# What non-home have you stayed at the longest/most times? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 28, 2017, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-non-home-have-you-stayed-at-the-longest-most-times/797475 "2017-09-28T00:35:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2017, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-non-home-have-you-stayed-at-the-longest-most-times/797475/61 "2017-09-29T15:14:38Z")
Boarding school. Three years. ---
**Author:** ![robby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robby/32/11048_2.png) [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2017, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-non-home-have-you-stayed-at-the-longest-most-times/797475/62 "2017-09-29T18:37:08Z")
The submarine I was stationed on in the Navy. I had an apartment, so it definitely wasn’t my home. (And I got a use-it or lose-it housing allowance, so there was no reason not to have an apartment.) Even when we were in port I stayed overnight on the boat every 4 nights or so standing watch as either the Submarine Duty Officer (babysitting the whole ship), or Engineering Duty Officer (babysitting the reactor and engine room). When we went to sea, I stayed overnight on the boat as well (of course), up to six months at a stretch for deployments. Despite the passage of a couple of decades, I can still picture in my mind’s eye just about every square inch of that sub. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2017, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-non-home-have-you-stayed-at-the-longest-most-times/797475/63 "2017-09-29T19:05:38Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > What place have you stayed at that couldn’t be considered a home of a relative or friend (or your own) that you’ve spent the most nights at? > … I would have to say 1160 days or so onboard the USS Ranger. Most definitely not a home. ---
**Author:** ![DinoR](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dinor/32/2821_2.png) [@DinoR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DinoR)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2017, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-non-home-have-you-stayed-at-the-longest-most-times/797475/64 "2017-09-29T20:21:17Z")
There was a cot in a classroom at my Armory as the primary place I laid my head for 6 months that wasn’t Army housing or on a deployment. I spent more nights on the road away from my cot “home” than I did at my apartment. IIRC correctly I averaged around 1.5 nights a week in my own bed during that period. It was the start of an 8.5 year period where I only had my name on a lease for someplace to call home 2.5 years (including those 6 months.) I rarely knew where I would be living in a few months let alone a year out. “Where’s home?” was a pretty hard question to answer. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [September 30, 2017, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-non-home-have-you-stayed-at-the-longest-most-times/797475/65 "2017-09-30T00:03:36Z")
A whole thread could be based on “define home”. I consider “home” to be a place where I throw away the packing boxes after I unpack. But even that is on a sliding scale. My college dorm was 1,000 miles from Mom’s kitchen, so that was home. But if it was 50 miles and I went to Mom’s every weekend, the dorm would not be home. My roommate disappeared every Friday afternoon, so the dorm was my home, but not his. My wife and I are currently the only occupants of a house we rent, furnished, from her daughter, and we’ve been here for three months, but it’s transitional, pending resolution of other unsettled affairs. All my worldly belongings are here, and fit in a carry-on bag. Is this considered home, or am I away from home? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-non-home-have-you-stayed-at-the-longest-most-times/797475.md?page=3)