Once you try them, it only makes you that much more comfortable with your final decision.