Tiny Apartments

JupiterKid

I was reading an article about tiny apartments in New York and it seems that their occupants are happy to live in pretty cramped conditions.

Some of the apartments featured were less than 20 sq metres in size. Basically you could stretch out your arms and touch each wall!

Very little space for storage meant that the occupants of these "bijou" dwellings had to get inventive with stacking. One lady sleeps in a loft style bed where you cannot sit fully upright in.

What do AHers make of tiny abodes? Cozy or claustrophobic? Have you lived in a small space?

DoYouEvenLift

Lol at accommodation in NYC.

Sunnyisland

I used to sleep in the dog kennel, I was barking mad.

degsie

realies wrote: »

I used to sleep in the dog kennel, I was barking mad.

I'd say that was rrruff.

Menas

Some americans have a girth that exceeds 20sq metres.

whiskeyman

I read where one lad living in one of these places in NY treats Central Park like his 'back yard' and he has to eat out all the time.
I guess it's fine if you're single and trying to make inroads into a job when you're young, but could only be done for a couple of years max.
I never had to do it, but there was times in my early 20s I used to be out most nights anyway, so all I would have needed was a bed for the night...

gctest50

https://vimeo.com/109832468



no room for crying chair though

R.D. aka MR.D

I've lived in Asia for almost 4 years and have lived in some small places. You really realise how little 'stuff' you actually need in your life.

It's nice to be somewhere bigger obviously, but it's doable. My OH and I are planning to build one of those tiny houses and live in it part time eventually.

The bigger the place, the more it costs to heat/cool (not a huge problem in Ireland), the more time it takes to clean etc.

CiniO

AS a student I lived in 21sq metre apartment with my girlfriend. Nothing too crazy.
Bathroom was about 4 sq metre, hall about 2.5, and bedroom with kitchen just over 14. (Which is fairly big for a bedroom).
We managed no bother.
It wasn't in new York though

_Kaiser_

It's not just NY.. when I was looking a few months back I looked at a one bed in a newish block that was so badly laid out and small, I wondered who the hell signed off on it.

- Ground floor apartment that had (2) windows only on one side and faced a row of trees so very poor lighting requiring the interior lights to be on pretty much all the time
- The "sitting room" (shared with the kitchen) was so small that you could sit on the couch and almost touch the opposite wall, but there was a door to the patio area.. a few slabs of concrete with a railing right next to the front door.. suppose it's one way to get to know your neighbours!
- No storage of course, because single people/childless couples don't have any stuff I guess
- The gas boiler was in the bedroom, as was the immersion tank (took up half of the wardrobe). I imagined that'd be fun in winter trying to sleep.

Needless to say I passed and ended up getting a 2 bed even though it's just for myself but because at least I have a decently-sized living space. Interior lighting is still an issue though - the bedrooms and kitchen/sitting room are fine, but the hall has no windows and the front door opens out into the main hallway so it's pretty dark most of the time as well.

And yet they want to make apartments smaller here too??

biko

Hong Kong is even worse than New York city.

Hong Kong architect turns shoebox apartment into 24 rooms
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-iFJ3ncIDo

JupiterKid

There are, of course, the minuscule bedsits (or "studios" as estate agents euphemistically call them) where there isn't room to swing a newborn kitten in. Some of these are shockingly tiny.

biko

People have in general lived in cramped conditions up until only some hundred years ago.
I personally like the tiny house movement but the celtic tiger meant people bought mansions they couldn't afford and now they're stuck in debt.

http://www.thejournal.ie/tiny-houses-small-step-property-ladder-saving-1750378-Oct2014/

jimgoose

biko wrote: »

People have in general lived in cramped conditions up until only some hundred years ago.
I personally like the tiny house movement but the celtic tiger meant people bought mansions they couldn't afford and now they're stuck in debt.

http://www.thejournal.ie/tiny-houses-small-step-property-ladder-saving-1750378-Oct2014/

Some of those are quite clever, but I'd like to think there was some sort of happy medium between having to raise half-a-million or more for a three-bed-detached somewhere where you're unlikely to be murdered, and living in a horsebox with windows. :pac:

mahoganygas

In Amsterdam I stayed on a barge converted into a hostel.
There were four of us, all lads, each 6 foot plus squeezed into one of the quarters.
Each room had 2 bunks either side of a tiny passage for climbing into the beds. The bunks were about 5 foot long so we slept with our legs bent and wedged between the bunk above.

gctest50

NIFOS ( National Institute of Feline Orbital Studies ) approved cat-swinging-area-cost-calculator :


http://catswing.io/

vienne86

Ever look at camper vans and caravans? Not a cm wasted - some clever designs.

snubbleste

They don't do sq metres in NY.

Saipanne

They should have them in Dublin.

Old Jakey

Never understood why so many people are so desperate to get to New York. I'm sure it's great if you're at the top, but if you're on the bottom it must be hell.

Got to be loads of much nicer and cheaper American cities to move to.