Tuesday, July 13, 2010

The German Kitchen

Moving into a German apartment has been quite an experience - not what you would expect with a rental. First of all, most German apartments do not come with a kitchen. Correct - NO KITCHEN! Now, there is a room that is the kitchen, and it might have some pipes coming out, but no appliances, sink, countertops, cabinets, etc. So you must bring your own kitchen to each apartment. It has been explained to me that this way the renter has the kitchen they want. Hmm.....This is one I just can't wrap my head around. We were fortunate to move into an apartment after a French couple who were not interested in taking their kitchen with them back to France (because French apartments already have kitchens) and we were able to buy their kitchen from them. (Although I did wonder, if we didn't buy it - what were they going to do with it?) So, we have a kitchen (but we did have to buy a dish washer and fridge.)

Another big difference was that most German apartments, like ours, do not have closets. You have to purchase Kleiderschranksysteme (wardrobes) for your bedrooms, storage for your bathrooms, etc. (This might explain why Germany is IKEA's biggest market.)

Needless to say, our apartment is still a huge mess. We are trying to figure out how to tuck all the clutter away without that linen closet, or hall closet...But hey - we live in Europe!!


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