Micro living has become popular in recent years. This term refers to living in a small space but with all the essential amenities in a house: a living space, a bathroom, and a kitchen. It’s like living in a studio apartment, but much smaller. This kind of living is trendy in dense cities.
Living in a small space isn’t bad. You can really make the most out of it by using save-spacing or transforming furniture.
Having a small space also means you have to downsize the things you own. Thus, micro-living can inspire you to be more mindful of the things you own and live a minimalist lifestyle if that’s what you want. And in the middle of a pandemic where economic and financial stability is an issue, living in a tiny space can be a great way to save some money. It can reduce your spending on rent and utility.
Despite the appeal social media presents about living in a tiny space, it does have its drawbacks. And knowing them will help you make an informed decision if you should practice micro-living or not.
Limited Space
General construction contractors that build micro-apartments often include modular storage to maximize space. But the limited space is still a drawback.
You’ll have to strip down your appliances to only the essentials if you want to live in a micro-apartment. For example, you may not have a space for a dishwasher. So you’ll have to be comfortable washing your dishes by hand. If you love to bake, living in a small space won’t be ideal as you will not have enough space for baking equipment. As a result, micro-living can be frustrating in the long term.
Noise
The smaller the space is, the less distance the sound waves can travel. This means your micro-apartment can get noisy. If you’re right next to a busy street, there isn’t enough distance to reduce the volume of the outside sound. And this can be very inconvenient, especially during your sleeping hours. Or if you live with someone else, the noise from the things they do on the other end of the apartment will be practically the same volume on your end.
Air Quality
In a micro-apartment, there’s not enough space for air to circulate. As a result, the air might feel a little suffocating at times. This also means that humidity can be a huge problem. For example, when you launder your clothes and hang them in a corner to dry, the moisture from your clothes can make your room humid.
Constant Decluttering
If you live in a small space, you’ll find clutter accumulating in certain corners, especially those you often stay at. For example, if you’re always at the table, you’ll find that in just a few hours, it’ll be filled with things. You’ll pile not just your work things but also food and dishes. Sometimes, you may get too busy, so you can’t put things back to where they belong immediately after using them.
Thus, you’ll have to clean all the time, especially if clutter breaks your focus. And this means living in a micro-unit can be exhausting.
Stress
One study found that living in a small space can be stressful. If you live in a micro-apartment, you’ll be staring at the same four corners all day, every day. And in the long-term, this can get frustrating. Living in a small space can also cause claustrophobia. And this is even more likely if the micro-apartment doesn’t have good ventilation or windows.
Addressing the Drawbacks
These drawbacks can be dealbreakers. But if you still find micro-living appealing and want to try it out, there are ways for you to address some of them.
The first dealbreaker, limited space isn’t easy to address. You can’t really make a micro-apartment bigger than it already is. But what you can do is to maximize all the space available to you. For example, you can use the space under your couch as extra storage space. You can put your shoes under the couch, your exercise mat, and other things you have but rarely use.
As for the noise and air quality, you can buy an air purifier. It can address the humidity problem in the micro-apartment and even double as a white noise machine at night to help you sleep.
It’s easy to understand why micro-living is so appealing. But social media often only shows its good side. Understanding its downsides is also important so that you can make a proper decision: to embrace a micro-living lifestyle or not.
