live in that tiny a space. Me, for one. Yeah, I could cull stuff, but I'm not ready to give up my wedding china, or all of my books, and I like having just a bit more space to walk around in.

Does anyone else find it odd that in the world of digital music, this person has an old-fashioned record player?

Vinyl is cool again. It's like, so retro.

that is for damn sure!

you get a little older and you soon realize the importance of a good recliner chair!

I pay $415 for a room in a shared house and I have way more room than that. Plus I have access to a communal living room, dining room and full size Kitchen.

A regular-sized studio around there would fetch three times that.

And I have a friend moving from New York to Portland because you pay a whole lot of money, for a whole lot of nothing in New York. Well that and he is tired of the rat race and needs to relax.

They have to share a bathroom with others.

No way could I live in that small space, having my clothes hanging in the kitchen, no place to sit but a folding chair and sharing a bathroom with my neighbors, ick.

My niece pays $700 a month for an apt. in Upstate NY and has 2 bedrooms, full kitchen, living room, dining room and den. Folks pay outrageous money to live in NYC and I just don't get it.

... and you don't want to spend three or four hours a day commuting, this is what you do.

I had maybe 60 square feet in the last dormitory I stayed in.

Last edited Thu Feb 26, 2015, 10:39 PM - Edit history (1)

Just enough room for a cot, a small desk, a metal storage locker, and a sink. 90 square feet would have been "palatial"

Where was this? I don't want any child of mine going to a school with a dorm room like that. That's why we have building codes in the U.S.

In Japan, it used to be, at least, that a lot of dormitories were as spartan as possible to encourage students to move out quickly because dormitory space was very limited. The administration figured that freshmen needed time to adopt to living away from home, so priority for dormitory space was given to them, but they were highly encouraged to get some place off campus by the end of their first year. But things seem to have changed since those days. I have talked to a few students who are living in dorms at that same university, and they tell me that today's dorms are a lot nicer.

And while conditions at that time were a bit cramped, the room was just single occupancy, and was meant merely as a place to sleep and get ready for classes. I spent most of my non-class time in the "kenkyushitsu", which is a kind of seminar/office room for students in the same program.

it's not much more than an sro for hipsters. (sro: Single Room Occupancy)

which really sucks if there are people sharing it who think their Mommies live there to clean it. Been there, done that, used Clorox to sluice out the tub and escape the cooties.

I also note that she mentions paying $25/month for clothing storage, something she'd have to do in NYC which goes from freezing to broiling every single year and that means she's now paying $800/month for that closet.

Phooey.

I do wonder if it was legal for the apartments to be carved out like that. No brownstone building was originally built containing virtual cells as apartments.

The last one I lived in (for a very long 5 weeks while I apartment hunted) was like that, but they did manage to stick a 3/4 bath into one end of it, making it barely tolerable.

I was absolutely thrilled when I could finally move into an apartment.

I have a sizable book, record, CD, and DVD collection.

Beyond that, my needs are pretty minimal, especially if I lived in Manhattan where few people bother to cook or do their own laundry.

I love to cook. My kitchen is smaller than I'd like, but it is full size. I don't have certain things some cooks consider necessities, such as a blender or a food processor, because I have no place to store them. But at least I can cook, which this poor woman cannot.

And yes, I've been to NYC and I know how wonderful the restaurants are, but it's still not cheaper than fixing your own food. So if you add the cost of eating out every single meal, yikes!

or the student with a frenetic social life in the bar scene. It's not so wonderful for people who spend a lot of time at home because they're not paid enough to do anything else.

I've spent several months living in a van and several weeks living in a place in Boston that was this tiny. However, i could always see light at the end of the cramped quarters tunnel with the end of a summer job or having people finally move out of an apartment I'd rented.

Do note that this person had plenty of money to make the space livable. Most of us who have lived in cramped quarters like this have done so because we've had no money.

So was the tiny illegal backyard shed I later moved up to.

So was the little room I lived in for $350 a month, back when that was very serious money, with more-and-less a dozen of us hopeless male geeks (and occasionally our hopeless and hapless girlfriends) sharing one decrepit bathroom and one decrepit kitchen, with always a few sketchy roomies who would steal your refrigerated food, especially the beer.

I'd learned to live with non-refrigerated food by then, not even counting my childhood experiences with my parents and siblings living in rural back country, no refrigerators, early 1970's Europe.

Honestly, I could happily live in a place like that even today in San Francisco, London, Manhattan, Paris, Tokyo and many other big urban areas if there is enough daylight to grow a few herbs, peppers, and tomatoes, and I don't have to worry too much about cops kicking in the door, or worse, anyone else meaning to do me harm.

I have a big critique of the American way of thinking, where bigger is better, huge is normal and gigantic is best. I take issue with the whole the more, the better. More books, more clothes, more cars, more crap. When is enough, enough? How much does a person really need? And I mean really NEED?

I don't understand criticizing this person for living smaller and with less crap covering every surface. She doesn't have a need for lots of accumulata, and that's something to be appreciated. Just because something is for sale doesn't mean we have to own it. I like nice things a bit too much, granted, but I prefer to have a few well chosen, very, very nice things rather than tons of cheap crap.

I need space to work and play.....

I detest gyms and hate running

Do the math. Bed is at least 6.5 ft long, the room to camera point is 11'., no bath or kitchen? Sorry, just doesnt make sense, no BR or kitchen?

PS Ive been in Hong Kong apartmemts that are 300 sft amd cost $300K...boggles the mind.

"Kitchen" likely consists of a hot plate or equivalent.

[div style="height:50%;width:50%;"]

I have lived like that, but had to get my water from the bathroom down the hall. This little apartment looks quite comfortable and even elegant to me. Price is still steep, but for a limited time in Manhattan, why not.

No way in hell. Especially not having my own bathroom.

And I would give up the bistro set for a comfy chair. But there is no way on earth that I am sharing the bathroom with the next door neighbor.

I'd rather live in that than some McMansion.