You can close the kitchen door and keep the smell out

You need a „Tüten-Tüte“ xD .... just use one bag and put all other bags inside. The one bag is the „Tüten-Tüte“ :)

I think many people watching your videos are Germans, as am I. I think it is really interesting to experience our environment through the eyes of a foreigner/ someone who is used to something else. It highlights the cultural differences and you learn a lot about the customs and habits of other countries. Thank you, this was very interesting. :)

Many issues which are "weird" for you are having to done to save energy ! Therefor we have doors in the kitchen and also in the living room. Every room should only have the temperature which it requires. We are much more concerned regarding saving energy. Same applies to windows. The construction is much elaborated into keeping the heat in or out.

Open your windows complete after showering. Tilted windows won't get the moisture out of a Bathroom.

I think open floorplans are more suited to warm climates while closed floorplans (rooms with doors) are better for colder climates.

In Germany this type of Bathroom is called "Tageslichtbad" (daylight bath). Most tennants will pay more for an appartment with a bathroom having a window. There are appartments or houses without a window in the bathroom, they must have a ventilation system to prevent mold. Forget about the 2-in-1 machines, they're crap. In most cases you can load 8kg of laundry to wash, but for drying it can only handle 6kg so you have to unload some parts. It's only a good thing if you don't have the space. The water heater: In the US this type of water heater is upcoming. But in most cases they use natural gas instead of electricity. Instantaneous water heater, sometimes called tankless water heater. They are more expensive, but they are more efficient and will last longer. The water heater tanks you're used to know are in the inside made of steel with a glass coating. They'll last ten years, then you must exchange them. Tankless water heaters are stainless steel inside, they'll last three or four times longer. The thing with the blanket: At one time I had only one blanket, but at night my girlfriend always had several layers of blanket wraped around her and I had nothing. That's the reason for two blankets, just to prevent "tug-of-war" during the night. If you would use much more electricity than they estimate they would raise the monthly bill. And if you use much less they would lower the monthly bill. It's not all about the number of rooms, there's also a thing called "Wohnfläche" (living area) in m². You'll find this mostly in houses. In this calculation is everything except corridors, staircases, basement, attic. If you have a miter sill the area below it will be rated less, depending on how high the pitched roof is there. If it's below 2m the area counts 50%, if it's less than 1m it's not getting into the calculation.

More doors means less energy for heating. In germany it is cooler than in the U.S. and energy is more expensive (cause a higher amount of it is from regenerative energies). So germans want to safe electrical energy for saving money.

I remember when I went to Canada, people were quite confused, that I would close doors behind me. In Germany there is a saying "were you born in a tent?". That refers to people not closing doors and is often said to kids to teach them. For Germans it is quite common to actually close doors, for multiple reasons. 1. to keep the heat inside That comes from the times we still used ovens and could only heat up one or two rooms. Many German grandparents still do that kind of thing to not use the heating system, but the oven and therefore only heat up one or two rooms. 2. to actually have some time alone Germans really love alone time and we don't see it as offending to just close the doors if you want to study, or actually just take some time for yourself. People in Canada were quite offended with this at first, because they thought we wouldn't like to be around them. 3. to show that we don't want to be bothered Especially in a professional work environment, a closed door tells you to knock before coming in or the person doesn't want to be bothered at all 4. to keep the smell out That's for the kitchens because many Germans just don't really like their living room to smell like food So yeah, Germans like doors a lot :D but open floor plans are getting to Germany and many new apartments already have at least an open kitchen.

Electricity bill: The electricity company would have 12 times higher personnel costs if they would send out personnel to read out the electricity usage monthly. Therefore you were asked for an estimation of your annual usage of electricity on which your monthly advance payments are based on. After the first year your monthly payment will be adjusted based on your actual annual use. If it was lower than estimated it will be reduced; if it was higher it will be adjusted accordingly. I used to have a combined washer/dryer. It took ages to get the laundry dry and I really did not like the fact that a wash/dry circle almost took five hours. But my bathroom was that small that I could not put a seperate dryer. I therefore preferred to dry my laundry on a rack on the balcony and have only used the dryer on rainy or snowy winter days.

About the low popularity of air conditioning, even in public buildings... It all comes down to energy costs and the fact that ACs use lots of energy. Energy costs are higher than in the US and there is also a higher awareness about how energy consuption takes its toll on the environment. Thats why our buildings are better insulated, why we have double/triple glazed windows, why we don't heat with electricity (unless there's really no other option). The same reasoning is behind why non-US cars have amazing gas mileage ;-)

I am german and i could build an entiere tent-village out of that bags.

The magic word is 'Klappbox' or 'Klappkiste'. No more bags needed.Ever.

While "furnished" is a plus for an American apartment, which makes it more expensive, most Germans would see a furnished apartment as a minus, because they want to express themselves by the style of their interior. It is really bad to live in furniture (including kitchen) that represents the style of the person who lived there before. If an apartment is furnished, you have to spend money to get rid of the furniture.

tip for the bags: fold them once and put them in one of the bags (so you have one bag with all the others in it. Then put this bag in a niche like the one you have because your kitchen doesn't fit correctly. Due to the fact, that the bags are flexible, they can be squeezed in pretty much any place and if they are inside eachother, they do not fly around like yours :). I myself have some handmade bags made of two layers of thick cotton, which is perfect to keep cold stuff cold and is good for protecting fragile stuff at least a little bit. I have 4 of those but I always need to keep track of them, otherwise I don't have them, when I need them XD.

Doors for the seperate rooms: it's an energy saving thing. You can adjust the temperature in the different rooms - e.g. cooler in the bedroom when you sleep (I sleep with the window open even in winter), warmer in the living room. With open plan you will have a mean average temperature in the whole house, which costs more energy as you will be heating places unnecessarily. Same goes for the light windows above the doors. If you didnt have them, you would need some form of artificial light in the hallway which uses electricity.

This entire concept of moving with your kitchen is extremely bizarre and makes absolutely no sense to me. The rest is mostly similar to Sweden, haha. It's funny how some things you take for granted can be a huge culture shock to others. Like the way front doors often lead into the living room in the US, I think that's so weird especially considering a lot of houses have carpeted floors and many people wear shoes inside.

4:59 yes you are nuts, we only have 2 of those large shopping bags ;-) no one will rip your head off if you walk into Edeka withe a Rewe bag :p

I was so confused when I went to the USA for the first time. It took me about 20 minutes to figure out how to to switch the bedside lamp off. It’s kinda funny how different those things are!

I'd put all your shopping bags into one of the big shopping bags and keep them in that empty space where the kitchen didn't quite fit. That's how we do it in the Balkans :)

Yes, we have an entire storage area for the shopping bags and the "Pfandbag", too :D I think they are also quite handy, for a lot of things other than shopping. Kind of like the bags from Ikea! And yes, you are right about the deposit money, it's the landlords savety money. You usually get it back, plus the interest (Zinsen), when you move out and didn't do any harm to the landlords property, such as floors, walls, etc. But when the landlord has to repair things you left, he can charge that from the deposit money. It doesn't save the landlord from "Mietnomaden" (rental nomads) though, because they usually do way more damage plus months of unpaid rent, till the landlord is able to kick them out. Beeing a landlord may be a bigger risk in Germany than the US, because of certain laws.

Your bed is a futon bed, so it is low on purpose. You can get a taller one. Also you might mention the fixed and glued in carpets in the states. Only bureau buildings have that here. Wouldn't want live with a pre owned carpet. Yuck. The yearly bill thing.. the guy/girl reading the meters came/comes once per year to read them. Like.. ever since electricity became a thing. Same with heating bill. They read it once per year, then calculate your bill once per year. they let you pay in 12 installments because they need your advance money and for you not to have such a high bill suddenly.

I've never had an apartment here (in Germany) where my washer and/or dryer could fit in... so they are located in a room in the basement story, the "Waschkeller". This goes for every tenant in this house. Maybe because the kitchens are so small, mine is hardly the size of yours. Same for my bathroom, there is absolutely no space for a washer. Regarding the weird moving with kitchens - I am from the north of Germany, close to Hamburg. 'up there' it's usual that the apartments also come with a kitchen in it. When I moved to Düsseldorf, I was surprised as you when I searched for an aparment and none of it came with a kitchen. I always wonder what people do with their kitchens, because - like in your case - the kitchen doesn't always fit into the new 'kitchen-room' in the new apartment. Well, you just have some space left, but in many other cases the new room is too small for the kitchen people already own...

Your German hotwater heater is a "Durchlaufheizer" a "flow-through-heater", and actually requires much more wattage than a boiler to heat the water. You are correct that for your usage it is probably more efficient. For a larger family, a hot water tank actually makes more sense. Some places in Germany use a heating concept called "Fernwärme", in which your heating and hot water is piped in directly from a nearby power plant, where the warmth produced in the power generation, instead of getting blown off into the atmosphere, is used to heat water for heating purposes in many homes in the region. This greatly increases the energy efficiency of the power plant, and is a very comfortable way of receiving your heating and hot water needs as a consumer.

The missing kitchen has to do with german tenant protection law. If the landlord owns the kitchen, he has to take care of it. If the renter calls he has to fix every dripping water faucet. Since this is way to expensive the are no kitchens owned by landlords.

The kitchen doors are often also to get no food/ cooking smell all over the flat, most german foodsmells you can smell after a long while also in the room! So if you keep the door closed you can be for sure to just have the smells in the kitchen, most german people also open the kitchenwindows when they cook, because then the smell will go outside and not everywhere inside of your home, furniture, pillows, clothes. especially if you life in a small flat (maybe just one room) or in a flat with roommates (1 kitchen, maybe 2 rooms, each person have it‘s own room with everything inside - bed, table, closet ect), and in the area from flatdoor to kitchen (flur), all germans have their jackets and shoes and the people don‘t want the foodsmell on their jackets. Also it‘s for safety if maybe your flat burns, you can rescue yourself if closing the door in the room where you are. That can save your life. If you just have one big room with kitchen and everything inside and all will be full of smoke it will be much harder to save yourself. Sorry for any grammar mistakes, i‘m german and almost everything i know of english language i teached myself (learned from movies, audiobooks etc) lg

that small window above the door - we call that in the states a "transom" small window used to bring natural light to common inner space, use to be more common in older commercial loft or apartments wall water heater - in the states we call that an on-demand or tankless water heater, it too has its disadvantages, like unit costs and its installation is much higher compare to more conventional tank unit, in some cases retrofit can be very expensive depending on the existing layout of the space

By law a landlord can ask for up to 3 monthly rents as a deposit. The reason for this large deposit has to do with german tenant protection laws- even if a tenant fails to pay rent eviction is a long& bureaucratic process during which the tenant stays in the rented apartment /house .....and there are tenants who will destroy/loot the property during this time ( so-called "Mietnomaden") Also, most contracts state that tenants need to repaint/renovate the apartment when moving out.

Floor Plan and doors and windows are mostly like that in Germany to save heating and electrical costs

except for the kitchen situation, I believe that the apartment is European style for apartments.

Hot water heaters: The german system with the continuous-flow heaters normally doesn't work in US houses because you need very much electrical power instantly which the 110 volt electrical systems in the US can not provide.

First video I've seen of yours... I'm intrigued the first 30 seconds in. 😁Moving kitchens! How fascinating! I subbed. ~ Much love!

In the UK we often have fire doors for the kitchen, which are heavier and more robustly made than the other doors, this is to allow the occupiers more time to exit the building should a fire start in the kitchen.

same problem here in my apartment: too many grocery bags and too many bottles. I had a combination washer/dryer for lack of space but I do not recommend it: 1. one washing and drying cycle last eternally 2. the drums in combo-machine are of the size of washing machines... for drying efficiently, you need bigger drums

I ran into your videos by accident. I enjoyed a couple - thanks for sharing this info! I really like the bags and the deposit bottles.

Ever wondered, why your bathroom has that two small parallel windowstrings? The left windows used to belong to the Speisekammer, which used to be the missed pantry. So, when your landlord renovated your appartment, he restructered the rooms in order to get a larger bathroom.

I live in Hungary but as far as I know these things are similar there as well: 1. Beds: - Usually the older style beds are higher, but I don't know the reason why our current beds are lower. - If you have separate mattresses you still can buy a dedicated cover to connect them and do something about the gap between. Many hotels have that if they don't have a double mattress. - The wooden frame below the mattress is common, but you can by a mattress what has springs in it. - If you go back to the US once, please create a video about beds. For example I really want to see how those "top sheet" things work. 2. Water heater: - We have those big water tanks, we call them "bojler". They are quite common in older homes. I hate them, because the usual setup is this (above your head): www.kollar.at/fotogalerien/referenzen_bad_sanierung004/images/Kollar_Referenzen_Badsanierung04_02.jpg - In other places the (gas) heating system producing the (on demand) warm water as well. 3. Built in storage: - Regular homes sometimes has this small room (usually it opens from the kitchen) what we call "speiz". It comes from the german "speisekammer", so probably they have those too. - What we don't have is a closet. Especially those walk in types. Unfortunately, because I like those...

Hallo Kelly, tolles Video wie immer, weiter so.👍 Kleiner Tipp zu den vielen Einkaufstüten: Wenn man die eigenen Tüten vergessen hat keine neue kaufen, sondern auf die Warenkartons im Supermarkt zurückgreifen. Die sind kostenlos und Zuhause kann man sie zum Lagern weiterverwenden oder in die blaue Tonne hauen. Vor allem die aus der Früchteabteilung sind groß, gut stapelbar und sehr stabil. Hi Kelly nice video as always, keep going. Just a little tip for your grocery bags: If you forgot to BYO, just make use of the markets cardboard boxes, the groceries are stored in. They are for free. At home they can be useful for storing or you just put them in the blue bin. Especially those from the fruits section are big, stackable and very durable.

Great video, very insightful :) keep up the good work 👍

U.S is slowly starting to ban plastic bags. I already have a surplus of reusable bags. They live inside one bag on a hook outside of my “pantry” (hall closet I converted because I don’t have a pantry)

The doors in a kitchen is to block out any smells from cooking and is this same with the living room to block out as much noise and smell incase you have someone sleeping in the bedroom and you are having a louder company

No. You‘re not. We “store” our bags in the trunk of our car. So we’re always sure to have them along, when we do groceries 😂 ok, probably we’re nuts.

The washer/dryer combos take up less space, but cost more than separate machines. The combos run twice as long, so they break down more quickly, and when they break they cost a lot more to fix. We had a combo, and it was ok until it broke, then it was impossible to get it repaired, so we ended up buying separate machines.

Pfand bottles: There are two sorts of pfand bottles. Einweg and Mehrweg. You only described the Einweg pfand bottles. Mehrweg pfand bottles don't have these stickers but you also get money back. They get shiped back to the bottler and refilled. The Einweg pfand bottles get destroyed.

I feel like the only people who watch these kinds of videos are germans, does anyone else even actually care? And why am I, a german, watching videos about germany? Don’t I already know everything? What is this

The reason for an annual electricity bill is most likely that it would be very annoying if a stranger has to enter your home every month to read the electric meter. Most likely that's the reason why electric meters in the U.S. are often installed outside the house. Reading the electric meter every month also occasion additional costs. On average Germans don't move that often as U.S. Americans, so there is less of a need to read the electric meter that often. Paying an identical amount every month makes it also easier to plan your monthly budget.

You have a beautiful apartment. It's huge compared to the apartments I was in when I lived in Berlin. Your video brought back a lot of memories of things I also found strange at the time.

Hey, Kelly! I live in Romania, Bucharest and from all the things you have mentioned some things here are similar to the US. I must first mention that I live in an an apartment that has been renovated and a few things have changed. Not in particular order, but here they are: 1. High beds with high mattresses - nowadays people prefer to buy these stiff tall mattresses for better back support. And they also have those thick seams too. 2. We pay the electric bill every month for the exact amount we used. 3. Apartments come with their own kitchen, and you cannot modify it much. 4. Most apartments have an entry hallway - it's probably an Europe thing. 5. There is in most cases a door to the kitchen (which is very practical to keep smells away from other rooms), except for one bedroom apartments that are one big open space. 6. People have a long tradition of collecting bags, don't know why. 7. Not so much for collecting empty bottles, recycle machines are a relatively new thing here. 8. Some bathrooms have a window, others have a fan (depending on the construction) 9. The windows above the doors .... I hate them! We used to have them, but during renovation, the builder said he hated those too and just replaced them with plasterboard. Now we have normal doors! 10. Yes, every apartment announcement that says "2 rooms" means a living room and a bedroom, which took me a long while to understand too. But that is the way it is. I love the fact that you are very analytical, yet you do not complain about stuff being different. Your attitude is very healthy!

It is strange for me to hear that someone is so seriously surprised of europien appartments and its details. It is the most normal appartment, nothing weird in it. First of all Americans have or can have relatively chip wooden houses with big spaces. To have a house in Germany (EU) means you have to be really rich, because those are build by red rocks and will stay for 300 years.

So far the best US vs European flat comparison video on youtube. Please keep up doing videos like this, as a European it is really interesting to watch and compare. The electricity up front payments are weird though, probably it is just a German thing as I don't think it is common in other parts of Europe.

Love the new video. Like a travel log through your apartment. Have to say if I ever have to move to Germany, now I know what to expect before I get an apartment.

Thank you so much for showing how a German bed works. I've wanted to do something similar for a while, and your video finally gave me the information to make it happen! The one thing I still have to figure out is where to get mattresses without a hard edge... are they memory foam or some other material? Thanks again!

yep, almost every german has a bag full of bags. I made my own bagdispenser. fold the bags to small squares secure with rubber band and stack them in a Box. cut an opening on the bottom. sometimes you see tea bag dispenser working the same way. the window is an 'oberlicht' so the hallway is never pitch dark.

Btw yes, we too in our family have a special section of the kitchen were we put our Bags for shopping and we too have a Pfandbag xD.

For some reason this video was recommended to me, so new to the channel, but idk what area of the States you were from, but I go to college in Cali where there's a 10c charge for plastic or paper bags. I just use a giant Ikea one (they have these HUGE ones) to store the extras I have in it, and I keep a couple neatly folded up in my car. Although, I do have a LOT of bags as well because I use them for other purposes than grocery shopping.

Love love the plug!

If you pay the energy beforehand, there is only an advantage for the company (directly). They can work with the money earlier. But this becomes an advantage for the consumer, cause it helps to keep the prices low (for german standards. Compared to the U.S. it's quite expensive)

Really high "american style" beds are called Senioren betten in Germany; literally, beds for old people. Also, I must point out that I detest German pillows... it doesn't matter how many times you fold it, it will always go flat like a pancake. Thankfully now you can find 80x40cm pillows in foam instead of the traditional down.

I loved the doors on everything when we lived in Germany. Especially when we had small children and toddlers. I could keep them out and cook without fear that they'd get underfoot. We do something similar with pet and baby gates in the US, so it really does makes sense when you think about it. My FAVORITE door in our second and third apartments separated the bedrooms and family bathroom from the main living room and half bath. So when someone was napping or if they went to bed early, the sounds of the main area were cut off. I liked this so much that we put in two doors like that into our retirement house. One cuts off the master suite and the second cuts off the studies (two more bedrooms, really) from the main living area. We just had our first guests and they loved the peace and quiet back there. The other thing I loved about German construction was how solid everything was. Never saw a flimsy door or window in Germany.

had had a washing machine dryer combo for like 20 years, ten of them with both functionalities intact. Well, good ol' quality times. Pro was space saving and you never had uneven capacities (like 5kg washer and 8kg dryer). But it took long to wash assorted goods for there was no simultaneously washing while drying the previously washed charge. Plus that combos are expensive, so when the dryer died we just bought a new dryer instead of a new combo. If you have the place for 2 single machines, go for them.

Any German home I was in had the large water heater in the basement. There kitchens can be small but there is usually a large walk in larder/cupboard. German recycling is very strict, which I think is amazing. France and some other European countries are way ahead of the major countries in the world on recycling also. The light switches at the door of bedrooms also has a night light. The water in any toilet, shower room or bathroom can have the water switched off at the source of any leaks instead of having the water switched off completely leaving you without water at all throughout the house until the repair can be done. German supermarkets do expect you to bring your own bag or boxes when shopping. No plastic bags to ruin the planet. I adored Germany and the people and would love to go back, as would my son who was 11 on his first visit. They also have a Junken Day periodically throughout the year. Any items you need to dispose of are placed at the end of your garden or drive. People are free to take these unwanted items. The next day people come to take any wood, metal or other recyclables, the third day a lorry comes round to take what's left, which, believe me is very very little. Such a great concept so there is no fly tipping. Also, the streets are spotless. No litter allowed. They have to be commended.

Don't forget: But when you've only used400 Euro Worth of Electricity you also get your money back and the monthly rate will be reduced( the same way the monthly rate would be get higher if you would use more of course). I think it is probably a way to motivate people to safe energy because the day of the electricity bill can be a party or a nightmare.

Oh, and I loved the windows that open it the top or with a turn of the handle opened up like a car door....great memories.

We have the same thing with electricity bills here in Poland. It's because the electricity meters are installed in our houses/apartment buildings, and the electricity company needs to send an employee to read what the meter says. It's easier for them to do it once a year rather than once a month ;)

I'm curious: How do American utilities know how much power you've used each month? Do they send someone by to read the meter every time? Or do they have some sort of remote read-out? (Or do they just guess?)

On the electric thing chances are your meter is inside the apartment ( usually in a closet near the door ) so it would be a pain for everyone to arrange for a monthly meter reading. With the yearly system you set it up so someone is home or there for them to come in to your flat once a year rather than every month. In the states we generally have meter rooms or banks of meters outside the building so they can do the monthly reading thing but then you kinda have to worry that someone can tamper with your meter and it happens a lot more than you might think. The doors on every room help in the event of a fire and also again with the utilities readings some people choose to arrange for a neighbor or building attendant to let them in.So the doors allow the rest of the rooms to be closed off and even locked to allow them in to the closet where the meter is without your whole flat being open. They also help to insulate sounds so if someone is in the living room watching TV someone else can study or sleep in another room without so much of the living room noise.

Again great video! About those bags... nope you're not nuts :D we also have similar amount of shopping bags and it's very normal ;)

I love how i realize how true some of those things are now that you mention them. I had the appartment experience the other way around, but also here in germany. In Giessen there is a big family housing complex that used to belong to the now "abandoned" US Base there. A buddy of mine rented one of the US appartments there and lo and behold, you enter right into the living room, the kitchen is attached to the living room with no door and a service hatch and is matched and fixed to the appartment.

I have a question about American houses: why do you have formal living rooms? I've visited the States several times and I've seen many houses that had a second living room that was only used for special occasions and usually also had nicer furniture in it. I did a student exchange to the US and my host family only used this room at Christmas. Weird..... Also, what is the purpose of that drawer underneath American ovens? I don't think moving a kitchen is all that difficult (I've helped a lot of my friends move). The cabinets are usually designed to come apart into several smaller modules. The only thing you often need to buy new is the countertop, if the new kitchen set-up is different from the old one.

I use bags to store bags.

When I replaced some electrical recepticals in my house, I did the same thing raising a few outlets up to the 4 foot level (approx. 1.33 metres) and I did that, while keeping up to NEC code, in case the next owner might be older and cannot bend over to plug in certain things that they might need to plug in.

The combo washer/dryer usually is only capable of drying half of the washing load, therefore you can only wash half-size loads. But a good point is if you need to leave for a couple of hours then you don’t need to move washed cloths into the dryer. Usually it’s slower than two separate machines

The space between the mattresses is called in German jokingly "Besucherritze" (visitors crack)

We also have no kitchen door that we can bring the food out without open the door everytime

My son has the combo washer/dryer in his apartment and it works great. It doesn't need a vent to the outside. There are a lot of apartments and houses now in the states that have the tankless water heater so one never runs out of hot water. I'm not sure if this is the equivalent to the water heater in your Germany apartment.

As to the electric bill we have the same option here in Canada. It's called equal billing and it has a purpose. You would choose equal billing if you use electricity for your heating. It's to avoid a much higher bill each month in the winter. The hydro company can estimate the average usage over a year depending on the size of the apartment (often they can look at the past bills of that apartment) and then split the payments equally over 12 months. You can end up owing some at the end of the year or end up with a credit but either way it is usually far less of a wallet shock then getting the actual hydro bill for January with all the heat included!! Now in Canada that is usually a choice, if you use another type of heat (I have a propane furnace in my current house) then you can just pay the bill month to month but equal billing is fairly common.

Love the red cabinets

Hi Kelly, we are in Barcelona, Spain: 1. electricity/gas/water: we pay every three months. The utility company puts a notice on our building front door and we have to write down our meter readings. 2. shopping bags: If you didn't think about it - you can wash them in the washing machine. Turn them inside out and wash/hang over bathtub to finish drying. 3. washing machine combos: We have one but never use the dryer. The machines in the US are vented, where most over here are with a condenser and take forever to dry. Electricity is expensive here and the weather is mild year round so we hang clothes outside to dry. Love hearing about your experiences as we never know where we will be moving in 2.5 years. We filmed an episode of House Hunters International if you want to see what the homes look like in Barcelona: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/o7OieNKqnKrYhmw.html. behind the scenes filming: howellomaha.wordpress.com/2017/04/12/we-are-filming-house-hunters-international/

In the US, a bedroom is defined by as having a window, a closet and ventalation. However, it depends on the state in which you live. Codes are set by the state .

Yes, this take is much better. We get to experience your enthusiasm and the subject matter you want us to see. Your video brings back good ole memories of what use to be my home!

In Switzerland you would NEVER find an apartment without a kitchen..!! 😂 😂 😂 😂

I have a wrapped up nylon shopping bag in my rucksack..... never need plastic ones from the store

We have bought one of these washer/dryer combo machines (actually produced in the US) and it has some advantages but also quite some disadvantages. The best thing is that you can wash and dry without transferring your clothes. You also save space in your bathroom having just one machine. But the biggest disadvantages are that it takes 5-6 hours to both wash and dry and that you have to buy another combo or a washer and a dryer in case of one of the functions stopping to work. So if there is enough space in your flat I would definitely recommend buying 2 separate machines.

I have the 2 in 1 washer/dryer combo in the kitchen. They are supposed to last 10 years, but aren't meant to dry everything after every wash (weird, i know), so they don't last as long. The dryer part is meant to be used when truly needed to make them last the 10 years. I hang almost everything up in a spare bedroom to dry.

Sei froh, dass deine Küche so groß ist! Meine befindet sich im Durchgang zwischen dem Wohn-/Ess-/Arbeitszimmer und der kleinen Schlafnische!

hi yes. i lived in the uk with a washer/dryer machine. i would run the washer if i were doing tshirts and underwear, but otherwise, i would hang my clothes on my heaters. most combo machines are terrible for sweaters and jeans. also, the doors on the kitchen and living room are fire doors. [yes, fire doors, even if they're made of wood.] having the door there starves the fire of oxygen long enough for you to get out. now i live in south africa, and sooooo much is american-style. you can get european style, but then it will be assumed that you're european and have the money to pay much, much more. [ugh.]

8:55 I live in Germany and in my house there is one of these giant tanks, too, just even bigger and fancier, but as you said running out of hot water is a disadvantage of this type of heater. I think it is heated with electricity, but in winter we heat the house with oil, because it would cost too much to heat a double household with electricity. Btw. I never saw one of these tiny water heaters, quite cute :c Fun fact: When I want to go to the other house (the two houses are connected to each other, so you don't have to go outside), I have to go through the room where all the heaters, boilers, energy stuff and water controls are all in.

I’ve changed light fixtures (and other things) in my Canadian rental accommodations, and re-installed the old ones as I was moving out.

At 2:20: "I am also just cooking for my boyfriend and I". This is something I have found to be increasingly common for Americans to say. Would you also say "I am also just cooking for I"? So how come that suddenly the "me" turns into an "I" when the boyfriend becomes part of the sentence? About the shopping bags: You are supposed to use the ones you already have again and again. We have a total of three. When one breaks (which will be the case aftar about five or eight years maybe), you buy another one.

your ktchen is big my biggest kitchen was half of yours and that was in a 3 room apartment

we also have in a lot of apartment an extra storage room for food. so it’s not only cabinets where you can put your groceries. It’s normally a very small room where you could only put like a small bed in it. A lot of my friends even have them in their houses.

In Finland we also have many of these things, like the "pantti" bottles (as they are called here) - which, btw, make a great chore for kids, since they literally have to do the chore to get the money from doing it. When I was a child, that was one of my chores. We also loaded and unloaded the dishwasher (me and my two brothers) and cleaned our own rooms. We also have front doors opening to hallways and don't have big water heaters, don't have pantries, our washers and dryers are in the bathroom if we don't have separate laundry rooms (if we do, they're next to the bathroom) etc. We also have sauna in every apartment or at least in the apartment building. If a house does not have a sauna, it's remarkably cheaper because sauna is considered a necessity. Sauna has two major pieces of "furniture" - kiuas (an electric device that turns water into steam, basically) and lauteet (build-in benches, sort of) and those are like the "furniture" in kitchens and bathrooms - it stays in the house/apartment when you move, you don't take it with you. We don't take our kitchens with us, unless it's a rental that didn't have a dishwasher when you moved in (had a slot for it but not the machine in the slot), then you either take it with you or sell it to the landlord. Old Finnish houses/apartments have kitchen/dining rooms separate from the living room, but an open concept has been the standard for decades. We don't have dining rooms. We just have space for a table and few chairs in the kitchen. A family home has space for a bigger table and more chairs, generally 6-8 chairs or long benches on both sides of the table. If you get an apartment that's open concept, generally the kitchen/dining/living room is just called "a room", and sometimes, so are the bedrooms. Especially if the floor plan is suitable for the "living room" area been used as another bedroom, so the apartment can be shared with roommates that don't need a separate living room (usually this happens if two strangers move in together to save up in living expenses).

Don't worry, we have at least ten times more bags than you do😉😁

Usually in my area, a normal apartment has a cellar and with that a washing room, where all the apartments have their washing machines. Usually, that "washing machine in the kitchen or bathroom" thing isnt something, that people would normally do...especially outside of big cities. That is a big city thing. A lot of floorplans in the city were made back in the day and they tended to bunker down every room. Probably in the big city, it is an opportunity to have an apartment fitting different demands. People can choose how outfit the rooms....that comes at the cost of being more open. I would say, that real houses built by people for themselves are nowadays more open and less of a maze. Sometimes, when there is a lot of smaller rooms, it really is something uncomfortable even for germans. Best way in big cities to escape your nasty home is go out and fill the day with activity. Back at my parents in the countryside outside of cologne, I like relaxing in the garden or even in the house, but in those apartments I fell the need to get out and escape my living space for as long as possible. :)

I bought a washer/dryer machine 1,5 months ago: if you have limited space it's better than nothing, but it might take a few initial failed attempts before you get dry clothes. It isn't efficient enough at washing and drying quickly to be useful for a large family (dailywash is 1hr 15-30m, drying is 2hrs-ish maybe more) It works but I would be lying if I said it work just as well as seperate washer dryer solutions. The washing function is just like any other machine, the dryer can get a bit tricky: at first I didn't think it was working because the clothes were still damp after a full drycycle - turns out you got take it out of the machine, leave it in the basket for the water to evaporate fully. Also you can't dry as big a load as you can wash - our's will wash 8 kg and dry 6 kg, which means even if you just wash 6 kg, because it is wet, and therefore heavier, it won't dry properly.

I’m in Peoria Heights, IL, & 2 of the things you’ve spoken about are the standard here in our apartment complex as well. We do have outlets on the walls up higher, about shoulder level. We also don’t have light fixtures standard with the apartment. The only lights we have are in the hallway, kitchen, bathroom, & the light included with the ceiling fan in the dining area. The living room & bedroom have no lights at all. We had to provide our own light fixtures. So, there’s some commonality there. Very interesting vids, good job !

You mean you don't take your toilet with you when you move? How strange.

U r beyond entertaining

That water heater at your parents house runs with gas and supplies the whole house. In Germany that would be the same. A continous flow heater is often used in appartment blocks so that the costs can be assigned to the tenant. However it sucks as normally the temperature changes a lot.

yes, I saw that across Europe when I was there recently (Denmark, Sweden, Estonia, Finland, Russia, Poland and Germany). We're also phasing out plastic bags in Australia so you need to purchase reusable. We also have Aldi, so again no plastic bags. Yes, we have the combo machines in Australia too. It depends on space regarding where the washing machine is placed (kitchen, laundry or bathroom). We have a mix of hot water heater and tanks here. Single-single bed is quite common across many parts of Europe. Mid-calf height bed is unusual. European (square) pillows are standard. Kitchens and light fixtures are included in Australia. Not sure what it is like to rent in other european countries.