How to live in a tiny flat. (2024)

Boxed flesh.

There are no ways to enter a tiny flat: you have to merge with it as soon as you walk through the door frame. Sometimes even force yourself into it. There is friction. It is a sardine’s tin can, in which we become soft vertebrae curving and recurving, having to bend to fit in, flesh macerating in clutter and chipboards.

By merging, you slide into disappearance. There is no emptiness to preserve your wholeness. It closes all over you, swallows you like a coffin in the dread of smallness. There is no other room towards which you can plot your escape, nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. Only one room and no exit, barely enough room to exist. Only walls close enough to whisper in your ears, all your secrets back at you. There is no avoidance. Living in a tiny flat is an art of confrontation. The walls stare at you but you stare right back.

That box, barely breathable, barely liveable, is your prison, but also your fortress. A punishment and a revelation. It's the battleground of your survival, and that’s something. This is your thrownness. You’re tossed into this flat without a say, without a chance to negotiate, so you negotiate with the rhythm and find an intimacy with every corner, every crevice. Each crack in the wall, each scuff on the floor is an opportunity to exploit. You take that little matchbox, that shoebox-sized life, and you make it work, because there's no choice but to make it work.

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Sailing the sea of clutter

So, what do you cut loose I ask. Do you remember who you were before? Before this space.

Space? Forget about it. You’ve got none. Everything you own is in your face, screaming at you. Your belongings become a chaotic symphony of clutter. Books pile up like drunken soldiers; clothes drape over chairs like passed-out bums. You learn to navigate the mess like you sail in a storm. Stay on track, but surrender to the waves surging on a sea of details, some significant, some not. That clutter is a living, breathing organism always in motion. It is your worldhood.

Don’t let your being dissolve into smallness, carve your room. You shove, rearrange, discard. You sculpt the beauty of less. Tiny flats teach you to be light, to shed the excess. You become all you’ve got and it’s enough. This is the essence of your being, stripped down to its rawest form. You don’t need much, just a place to think, a place to numb, a place to mutate from dirt to fresh.

Noisy seeping solitude.

You might find yourself with porous walls that let the noise seep like a family of cockroaches. And that noise becomes a companion. Familiar recurrences of chairs scraping floors, the bangs of kids jumping as if they weighed about the same as baby elephants, neighbours climbing stairs carrying chronic exhaustion from their soles. The cacophony becomes your soundtrack, a grim reminder that you’re not alone in this sardine can existence. You hate it, but you need it. Even in isolation, you’re connected to the world outside, tied to the lives that echo through the walls. You become a voyeur of sounds, letting them visit you like the friends you’d never have room for. If you find romance it would have to blend in with your skin, melt in your floor, in your sheets.

The proximity of everything is all the promiscuity you get. A table’s corner in the bum, the kiss of a roasting radiator, loneliness is a beast you wrestle with. It gnaws at you, sighs, postulating at your face that this space is a cage.

But these days, a lion in cage is a lion on stage.

The little theatre; notes on space shapeshifting.

The smaller the space, the more movement it needs. It is a constant choreography of furniture. Flexibility rules the incommodious in a dance of hands pushing pulling dragging turning. It is an art. And while you can’t push the outer walls, the inside is a bowel of rooms appearing and disappearing. A space in transit, transforming in the machinery of living, a space that shapeshifts.

Wheeling into action, manoeuvring from constant manipulations, the flat becomes a rotating performing stage, a mini theatre of existence—a giant book of folded stories that pop up each time you turn the page, swiping the old scene away. There is a sense of infinite possibilities, infinite renewal, infinite chapters to unfold—literally, dramatically expanding the horizon. Is this where the word flat comes from? To renew, you must be willing to crush and close some chapters. It is a surreal moment to witness your furniture distort into disappearance while you move from scene 1 to scene 5, skipping 2, with a short break in 3, stepping from bed to desk to couch to dining table. You roll things around, creating new spaces in old ones.

But soon you realise it’s not the space that changes, it’s you. You become fluid, adaptable.

Spectacular routines.


Day.
Act I.
Scene III.

You establish a swinging cadence, the capacity to move through the cramped quarters without losing your mind. Not a routine, a set performance, with acts and moments of improvisation. All the best stories unfold from being set. Crafted and rehearsed. Not from improvisation. Unless it is framed. Coffee in the morning, the sacred ritual. One chair, one table, one mug. You sit, you sip, you contemplate the peeling paint and the gaps in the wooden floors getting larger, dispersing from oversolicitation. You pull on your vape and watch the smoke curl up, thinking how it's got more room to move than you do. Five minutes of impro, end of the scene; moving on.

It does not have to be boring. Twist it more every time so tomorrow can hold epic promises you are eager to attend, so it becomes a spectacle, an impactful display to amaze, witness, endure. Not a one (wo)man show but a show of one-for-one, one-to-one, self-to-self. Playing every day the absurd performance of existence—just for the beauty of it. Doors closed, no spectators, a rehearsal we polish, sunrise to sunrise, a little closer to being believable. The real question is: do you believe yourself?

As the main character, we get to control the narrative. That’s a heavy part to endorse. But the alternative is worse: ending up like the collapsed pair of jeans months away from their last wash.

What’s your story? What’s the scene?

How to expand in smallness

You can’t push walls but you can push your own barriers to expand inside, sinking into your infinite well. Collapsing all the walls from their centre— you—venturing inside of inside until there are no walls left and that caging feeling vanishes into its own illusion. An inscape; a landscape of immense possibility of openings. You learned to live small, to think small, to dream small. To make do with less. Now expanding in smallness means taking the claustrophobia and moulding it into a cocoon where you can grow. You learn to fill the smallness with yourself, and suddenly, the flat isn’t so small anymore.

Living in a tiny flat is a lesson in survival. It’s a test of your endurance, your sanity, your ability to find poetry in the midst of confinement, find unexplored articulations to make the unfunctional functional. You figure out how to carve out a little space for your soul in that cramped, suffocating world, and discover that even in the smallest, most confined spaces, there’s a little room for hope, for dreams, for life.

It’s not much, but it’s yours. And what is yours, fully, authentically yours, is everything.

How to live in a tiny flat. (2024)

FAQs

How to live in a tiny flat.? ›

Living in cramped spaces can pose health risks. If your perception of your home is that it's a busy or lonely, negative, dark, and cramped space, you might feel increased stress and anxiety. Living alone in a small space can elicit feelings of confinement or that you are trapped.

How do you cope living in a small flat? ›

Moving Into an Apartment: 23 Tips for Surviving the Move and Small-Space Living
  1. GET ORGANIZED FROM THE GET-GO. ...
  2. GIVE YOURSELF TIME TO DECLUTTER. ...
  3. TAKE A HARD LOOK AT YOUR KITCHEN ACCOUTERMENTS. ...
  4. DECIDE ON YOUR NONNEGOTIABLE TANGIBLES. ...
  5. DIGITIZE TO DOWNSIZE. ...
  6. BE THOUGHTFUL ABOUT THE FURNITURE YOU BRING IN.
May 3, 2021

Is it healthy to live in a small apartment? ›

Living in cramped spaces can pose health risks. If your perception of your home is that it's a busy or lonely, negative, dark, and cramped space, you might feel increased stress and anxiety. Living alone in a small space can elicit feelings of confinement or that you are trapped.

What are the disadvantages of living in a flat? ›

5 Disadvantages of Apartment Living
  • Lack of Privacy – Apartment living is very different from mobile home living. ...
  • Less Space – Apartments are known for being pretty cramped. ...
  • Inability to Customize – If you are considering renting an apartment, keep in mind there are many restrictions to customizing the space.
Jan 30, 2023

What are the struggles of living in a small apartment? ›

Facing the challenge of space crunch in a modest-sized apartment? Here are tips to overcome them
  • Challenge: Not enough space… ...
  • Challenge: Visual cluttering. ...
  • Challenge: Feeling too enclosed. ...
  • Challenge: No space to move around. ...
  • Challenge: Lack of a window. ...
  • Challenge: What to do with dead zones.

What are the disadvantages of living in a studio? ›

Disadvantages of a Studio Apartment

Many people find that they just can't fit their belongings in a studio apartment. Most don't have much storage space, which can leave you feeling very cramped and overwhelmed. Entertaining is a challenge. If you like to socialize at home, you might find it hard to do so in a studio.

Can you live alone in a studio apartment? ›

Generally speaking, studios are most ideal for those who live alone, haven't amassed a lot of possessions, and are more interested in what's nearby than in what's inside.

Which is cheaper a studio apartment or an apartment? ›

Rent Prices

Rent for a studio apartment is usually less than other apartments on the market. You can save more money living in a studio apartment, or even move into your dream neighborhood. Even if you're not looking to save money, a studio apartment offers a more efficient and environmentally-friendly lifestyle.

How do I become a minimalist in a small apartment? ›

The goal is to create a neat and orderly zone where your eyes aren't overwhelmed by their surroundings.
  1. Keep only what you need. ...
  2. Incorporate clean, simple lines. ...
  3. Use plants over knick-knacks. ...
  4. Add texture. ...
  5. Create depth with mirrors. ...
  6. Choose neutral colors. ...
  7. Ditch the hardware. ...
  8. Take advantage of negative space.
3 days ago

How do I keep my small apartment clutter free? ›

12 Tips to Declutter Your Apartment — Getting & Staying Organized
  1. Schedule a Declutter Day. ...
  2. Get Furniture That Doubles as Storage. ...
  3. Hang Stuff Using Hooks and Pockets. ...
  4. Don't Buy New Home Items Until You're Organized. ...
  5. Start With What You Can See. ...
  6. Every Space Should Serve Its Intended Purpose. ...
  7. Use the Three Containers Method.

How do you fit a lot of stuff in a small apartment? ›

In any case, whether you have the same space for these or separate rooms, the main organizational principles are the same.
  1. Invest in multifunctional items. ...
  2. Use floating shelves. ...
  3. Implement expandable drawer dividers & shelf dividers. ...
  4. Make use of walls & doors. ...
  5. Utilize nesting baskets. ...
  6. Draw the eye to the ceiling.
Mar 4, 2023

Does living in a small space cause stress? ›

Clutter and Organisation: Limited space can quickly become cluttered, making the living area less functional and increasing stress and anxiety. Mental Health Concerns: Studies have shown that crowding and lack of personal space can contribute to poor mental health, including stress, anxiety, and depression.

How do you stay alone in a flat? ›

15 Tips for Living Alone for the First Time
  1. Make a Budget.
  2. Get a Spare.
  3. Decorate Your New Home.
  4. Keep Things Tidy.
  5. Become Self-Reliant.
  6. Don't Isolate Yourself.
  7. Meet Your Neighbors.
  8. Explore Your Neighborhood.

How do you live minimally in a small apartment? ›

8 Minimalist Apartment Ideas to Simplify Your Space
  1. Hang Sheer Curtains. ...
  2. Curate Everything in Your Home. ...
  3. Stick to Neutral Tones. ...
  4. Add Simple Decor to Tables and Shelves. ...
  5. Keep Kitchen Counters Clear. ...
  6. Hang Black and White Photos. ...
  7. Consider Monochromatic Bedding. ...
  8. Maximize Out-of-Sight Storage.
Mar 31, 2021

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