Three removes is as bad as a fire.

This proverb is associated with Benjamin Franklin’s long-standing interest in thrift, household economy, and the hidden costs of everyday decisions—topics he popularized through maxims printed for a broad colonial readership. It reflects the practical realities of 18th-century life, when relocating a household meant physical wear on goods, breakage, lost time, disrupted work, and expenses for transport and reestablishment. Franklin circulated such sayings in the persona of “Poor Richard,” presenting common-sense wisdom in memorable, proverbial form. The line is typically treated as one of those Poor Richard-style aphorisms rather than a remark tied to a single recorded conversation or speech.

The saying warns that repeated moving can cumulatively destroy wealth and stability almost as thoroughly as a catastrophe. A “remove” (a move from one dwelling to another) entails not only direct costs but also losses that are easy to overlook: damaged furniture, misplaced items, interrupted routines, and diminished productivity. By comparing three moves to a fire, the proverb dramatizes how gradual, ordinary disruptions can equal sudden disaster in their financial and emotional toll. More broadly, it praises steadiness and planning over restlessness, suggesting that frequent change—however voluntary—can erode the very resources one hopes to improve by moving.