living in a 34 sqm apartment for 2 years
Why do I enjoy living in a tiny apartment of only 34 square meters? In the past, I´ve earned enough to live in a place nearly double the size if I compromise by living 1 km away from the city center. But I love this small place and how central it is. It has an elevator, a balcony with little to little greenery/a park with a playground… I don´t hear a lot of the traffic noise despite the 2 main streets being less than 200m away.
I´m a minimalist who prefers not to own a kitchen, so I choose a flat where the kitchen is provided by the landlord. This isn´t that common here in Germany and I pay rent which is a little higher than without. I´m a minimalist who embraces low furniture living, so everything fits into a transporter at once when I move out. I have one big room with a kitchen, a very small corridor, and a spacious bathroom. And that´s it.
But all the obvious advantages come at a cost: The kitchen is pretty old and the dishwasher is so loud that I can´t listen to music when it is doing its work. If I want to watch something online at this time I need to use subtitles. And when you are forced to spend a lot of time there, you are prone to getting sick of your place. But I think it´s a great opportunity to get out of your place and explore your surroundings or find new places you can explore without paying entrance fees, like nearby parks or forests.
Additionally, some people don´t like to see your bed from your desk or vice versa. Your mindset/mood could feel guilty for not doing something productive on your desk. Or you try to work from your bed and it ends as a total failure. So if you are prone to have a mindset of toxic productivity I recommend a slightly larger place with 2 rooms instead.
Another aspect II had been unaware of before moving into this place: laundry and getting visitors. I don´t have a dryer. So I try to schedule doing my laundry (especially my underwear) after I got visitors. I guess nobody wants to get visited by their parents when their underwear is drying is visible in their living space. This works most of the time, but when you get a spontaneous visit such as “please ignore my laundry” incidences just happen. After living here for 2 years I´ve stopped caring.
The major advantage for me is the low time I have to spend on house chores like cleaning, tying up, etc. It takes me less than 1h to deep clean everything including tidying up. I can see everything at once and sitting at your laptop while you hear your noodles cooking behind your back can have a calming effect. Or the smell of lasagna or cookies in your oven.
I love this simple lifestyle/room design, combined with short ways to grocery stores, doctors, and other things you need daily. At such a central location I could consider selling my car and using car sharing when I visit my family which lives in rural areas. But I only visit them every few months, so I´m not sure about this yet, as my future is kinda unsure lately.
My experiences of living in such a small place taught me a lot about the benefits and my values. I learned that I´m fine with paying a higher price per square meter and saving time & money when commuting to places of daily business like grocery stores and other stuff. I don´t need a balcony to be happy, which was kinda unexpected to me when I moved in. I could even live in a place that is 5–6 sqm smaller, as long as the flat has a built-in dishwasher and enough space for my full-sized laundry machine. I have no intention to buy a property, no matter how my financial situation is. I don´t need a TV at all.
Overall these experiences are pretty contrary to everything I thought I knew about myself until my late 20s. When I discovered minimalism for myself and started downsizing, I became aware of my true self. And I´m curious how this renting journey, which is just one of many that I have started since exploring minimalism for myself.
So thanks Pinterest for introducing me to minimalism and simple living :)
