Simple life Manhattan: a 90-square-foot microstudio

I wanted to live in Manhattan but I didn't want to take all my money and I found this place through a friend and its relocation right you're like in Center Central Park great deal okay I'm sure there's some compromises but it's worth it it's 90 square feet I am also a professional organizer so organizing the space was a challenge but one I was happy to take on so when I first moved in the woman who was here before I had just furniture you could barely there was a strip of blank space down the center of the room but I just got rid of everything and I knew you had to go up when you organize in New York City so that's what I did and I wanted a space so this is why right and this is where I do my art my place to hang out and read there's no kitchen but I've created my own little kitchen a little fridge so I have two food shop a few times a week because it cannot hold that much stuff but in New York City most people store their laundry in their stoves anyways so toaster oven that holds the bananas storage as you know it's so important for New Yorker so there's a cabinet gotta have a hot pot you know I can make hard-boiled eggs one of the things I did was they were these sliding doors that for any apartment are hard to get into I got rid of the doors and then I put up a curtain for the most part we don't even wear half of what we own anyway so I'm always kind of going through and seeing what I can get rid of the bathroom is pretty big for you know you just gotta be careful you don't hit your knee when you're sitting on the toilet I think it's actually gotten bigger since I've been in the apartment I've just gotten used to sitting you know sometimes you have to sit sideways but it can be a little you know daunting getting out of the tub and getting into the tub you just get out slowly but you're only in the shower once once a day the first night I slept in the apartment I had a panic attack when I first saw it I thought no this is easy and when I actually went up to bed and I woke up in the middle of the night and there was the ceiling and I had a friend they over because I thought I would fall out of the bed when I woke up there was the ceiling here in the wall on every side and I had wanted to get out quickly and she was saying relax go slowly because you're gonna fall and so then I had put I had installed a handle on the side and a hook and then after that night I have not had another panic attack and I love it up here and at night it's cozy when you're up here at night and you just have the light on that's the only light and I've got my reading and I used to have so many books but I've gotten rid of a lot of books my sister gave me a Walden Pond so you've stayed in a little space got to keep that one just to remind me that it's okay to live in a small space and to write and you know he's my inspiration you know obviously I'm not in the woods I'm in the jungle here in New York City but it's just a really quiet cozy little space up here and it's enjoyable and where do you spend what's your job I spend most of my time when I'm in the apartment probably at my desk so this is where I write I have a book coming out next month so here's the cover to the book what puppet told me my maternal grandfather he's a Holocaust survivor I also have a studio space downtown down at paragraph the writer studio down town in the village I'm also an artist I make shrinky dink art which is appropriate since it's the only art that can fit in this apartment the great thing about New York is you can do so many different things at once I look out my window and it's New York City I mean that's my backyard Central Park is a block away I'm going to the park I have Lincoln Center I have libraries all over the subways two blocks away you know I go to the gym I have gyms all over the place the city really has a lot to offer and sometimes I feel like I am you know you're in college and it's a huge campus and you can just take advantage of everything you want to take advantage of I mean I like to get out of the city as well and you know ride my bike hundred miles on the weekends and be in nature and it's the best of both worlds here's yoga so you know you can come down do your yoga and occasionally you'll hit your foot or your arm against something but I've had my whole family in here and I've had probably eight or nine people hanging out and I have a friend with a larger apartment two blocks away and we ended up hanging out here because it's cozier I don't feel stressed about rent I don't feel a huge overhead my father's a bankruptcy attorney I think we learned early on you don't acquire what you don't but you can't afford so he kind of instilled that it in us I said I was going to come live here for a year it kind of has turned into three years and Counting but it's I'm able to work and live here and travel and not be concerned that I have this huge space I have to come back and take care of

Channel: Kirsten Dirksen

Views: 25,311,618

Keywords: tiny home, small space, tiny apartment, small apartment, downshifting, home size, simple life, simplicity, downsizing, small house movement, small home, microhome, tiny house, green building

Id: JZSdrtEqcHU

Length: 5min 7sec (307 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 07 2010

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

Isn't this just a college dorm room? She doesn't even have a roommate - must be nice.

[u/Sm0othAsEggs]

I rent a 3 bedroom/3 bath town house in Manhattan for just $1,000 a month.

Unfortunately it's in Manhattan Kansas...

[u/Fearless_fx]

Having sex in that bed might be a challenge...

[u/cassidyarch]

And yet she has a box tv. C'mon, save some space with a flatscreen!

[u/EvadingRye]

I wouldn't mind it except for it not having a kitchen, it would be frustrating

[u/[deleted]]

She really shouldn't stand on a rolling chair. Ever.

[u/[deleted]]

Why not live in Brooklyn or Harlem?

[u/Terlian]

It needs to be.... at least 3 times bigger!!

[u/aesopica]

Everything she says sounds so...sad. It's like, "Oh and the mice only attack me at night now, so that's pretty good."