Small Apartment Living
Small Apartment Living
For many, living in South Korea isn’t just a change of culture, scenery and cuisine; you also have to compete with a stark change in accommodation. Especially if you’re here from the West, the apartments in Korea can very much redefine the amount of space you need for your life, and by virtue of this, the amount of trivial items you need to fill it.
That’s not to say all apartments here are tiny. You get what you pay for, or if your work includes accommodation, then you get what you’re given. In that respect, you could be anywhere in the world. In fact the average apartment size in Korea is roughly the same as a mid-range apartment in New York City. Smaller apartments however are very common, and consist of a little kitchen, bedroom cum dining room cum study cum lounge, wet-room bathroom and a utility room.
If you’re in one of Korea’s smaller offerings, expect there to be no oven, possibly no microwave and certainly no sofa. A bath is out of the question; in a Korean wet-room you’ll generally find a wall-bracketed shower head that soaks your whole bathroom and drains into a grate into the middle of the floor. There won’t even be a bed-frame as mattresses are placed on the floor, K-style (frustrating as, lets face it, we’re used to shoving anything we won’t need for a while under the nearest bed).
It’s not impossible to live comfortably in one of these mini-apartments, although having your friends over to dine might be out of the question. What it takes to adapt is two realisations:
1. You don’t need half the stuff you think you do. You can live without weighing scales, clothes driers and fitted sheets. Trust me on this one.
2. You aren’t supposed to spend a lot of time at home! You’re in Korea for the experience – eat out, see your friends, go for a walk and explore the world here while you can.
If you can manage both of those, then no apartment will be too small. The final bonus of a tiny flat?
Way less cleaning.