4 ms·
I lived in an apartment in Manhattan that was somewhere around 180-200sqft (it was originally larger, but the owner of the apartment decided to make a very larg
by daeken 12y ago
I lived in an apartment in Manhattan that was somewhere around 180-200sqft (it was originally larger, but the owner of the apartment decided to make a very large closet between the kitchen and 'living room', for whatever reason). It was surprisingly pleasant, when I was single. I had a queen-sized bed, a desk, and lots of shelves.
Once my then-girlfriend moved in with me, things got a bit more stressful. Not because we needed more space to live in -- we were surprisingly comfortable -- but because we weren't using the city as our living room anymore. When you're going out nearly every night, you don't tend to care about the size of your living quarters, but when you're spending your whole day there, it gets a bit tight.
I can't imagine going back to that now, but it was the perfect place from which to experience New York.
- jseliger 12y agoI had a queen-sized bed, a desk, and lots of shelves. I live in NYC with my fiancée, and I've seen friends' apartments in the size range you describe. Most of them now have Murphy Beds, which have gotten surprisingly good (http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_eye/2014/01/13/small_space_design_transformable_space_saving_furniture_from_clei.html http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_eye/2014/01/13/small_space_de...). Most of them seem happy in those spaces, as long as they're not trying to cohabitate. I'll note too that I'm a bit skeptical of the $3000 / month charge for micro apartments; even in Williamsburg, new, conventional one-bedroom apartments were $3200 – $3,500 / month last summer. I can imagine people paying $2000 for micro apartments in desirable, commutable neighborhoods, but $3000 seems less likely right now. Then again, NYC real estate is rife with people saying "That's crazy!", only to find that a couple years later it's normal or even cheap.
- daeken 12y ago> I'll note too that I'm a bit skeptical of the $3000 / month charge for micro apartments; even in Williamsburg, new, conventional one-bedroom apartments were $3200 – $3,5000 / month last summer. Yeah, that seems unlikely to fly. I was paying $1700/mo for my place, on the ground floor in Alphabet City (11th between B and C, specifically); not the most desirable place in Manhattan, but definitely not a cheap area.
- greglindahl 12y agoMurphy beds are great. There's also this solution for chairs: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1985945130/bookniture-furniture-hidden-in-a-book https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1985945130/bookniture-f...
- sliverstorm 12y agoIt seems to me that a domicile of that size would be kind of depressing, unless you do spend most of your time away from home. Your life, contained in one small box. It's not fundamentally different with houses, but you can fool your lizard brain a little more. Or maybe it was really 100sqft where that feeling starts to set in...