There is so much more to the Sauna than just warming yourself up, in fact Finns tend to go to the sauna more in the summer than in the winter. First of all it cleans you up somuch better than just a shower becasue it makes you sweat and the sweat cleans out your skin from the inside out, it pushes out the dirt and grim in your pores. Secondly there is nothing more relaxing than taking a sauna, you feel sooooo relaxed afterwards, there is literaly nothing like it on this earth. Thirdly, it is extremely good for your health, if you have any aches in your back, neck or anywhere really, it soothes the pain if not just gets rid of it entirely,, it reduces stress levels, reduces your risk of suffering from some sort of cardiovascular disease, it lowers blood pressure, and it helps open your airways and clean out any phlegm from your airways or sinuses, it can also help you lose weight if that is something your trying to do And there's even been a study that taking a sauna regurarly, could potentially lower your risk of getting dementia or alzheimers
The built in cutting boards should never be used to cut anything that isn't dry, so mainly for bread. Most Finns either ignore it, or use it as an extra table-space when cooking by placing a machine-washable cutting board on top of it. They usually close even with 1-2 removable cutting boards left on top of it/them (that is how I personally store my cutting board and electronic scale that both slide in there) You are ABSOLUTELY not meant to cut anything like meat or even vegetables on that lower one (edit: added clarification), since the moisture and juices will seep into the board, possibly causing a very dangerous bacterial contamination that is hard to clean properly About the duvet covers, you can just easily cut small slits into your existing duvets to make them work like the Finnish ones, simple as that. Especially if you can sew a bit, you can close in the seams properly to make sure the cut doesn't start running and looks nice, but I don't think it is even necessary. About the bidet, I didn't use it for anything else than cleaning the bathroom for the first 16 years of my life, but after that not only did it become a lot more useful for maintaining personal hygiene in relationships, but since I also "acquired" gastrointestinal diseases, the bide is invaluable tool for me if my condition flares up and irritates my system. Bonus tip at the end* About the sauna usage in the Winter, no. We actually use the sauna even more during the Summer, especially on the hot days when you can combine sauna/outdoor grilling/swimming in a lake. Finnish homes and clothing are extremely warm, you don't need a sauna to warm you up, since you are basically never freezing in the first place, unless you mess up your layering (like for fashion/party clothing reasons) * a bonus tip for people who have to use bide often due to illnesses etc at highish frequency, remember to use proper soaps and special moisturizers now and then again to fix the pH and moisture balance of your skin and bits in that general area, since excessive use of water or wipes can mess up those balances quite a bit, causing other problems
Yup, that is the correct way. Separate cutting boards for use and the installed cutting board is just a platform. It is quite handy, for ex when peeling and chopping onions the extra space is great for all the scrap bits, then you can pick up the cutting board with them onions on it and drop'em to the pan.. and that makes room to clean all the scrap bits away easily.. Makes the job really fast and convenient. Having just couple of cutting boards and rotating them keeps things clean and dry, and you always have one ready when you store a fresh one with the sliding platform.. with the knife so it is always ready, no matter what the task ahead is. Took me embarrassingly long to figure out the best way to use them. Extra note: do not use plastic cutting boards. They are better as a source material for hobbyist, it is thick plastic sheet after all. The moment you cut into them is the moment they are ruined. Wood has some weak antibacterial properties, and especially when kept dry is very safe to use. Just keep the surface fresh, sand when needed and ALWAYS store dry, this is the key. For as plastic is very hygienic when it has not been used yet and every scratch that ruins the nanometer level finish detail.. That is what makes plastic stuff hygienic, they are VERY smooth. The moment you scratch them, they lose that property. So, they need to be bleached after you use them for any meat. Wood can be scratched, unless the surface is fully ruined they are safe... as long as they are rinsed, brushed and dried after every single use. They can be good for decades, just have a few and every few years go and plane them with a planer (look for carpenters etc. craftmans, they are flexible for planing 4 cutting boards for 30€.. takes like 4 minutes...)
*me, a finn, who knows that your cutting board is supposed to be double layered with second layer being removable and washable. Da fuck you mean that you are not meant to cut meats and veggies there????? If it is not double layered in build cutting board, someone stole the top layer long time ago.
@@reigoj8228 edit: After re-reading my original comment, I realized it was a bit ambigious, so I added a clarification that I was talking about the fixed bottom one in that part of the comment Pretty clearly explained in the comments, they are meant for cutting bread. In theory, you can use the removable one to cut other things as well, but keeping it clean is a huge hassle compared to normal cutting boards that are far better suited to it and much easier to maintain correctly. Also considering they are permanently installed part of the apartment, outside of omakotitalo homes, they fall under the house owners and not residents responsibilities gray area, it can be a bit unclear who can/should replace them and pay for it I would not risk using them without first getting the owner to replace/plane them first if it was not a brand new apartment
Bought one without (didn't even know that they made ones without) from the Jysk and they are indeed Satans invention. Cover holes is the hill I'm willing to die for.
Yeah the holes are great, but you can do the same grab the corners and shake the cover on without ghe holes too. You just have to flip the cover inside out at first.
I didn't know they'd even had them with holes! I just fixed a couple of duvetcovers I bought from them myself. But it's too much bother when I can just buy Finnish ones.
in normal houses there is a space called tuulikaappi between outerdoor and inner door. also called eteinen if you do not have separate eteinen after tuulikaappi.
When I was young; Sweden also used the wood cuttingboards for bread which is built into the kitchen drawers. The Bed Sheets, Pillow Clases corner holes; Double doors with peephole, mail drop are in Sweden too.
Sauna is thousands of years old thing in Finland. First houses here were actually Saunas. So it is much more than just getting warm in Winter. I bet finnish people use sauna even more in summertime! It's a tradition, a very profound one
About the drying cupboard, I didn't hear another of its benefits mentioned. Unlike a dishwasher, it rarely needs to be emptied and move the dry dishes in regular cupboards. Most of the time, whatever a family needs on a daily basis can be kept in the drying cabinet. So it doubles as storage. When I lived in Finland, I always first opened the drying cabinet to get my plate, glass, utensils, etc. Usually all I needed was already there. Only special, rarely used casserols or juicemaker components and other oddballs were moved to a regular cabinet to wait for next use.
For a good video about saunas "Sauna culture in Finland" by UNESCO. Funny thing about sauna at least for me is that I often feel colder after sauna (like 1-2 hours after) than I do before. That is one of the reasons why I especially love going to sauna during the hottest part of the summer. Also Mökki sauna (summer cottage sauna) is the best sauna. edit: moved video recommendation to the top
Came here to mention this video ⬆️ also Irish in Finland made a video about the history and mythology side of saunas. The video includes a lot of things that modern age people have forgotten, but that affect still the modern day way of sauna culture.
I'm Swedish and my Swedish parents built their house in 1969, and then they built it with bidé, built in cutting board, sauna, double doors, etc. But it's not so common anymore, I don't have these things in my apartments I have lived in since then. The cutting board was sturdy, but also easy to take out and clean. But I loved it because it was easy to use it as a breakfast table if alone in the kitchen, wanting to be quick in the morning.
This was an early video of Dave's when he was still quite green to Finland. One would hope that his aversion to washing shit off has changed. Now having a small child, hopeful it has. I note that in one of your earlier reactions, a Finn said he'd never used the bum gun too. Like you, I simply cannot understand this. After nearly 16 years in Finland, the thing I hate most about going abroad is the lack of bum guns. That feeling of never feeling properly clean until the next shower...
I use a bidee every time one is available. I have a story from last week about the duvet cover. I was gifted an autumn themed set so I was trying to put it on. From Finland you can't really buy a set without the holes so I am not used to a holeless version. After 15min it was still not on, at one point I was inside it and when I finally decided this is it the corners were not nicely in there, they still are not. I think I will make the holes to it next time I wash it.
The extendable cutting boards are an excellent extension of counter space, regardless if you use them for cutting or not. And if you do, you can always place your 'movable' cutting board on top there anyway - esp, if you're cutting anything messier than bread.
Our sheets in Sweden are the same. IKEA used to sell them but people in other countrys thought they were ripped so now they have the kind without holes and that is why I never buy their sheets.
And wooden cutting boards are perfectly safe to use for wet products, if you can remove them. Clean with hot water, perhaps some dishing liquid but usually not needed, if it smells bad after that, just wet it a bit and pour some salt on it, then clean it again. I've cut Poultry, Beef, Pork, Eggs, Vegetables etc on them for at least 30 years and never had an issue. And this is not anecdotal, it was common knowlege before plastic cutting boards became popular
The gradient in shover spaces are in the building code. If you don't have certain degree of slope you need to rebuild that section. Suprisingly quite effective against mold ;).
And i hot summer day after sauna it’s not too warm outside. We can warm up sauna even 11 am or 11 pm in needed or wanted. And If we have snow and over -20 so it’s nice to go to ”snow swimming” and after that quickly back to sauna
I moved to Finland from the US. Yes I've been so impressed with the drying racks and the cutting boards - which can be removed and cleaned/washed. I like your term "bum gun" and yes they are good for so many things.
I live in Sweden and we don’t have a bidet, but what I do is that I take a clean piece of paper, perhaps 3-4 layers of squares, quickly turn on and off the sink water and tap it under the sink nozzle to soak up the leftover moisture and then use it like a wet wipe and repeat. The 3-4 layers helps it not break apart as easily from the small amount of water while also not clogging your neighbourhood’s sewage system like regular wet wipes. It’s not perfect but it works.
We had that kind of cutting board when I was growing up, it was probably standard for those houses (built in 1961). When I moved out in 1992, I had a version that was a baking tray, or whatever to call them, a wooden constrution with a front and sides, used for mixing up dough, but could also be taken out and flipped up-side down to make it a cutting board. Not at all hard to clean. Those duvet covers have also been pretty much standard from perhaps 1975. We had Double Doors when I was a kid, but since the quality of doors has been improved it's not very common now. It's also less and less common to have mail slots, so it's not really needed to prevent people from peeking through or doing other nasty stuff. But up north, it's common to have a small "room", for taking off whet clothes, putting up your skis against the wall, whatever, so there's a front door into a small space where you do that, and then another door into the house.
I have 3 friends that have passed out drunk or fell asleep in the morning on the drain. One of them didn't have a second drain (or she did but it was stupidly positioned on the wall like 2,5 inches above the floor) and flooded her entire apartment.
Hello, Dwayne! About the cutting boards. I have three of them removable for cleaning. The idea with three is that one is meant for cutting bread, one for cutting meat, one for fish, or for chopping onions or whatever. This way, the tastes don't mix. The boards are made of sturdy wood and today there are all kinds of cleaners. Besides, wood contains natural antiseptics by which the tree protects itself. The reason for two shover drains in student flats is that the students may pass out because they tend to be drunk coming home from a party or something. The second doors out to the stairway act as sound blockers from people trekking up and down the stairs and from noise from the flat echoing out into the stairway, as well. No, the chopping boards are not wobbly. They also act as additional workspaces in small kitchens. Most boards do not have that drawer front piece, which seems only to be in the way. I also have a bigger board underneath my integrated fridge. It's meant for baking. And there's a fifth board tucked under the oven. That one is very handy for laying heavy pots and pans on it temporarily. All these very handy tucked-away boards were out of fashion for a while, because new, fancy countertops designed abroad didn't have any. Customers wanted them back, however, and I believe that they are now being reintegrated again. Speaking of practical Finnish inventions, the company Fiskars, the makers of the world-famous sissors with the orange, plastic handle, is also producing the same pair of sissors ergonomically designed to fit a left-handed person. The handle of this model is red-coloured instead of orange. To make things a little more complicated, there is also a right-handed pair that is red, but this one has Moomin figures on it.
Double door to outside is also to have a bit better sound isolation to the stairwell AND it's fire brake AND it'll ensure that the air circulation works right that there's no air coming from the stairwell to the apartment. It takes a bit longer for the fire to get through double door than single door. Obviously the outside door is thick and heavy and well insulated, but this still helps while not sacrificing any usable floor space because there's the threshold and inset anyway that's of no use to the tenant. Better put door there to get all the benefits for no real loss.
The chopping board, of course, can be used as an extra area for putting bowls, plates, baking sheets etc while preparing food, baking etc! I miss these in the kitchen I have nowadays although I've very rarely used them as chopping boards!
Sauna is so good, since the warmth relaxes and gives you deeper clean, since you first sweat all the grime and stuff from your pores. Also after day in the cold outside it makes you warm through your skin deeper than a shower. The inner doors at the foyer keep the warmth for better insulation and also it can help with sound proofing. So you don't need to be as silent as otherwise. The duvet cover holes you can cut with scissors and then stitch the sides, so it won't undo the rest of the duvet cover fabric. Its so much easier to get the blanket in there and no need to struggle with the corners of the blanket.
so, sauna, for us Finns, is a "comforing zone, = to relax": a.k.a just to be you. To be your real self, and allow to treat yourself well, its kinda spiritual. In sauna: the life begins and it also ends. In sauna you are truly connected with yourself and your wellbeeing. I live in Germany and had to import all these practical finnish gadgets, because also Germans do not have these: "Build-In-Cuttingboards", "Dying Racks", "Toilet-Bumguns",
The cutting boards we have built in in our home are this hard plastic type where the surface comes easily off to be washed. Still we only use it for bread, but handy to leave the bread crumbs there with the cutting knife in eg a hectic morning moment. 😊
Hi Dwayne, I really like your channel. I commented on the hand shower (Finnish version), i.e. the use of a bidet shower. Especially for women, a shower is absolutely necessary just because of menstruation. Therefore, in public toilets, it is highly desirable that one can be found in at least one toilet. And it's really nice to keep all the places clean. Gives confidence. A double door or intermediate door (Finnish version of the word) is also convenient because it makes noise well - in both directions. From the stairwell, you can't hear sounds clearly inside or outside the apartment, and in winter it blocks cold air from coming inside. I think one of the funniest things in Finland is that housing associations have their own common sauna and often a free sauna shift for everyone once a week. In this case, you go to the sauna with your neighbors, women and men take different turns, of course. During the day, you might argue in the laundry room and in the evening, you may sauna naked with the same person. Also on Christmas Eve, there is often a free sauna shift with the same system, and people use it a lot. It is the housing association's Christmas gift to the residents.
A lot of people also have 2 saunas here, one that's in your house and one that's outside. Yes- a sauna deserves it's own building. Its better than the one in your home, it's the best. Sauna is life. Sauna, is more holy than a holy spirit. Btw I was werry confuced that some of these things aren't world wide. Like the darn duvet cower thing- why wouldn't you have the hole there? It's clearly ment to be there. Also there are a lot of wooden chopping boards so I don't get how cleaning the cupboard ones is any different- you can get them out of there. (for all I know we cut bread on it and nothing else xxD) (and btw it is sturdy- at least I haven't met a non-sturdy-choppingboard inside of a cupboard- not yet at least)
Re bum guns - my first meeting with a bum gun was in Paris in the 1970s. There was one at every bidet in the hotel rooms. (Apparently the local light girls used them after every session.)
Cutting board that you can pull out like in the early part of the video is just for cutting bread. You don' want to use it for thins like meat, vegetables etc. that would force you to fully clean it up. That is why most Finns have separate cutting board that is just free to move around and much easier to clean too. PS. Haha had to laugh about the 2nd sink as I did fall asleep in shower in my student apartment, it's that damn winter you get super drunk and go get a warm shower and then it's lights off from the brain really fast.
The sauna is also, or used to be, the cleanest room a family has/had so everything that needs cleanliness is done there. Childbirth, washing, first aid, death etc. That’s why it’s so important to have a sauna.
sauna is a place where you stop for a while and stop thinking. you calm down for a moment in the middle of your busy everyday life. and of course after a cold winter day, I myself live in the second northernmost village in Finland, so winter here is also -35 degrees
The history of sauna in Finland dates back to our cold time and when the houses were huts. When the water was fetched from the well and people had to wash even though it was winter and cold outside, the sauna was the only way to wash so as to stay warm. The sauna has remained a common practice among Finns from those days. There you will bathe and can have social evenings with friends and family. Nudity is not a problem, but if you're shy, then a towel is okay. Sauna bathing is usually done by gender, i.e. women and men separately.
The so-called drawer "chopping board" is mainly for cutting bread. It is not stable enough for cutting meat and messy for vegies and fish. If you have a polyethylene cutting board for fish and vegetables you can stow it away in the space in the copping board drawer after washing.
About saunas: Saunas are one of the key elements of Finnish culture. They have been around for thousands of years. Saunas have played an important role in Finns lives. You were born, you lived and you died in a sauna. You celebrate special occasions in sauna, take care of the sick and you even prepare food in sauna (for example palvikinkku - a ham that's cured in a smoke sauna). Traditionally sauna was often the first room to be built and the rest of the house was built around it. Being Finnish and sauna go hand in hand - sauna is almost a state of mind rather than just a room to bathe in.
sauna is an old invention, from a time before hot water pipes were an invention. there are also several types of saunas here, e.g. maasauna "earth pit sauna," savusauna "smoke sauna" or sähkösauna "electric sauna." - if we go a little further, "riihi" was also developed in Karelia, where grain was dried in a building that was heated like a sauna..
There's an old Finnish saying: "sauna is the heart of the home" It stems from the older times, when most people would be born in the sauna (warm, hygienic, easy to wash away any mess and fluids), their health would be maintained in the sauna (another saying goes: "if sauna, booze and pitch/tar won't help, the illness will kill you") and in death, they would return to the sauna (old outbuilding saunas tended to also be easier to keep cool to preserve the body better until burial).
I think that the two drains system has saved many buildings from water damage. I once had a neighbourgh who always took a long shower when he was drunk. His drunken mind just likes the warmth and he often sits on the floor for an hour or something (this building has a fixed water payment and no individual water meters). And yes, he has caused at least one major water damage to his ex-girlfriend's rental appartment. I really hope that he has a water meter in his current appartment so that he at least has to pay for the extra water that he uses.
The idea behind that cutting board might be, that it's the same kind essential thing like fridge and oven are. When people move in, it's there. Drunken passing out on the shower drain is confirmed. You can probably order bed sheets E.g. from Marimekko, Finlayson, Pentik and Vallila. Finnish sauna is on the UNESCO's Cultural Heritage List. They have made a good video about the Finnish sauna culture. That other hallway door keeps also smells in/out. in houses that second door often divides the hallway, so when you come in, you first come a smaller space with its own radiator and then through that second door to a main hallway and living space. Either that or the entire hallway has that second door to living space. One way or another, there's usually two doors to keep heat in and cold out.
In oldern days, saunas were important thing for getting rid of parasites. It was the cleanest room (least alive microbes) in houses so that was traditionally the place to give birth. My grandma was only child in her family who was born in hospital and not in sauna...so when she was a child, the brother teased her of not being a child of that family as she was brought home from nearby city. 😅They were born 1920s and 1930s...in countryside. Many city people were giving birth in hospitals at that time. Also nowadays, when you come back from trip to some place where there might be some nasty bugs like bed bugs, it is good idea to first leave luckages outside, put them to plastic bag, close the bags well and put them to hot sauna for few hours. The bugs will die and the appartment/house is saved from infestation. Sauna helps to relax the mind but also muscles. In summer, after sitting in sauna in 60-100 Celsius degrees, suddenly 25-35 degrees (or what ever the temperature is) is not anymore that hot. Ofcourse it is also nice if you have not gotten dressed well enough at winter. After that sauna is also super nice.
Of course, saunas didn't use to be part of the house. They were separate buildings and that was probably a good thing too, because I think it wasn't that uncommon they burned down.
I’m not Finish but we have the dry rack in a cupboard in our house. I’d seen it somewhere and had it installed when we refurbished the kitchen. Love how it saves space on the sinc. In Sweden the cutting board in the bench is also common but it does usually smell after a while if you’re not extremely good at cleaning. We chose not to have that - and I think it is disappearing from at least Swedish kitchens. I love the “bungun”! Not common in Sweden, but I got used to them in Thailand. So hygienic!
Hi! Sorry if I'm repeating a comment if someone has already written about this, but... Long long time ago when people in this area moved to a new place they build sauna first because you had to get it done before winter and in sauna you have heat, you can get clean, sleep and make food so that was the first thing to do. After that you could start building the actual cabin in the becoming summers. And the bidé is handy for the ladys at a certain time of a month...
The double drainage is mainly because of various appliances one might have in a bathroom and also that the flooring doesn't have to be tilted toward a single drain if there are lot of sq.meters in the room. Basically bigger the room, more drains. In apartment buldings this ever more so important to keep the walls and floorings dry and safe in case of utility breakages or failure resolting in possible water damage
In our apartment, which was brand new, the cutting board is only used for cutting bread. For other ingredients, there are a couple of plastic cutting boards that can be washed. We use the small shower, for example, to wash the baby's bottom... perfect.. From the inner door.. There is also a version where you push the handle up, the door locks. Although I don't know what it does.. Maybe extra security..?
I use the cutting board as an extra place to put stuff while cooking, like hot pans and pots. It's not really handy to use for cutting 'cos the cleaning is not that easy except for bread grumps. The original use for the cutting board was for kneading bread dough.
The corner holes are something I've lived with all my life here in Sweden, so I think it's a Nordic invention, not solely a Finnish one. I moved to London for a year 10 years ago and was very surprised that there were no corner holes on the duvet covers!! I missed them😂😂
I think you may already know, but saunas also offer incredible health benefits, especially when combined with ice bathing which is also enjoyed by many Finns.
Only ever used the cupboard cutting board for bread, like others have said. You can usually pull on the front of it to lay it flat too so it's easier to clean, and like the other one you can pull it out completely. It's not difficult to clean, and it's pretty handy.
Now living in apartment where is no bum gun and really miss it. I thought duvet cover corners was universal. Never thought those. Finlayson and marimekko sell those nearly world wide
I have seen al of this expect for the two drain thing in Sweden to :) But saunas is much less common in Sweden ofcourse. The amount of saunas and huge culture around it is absolutly a very finnish thing 🤩
i don’t go to sauna that much anymore it really isn’t that important to me these days, but i don’t think i could live without one, because i do want to go to the sauna sometimes. growing up we actually didn’t have a shower in our house until i was like 7 or something like that. we only had sauna. it’s like a building outside that has one room where you can like cool off and take your clothes off and stuff like that. we also used to use that room to do our laundry. and then there’s the second room the actual sauna. u heat it up with wood. it also had this other side that was used to heat up water before the water was ice cold so u had to warm it up so u could wash your self that way. so because we didn’t have a shower to wash our self’s we went to the sauna daily. i think that’s the reason why i don’t really care about going to sauna that much anymore, because i use to go so often. but i still do like it sometimes, especially when i’m having some friends over. we have some drinks and go to sauna and chat a bit and then we go to a hot tub that we have. i also like to go by myself sometimes especially if i’m feeling sick or sad or something like that because of that feeling u get when your in the sauna, it’s really relaxing and good for you. us Finns often like to think that sauna is the solution for everything 😂
12:56 Recently when we have had more and more immigrants, one problem has risen among them concerning sauna. Out of habit, some have used it as a drying room, if you do that, you have to be really really careful. There have been incidents when fire has started because of sloppiness, so.
People always think Finns do things to stay warm in a cold country. But let me tell you, homes in Finland are properly insulated, you can wear your t-shirt at home during the winter. Windows are triple or quadruple glazed. I had never experienced cold indoors before I moved to the UK from Finland. And that was cold! It went to your bones and really made me to miss my cold country where I would stay warm at home was it summer or winter. If you live in a block of flats and have second front door, it's mainly to keep the noise away not for insulation.
ua-cam.com/video/qY__OOcv--M/v-deo.html Finnish sauna culture , by UNESCO .ua-cam.com/video/ogQW27oJ3YU/v-deo.html USA ambassadeur in Helsinki talks sauna
Sauna is place for relaxing and getting clean. Finns have been born in saunas through history 'till mid 20th century before health care system was developed. Sauna is a clean place and it is beneficial for your health. There's nothing more relaxing than throw water on kiuas (that thing that holds rocks) and let the steam open your skin pores and drink something cold. If you want, you can add special essential oils into the water so you can have aromatherapy at the same time. I like to add a little waterproof light thing in kiulu (a pucket for water) and enjoy chancing colors, reminds me of northern lights. I also put on some relaxing spa music from speaker that is designed for wet surroundings (not inside sauna because of heath). Finnish children start to go sauna at very young age, but they are placed on lowest pench so temperature is not that high for them and they spend much shorter time in sauna than adults. That way they get used to sauna little by little.
Also Sauna is because it was considered as healing, it was once of the few places to get clean and even births were done in there. Also the heat killed insects, it made sure you Would be clean when we didn't even have running water and such, and it's really amazing place anyway. You can't get angry, since it's too hot for that and it's all about community, it also gives people an equalizer. Even a king is a king only when they have their crown and clothes on.. In sauna such things don't matter :) Also we have more saunsa than we have cars :)
Saunas are all the above; practical, good feeling and historical. Since saunas have high hygiene level, way back in the days, on countryside, women could gave birth inside a sauna. On early autum they used to dry flax linen after the harvest. And on winter time they could use sauna to give extra heating and curing ham and other meat.
one thing most people dont know about is most apartments come with sauna turns included in price and every time i have rented new apartment i tell rent company that i dont use sauna so they usualy take 10-20e/month out of rent price...
I never use the built in cutting board for cutting things, but I have a tiny kitchen so if I'm running out of counter space while cooking or baking I'll often pull it out and kinda use it as a side table! I also don't use the bidet, at least not how you're supposed to. I'll use it when I'm cleaning the bathroom but that's it, I actually didn't even know what it was for until I was like 16, although my home has always had one.
Idk if this is TMI but... The bidet (or as we also call it in finland, "pillupuhelin" = "🐱phone") is so handy if you happen to be a woman prone to making period messes lol, couldn't live without it
finn here :] , at home we use the cutting board thing for cutting bread mostly, and we store our plastic cutting boards on the little top cutting board lol, since moving out tho i use mine as my knife storage since i like never buy bread that bidet shower thing tho is genuinely so good, i don't understand how its not normalized like everywhere else too
Two drains is pretty silly because you can just buy off and automatic cut off valve to a shower (like in swimming halls etc.) that cuts off the water every 2-5minutes.
Sauna us a bathing place to clense you body. You perspire in the sauna and wash yout hair and body in the shower. Most people have two or three sessions in the sauna and showers in between. Taking sauna also relaxes your body and mind. You feel all refreshed and content. Meditating in the heat helps you to forget your daily hectic life. Sauna is an ancient quintessential Finnish tradition. Every house must have one, some even two of them. Having sauna by a lakeside is wonderful. You take sauna and then jump into the lake to swim, then back to the sauna for another session and again into the lake...You finish this bathing experience with a cold beer and barbeque sausages. Afterwards you sleep like a baby. 😊
I do use bidet and it is great. Also i use sauna more during summer time than winter time. It is just the feeling while and after sauna, that makes me to go there.
Sauna makes dirt and dried skin turn soft, making them easy to scrub them off. And if you want to clean yourself without any chemicals, sauna is a good choice.
Summer it gets up to +25 outside and i complain about weather being so hot. Come evening i can't wait to go to sauna which is +70 feels even better during cold winter days.
I have one and i love them. You wipe it of everytime. No problem. When you use like for meet. Then you scrubb it of with soup, and when you do deepcleaning, you use salt and lemon and scrubb. Easy Peasy
there are two drains in some student apartments cos they where passing out duing heavy drinking, but only in Hekas in helsinki as far as i know. that is not usual thing in most of our flats.
The drying cabinet above the sink was patented in various forms before 1900s but was never really commercialized. So when enough patents expired Maiju Gebhard from Finnish Work Efficiency Institute publicized their version for free. The idea was to cut time women had to use each day for chores, so.. the dish drying cabinet is sort of feminist and also no-profit solution. That is how information should travel, when something comes that is easy to implement and improves our lives that information should be free, for ex open source. The "how the hell isn't this the default everywhere" is a thought that i have had.. as a Finn.. I thought dish drying cabinets are global.. and duvet covers with corner holes... a LOT of things are such that we think they are just ubiquitous since they are no-brainer solutions, like.. anyone can figure that out... But then there are factors we don't know, like having natural sunlight when you dry dishes and that becomes a cultural thing so US kitchen sinks are usually by the window... so the idea of a dish drying cabinet is not going to spawn from the conditions. Dish drying cabinet relies on electrical lighting, which is also why it took to 1950s for it to become a thing. It was invented hundred years prior.
If you order sheets from Finlayson, Marimekko or well, any other Finnish shop, you'll get the handy holes. I bought sheets from Ikea once and never again will I make that mistake again, it's a nightmare trying to get them on without the holes. Oh, and I also know someone who fell asleep in the shower drunk and had to pay for the water damage he caused, it was close to 10 000 euros
Ikea used to have the holes in the duvet covers but got rid of them due to people in other countries complaining and thinking they were ripped.. So we can thank people outside of Scandinavia for that struggle! I stopped buying duvet covers at Ikea after they got rid of the holes
I use bide regularly, but not every time. Drying out the bum after using is somewhat bothersome imo, but sometimes paper just doesn't cut it. And I use it all the time for other things, cleaning etc.
You don't need much of a slope to the drain. I like the hand shower, in my UK home I had bidets, such a waste of space and not as versatile. I use it to wash my hair over the basin. too. We have a wood burning sauna, the electric ones give me a headache. Even in the Uk I had a sauna or a steam room every now and again. I have the drying cabinet over the sink, duvets with cover holes. I have lived here for 13 years and thoroughly enjoy the Finnish way of live, although I'm not in the best of health these days.
When I moved from Finland to Spain, I mostly missed cheese slicer. I found one from Ikea and also other things I could not find. And yes, I have all these at my home but not double train in bathroom since I don’t live in student apartment ❤😂
As long as I can remember, I've always had duvet covers that have those holes on the corners. Was more of a surprise when I happened to buy one from abroad and it didn't have them. So inconvenient. Many of the new or renovated apartments (for example) don't have the wooden chopping boards hidden like that, due to them being a health issue, like mine doesn't have it anymore. But I do also remember, that not all of them were "built in" as that was. Yeah, this one had the built in and the removable one, but before you would just have one or two which both you could just pull out, use and wash. The bide is a must, wouldn't want to live without it, super useful. The dish drying rack over the sink is a basic thing to have here, no doubt. I currently live in an apartment that has removed the double door option and I dislike this very much. Like in the video, it gives you extra security and protects from the extra noise coming from the stairwell. I don't have a sauna in my apt, but I also don't miss it either. I personally dislike electric saunas and prefer wood heated saunas. Electric saunas, to me, feel dry and uncomfortably hot and wood saunas feel better on my skin. We use saunas here during the summer too - a place to relax, mellow down, socialize with your family or friends and ofc, clean yourself. I'm used to it being something you don't do fast, but with time and enjoyment, take dip in the sea, then go back in, rinse and repeat.
You can always put a removable cutting board on top of the original. And I don't even have toilet paper, since I have the... bumgun? Here it's käsisuihku, which roughly translated means handshower. Eh... Not that you can't use the actual shower with hands. Oh, wait. Do you guys at least have a shower that you can take in your hand and move around? And the double doors also keep the noise out. Which I actually don't have here in my apartment...
We have all of this in Sweden too. But the built in cuttingboard, we don’t make those any more in newer buildings and houses cause they do attract insects cause people tend to leave breadcrumbs on them. So no we don’t make them any more due to lack of hygene.
4:30 Its great if you get it new, but if youre in like rental apartment, you dont know what the previous tenants have done with it, so its just too sus to use. Personally I just keep a regular cutting board on top of it.
There is so much more to the Sauna than just warming yourself up, in fact Finns tend to go to the sauna more in the summer than in the winter.
First of all it cleans you up somuch better than just a shower becasue it makes you sweat and the sweat cleans out your skin from the inside out, it pushes out the dirt and grim in your pores.
Secondly there is nothing more relaxing than taking a sauna, you feel sooooo relaxed afterwards, there is literaly nothing like it on this earth.
Thirdly, it is extremely good for your health, if you have any aches in your back, neck or anywhere really, it soothes the pain if not just gets rid of it entirely,, it reduces stress levels, reduces your risk of suffering from some sort of cardiovascular disease, it lowers blood pressure, and it helps open your airways and clean out any phlegm from your airways or sinuses, it can also help you lose weight if that is something your trying to do
And there's even been a study that taking a sauna regurarly, could potentially lower your risk of getting dementia or alzheimers
Bide is great for cleaning the toilet.
The built in cutting boards should never be used to cut anything that isn't dry, so mainly for bread. Most Finns either ignore it, or use it as an extra table-space when cooking by placing a machine-washable cutting board on top of it. They usually close even with 1-2 removable cutting boards left on top of it/them (that is how I personally store my cutting board and electronic scale that both slide in there)
You are ABSOLUTELY not meant to cut anything like meat or even vegetables on that lower one (edit: added clarification), since the moisture and juices will seep into the board, possibly causing a very dangerous bacterial contamination that is hard to clean properly
About the duvet covers, you can just easily cut small slits into your existing duvets to make them work like the Finnish ones, simple as that. Especially if you can sew a bit, you can close in the seams properly to make sure the cut doesn't start running and looks nice, but I don't think it is even necessary.
About the bidet, I didn't use it for anything else than cleaning the bathroom for the first 16 years of my life, but after that not only did it become a lot more useful for maintaining personal hygiene in relationships, but since I also "acquired" gastrointestinal diseases, the bide is invaluable tool for me if my condition flares up and irritates my system. Bonus tip at the end*
About the sauna usage in the Winter, no. We actually use the sauna even more during the Summer, especially on the hot days when you can combine sauna/outdoor grilling/swimming in a lake. Finnish homes and clothing are extremely warm, you don't need a sauna to warm you up, since you are basically never freezing in the first place, unless you mess up your layering (like for fashion/party clothing reasons)
* a bonus tip for people who have to use bide often due to illnesses etc at highish frequency, remember to use proper soaps and special moisturizers now and then again to fix the pH and moisture balance of your skin and bits in that general area, since excessive use of water or wipes can mess up those balances quite a bit, causing other problems
Yup, that is the correct way. Separate cutting boards for use and the installed cutting board is just a platform. It is quite handy, for ex when peeling and chopping onions the extra space is great for all the scrap bits, then you can pick up the cutting board with them onions on it and drop'em to the pan.. and that makes room to clean all the scrap bits away easily.. Makes the job really fast and convenient. Having just couple of cutting boards and rotating them keeps things clean and dry, and you always have one ready when you store a fresh one with the sliding platform.. with the knife so it is always ready, no matter what the task ahead is. Took me embarrassingly long to figure out the best way to use them.
Extra note: do not use plastic cutting boards. They are better as a source material for hobbyist, it is thick plastic sheet after all. The moment you cut into them is the moment they are ruined. Wood has some weak antibacterial properties, and especially when kept dry is very safe to use. Just keep the surface fresh, sand when needed and ALWAYS store dry, this is the key. For as plastic is very hygienic when it has not been used yet and every scratch that ruins the nanometer level finish detail.. That is what makes plastic stuff hygienic, they are VERY smooth. The moment you scratch them, they lose that property. So, they need to be bleached after you use them for any meat. Wood can be scratched, unless the surface is fully ruined they are safe... as long as they are rinsed, brushed and dried after every single use. They can be good for decades, just have a few and every few years go and plane them with a planer (look for carpenters etc. craftmans, they are flexible for planing 4 cutting boards for 30€.. takes like 4 minutes...)
Jäbä päätti kirjottaa esseen
@@squidcaps4308 I'd also go as far as treating the wooden cutting board with something. Either mineral oil, or beeswax.
*me, a finn, who knows that your cutting board is supposed to be double layered with second layer being removable and washable.
Da fuck you mean that you are not meant to cut meats and veggies there?????
If it is not double layered in build cutting board, someone stole the top layer long time ago.
@@reigoj8228 edit: After re-reading my original comment, I realized it was a bit ambigious, so I added a clarification that I was talking about the fixed bottom one in that part of the comment
Pretty clearly explained in the comments, they are meant for cutting bread. In theory, you can use the removable one to cut other things as well, but keeping it clean is a huge hassle compared to normal cutting boards that are far better suited to it and much easier to maintain correctly. Also considering they are permanently installed part of the apartment, outside of omakotitalo homes, they fall under the house owners and not residents responsibilities gray area, it can be a bit unclear who can/should replace them and pay for it
I would not risk using them without first getting the owner to replace/plane them first if it was not a brand new apartment
I will never forgive Ikea for getting rid of the duvet cover holes due to other countries complaining about them being ”wrong” 😂
Yeah, same here! They could have kept them for the Nordic customers and let the rest of the world struggle with their hole-less duvet covers 😂
Bought one without (didn't even know that they made ones without) from the Jysk and they are indeed Satans invention. Cover holes is the hill I'm willing to die for.
Yeah the holes are great, but you can do the same grab the corners and shake the cover on without ghe holes too. You just have to flip the cover inside out at first.
Oh I am so mad at ikea right now😂 I love love love their beautiful duvet cowers but I do curse a little more because of them.
I didn't know they'd even had them with holes! I just fixed a couple of duvetcovers I bought from them myself. But it's too much bother when I can just buy Finnish ones.
the double door is also a bit of soundproof when living in an apartment building so the noises of the stairwell get muffled aswell
in normal houses there is a space called tuulikaappi between outerdoor and inner door. also called eteinen if you do not have separate eteinen after tuulikaappi.
When I was young; Sweden also used the wood cuttingboards for bread which is built into the kitchen drawers. The Bed Sheets, Pillow Clases corner holes; Double doors with peephole, mail drop are in Sweden too.
Sauna is thousands of years old thing in Finland. First houses here were actually Saunas. So it is much more than just getting warm in Winter. I bet finnish people use sauna even more in summertime! It's a tradition, a very profound one
About the drying cupboard, I didn't hear another of its benefits mentioned. Unlike a dishwasher, it rarely needs to be emptied and move the dry dishes in regular cupboards. Most of the time, whatever a family needs on a daily basis can be kept in the drying cabinet. So it doubles as storage. When I lived in Finland, I always first opened the drying cabinet to get my plate, glass, utensils, etc. Usually all I needed was already there. Only special, rarely used casserols or juicemaker components and other oddballs were moved to a regular cabinet to wait for next use.
For a good video about saunas "Sauna culture in Finland" by UNESCO.
Funny thing about sauna at least for me is that I often feel colder after sauna (like 1-2 hours after) than I do before. That is one of the reasons why I especially love going to sauna during the hottest part of the summer. Also Mökki sauna (summer cottage sauna) is the best sauna.
edit: moved video recommendation to the top
Vote for that video 👍
Came here to mention this video ⬆️ also Irish in Finland made a video about the history and mythology side of saunas. The video includes a lot of things that modern age people have forgotten, but that affect still the modern day way of sauna culture.
That's a good vid to watch and react
The inner doors are great if you have pets. They also keep quite a lot of hallway noise from reaching the inside of apartment.
I'm Swedish and my Swedish parents built their house in 1969, and then they built it with bidé, built in cutting board, sauna, double doors, etc. But it's not so common anymore, I don't have these things in my apartments I have lived in since then. The cutting board was sturdy, but also easy to take out and clean. But I loved it because it was easy to use it as a breakfast table if alone in the kitchen, wanting to be quick in the morning.
This was an early video of Dave's when he was still quite green to Finland. One would hope that his aversion to washing shit off has changed. Now having a small child, hopeful it has. I note that in one of your earlier reactions, a Finn said he'd never used the bum gun too. Like you, I simply cannot understand this. After nearly 16 years in Finland, the thing I hate most about going abroad is the lack of bum guns. That feeling of never feeling properly clean until the next shower...
I use a bidee every time one is available.
I have a story from last week about the duvet cover. I was gifted an autumn themed set so I was trying to put it on. From Finland you can't really buy a set without the holes so I am not used to a holeless version. After 15min it was still not on, at one point I was inside it and when I finally decided this is it the corners were not nicely in there, they still are not. I think I will make the holes to it next time I wash it.
The extendable cutting boards are an excellent extension of counter space, regardless if you use them for cutting or not. And if you do, you can always place your 'movable' cutting board on top there anyway - esp, if you're cutting anything messier than bread.
Our sheets in Sweden are the same. IKEA used to sell them but people in other countrys thought they were ripped so now they have the kind without holes and that is why I never buy their sheets.
And wooden cutting boards are perfectly safe to use for wet products, if you can remove them. Clean with hot water, perhaps some dishing liquid but usually not needed, if it smells bad after that, just wet it a bit and pour some salt on it, then clean it again.
I've cut Poultry, Beef, Pork, Eggs, Vegetables etc on them for at least 30 years and never had an issue.
And this is not anecdotal, it was common knowlege before plastic cutting boards became popular
I have OCD but I also think silly things are over sanitized and it causes immune issues and super bugs. Soap and water is all we need!
The gradient in shover spaces are in the building code. If you don't have certain degree of slope you need to rebuild that section. Suprisingly quite effective against mold ;).
Even on hot summer day the sauna is the best thing you can do. It's all about cleansing, sweating off all the dirt and clear your mind and relaxing.
even here in north queensland I wish I had one
And i hot summer day after sauna it’s not too warm outside. We can warm up sauna even 11 am or 11 pm in needed or wanted.
And If we have snow and over -20 so it’s nice to go to ”snow swimming” and after that quickly back to sauna
I moved to Finland from the US. Yes I've been so impressed with the drying racks and the cutting boards - which can be removed and cleaned/washed. I like your term "bum gun" and yes they are good for so many things.
I live in Sweden and we don’t have a bidet, but what I do is that I take a clean piece of paper, perhaps 3-4 layers of squares, quickly turn on and off the sink water and tap it under the sink nozzle to soak up the leftover moisture and then use it like a wet wipe and repeat. The 3-4 layers helps it not break apart as easily from the small amount of water while also not clogging your neighbourhood’s sewage system like regular wet wipes.
It’s not perfect but it works.
We had that kind of cutting board when I was growing up, it was probably standard for those houses (built in 1961).
When I moved out in 1992, I had a version that was a baking tray, or whatever to call them, a wooden constrution with a front and sides, used for mixing up dough, but could also be taken out and flipped up-side down to make it a cutting board. Not at all hard to clean.
Those duvet covers have also been pretty much standard from perhaps 1975.
We had Double Doors when I was a kid, but since the quality of doors has been improved it's not very common now. It's also less and less common to have mail slots, so it's not really needed to prevent people from peeking through or doing other nasty stuff.
But up north, it's common to have a small "room", for taking off whet clothes, putting up your skis against the wall, whatever, so there's a front door into a small space where you do that, and then another door into the house.
I have 3 friends that have passed out drunk or fell asleep in the morning on the drain. One of them didn't have a second drain (or she did but it was stupidly positioned on the wall like 2,5 inches above the floor) and flooded her entire apartment.
That tiny shower next to toilet seat is also really practical for people having periods. No more blood in our hands, thank you.
They are called women.
U mean the handheld bidet? Gross he called it a bum gun like wtf lol
@@mary-janereallynotsarah684 Most people call it in Finland as P****Phone, I think you get what its called... 😅
@@randomdude9851well i dont-..
@@Nepaxxit’s pillupuhelin in finnish, but it’s translation is pussyphone
Hello, Dwayne! About the cutting boards. I have three of them removable for cleaning. The idea with three is that one is meant for cutting bread, one for cutting meat, one for fish, or for chopping onions or whatever. This way, the tastes don't mix. The boards are made of sturdy wood and today there are all kinds of cleaners. Besides, wood contains natural antiseptics by which the tree protects itself.
The reason for two shover drains in student flats is that the students may pass out because they tend to be drunk coming home from a party or something.
The second doors out to the stairway act as sound blockers from people trekking up and down the stairs and from noise from the flat echoing out into the stairway, as well.
No, the chopping boards are not wobbly. They also act as additional workspaces in small kitchens. Most boards do not have that drawer front piece, which seems only to be in the way.
I also have a bigger board underneath my integrated fridge. It's meant for baking. And there's a fifth board tucked under the oven. That one is very handy for laying heavy pots and pans on it temporarily. All these very handy tucked-away boards were out of fashion for a while, because new, fancy countertops designed abroad didn't have any. Customers wanted them back, however, and I believe that they are now being reintegrated again.
Speaking of practical Finnish inventions, the company Fiskars, the makers of the world-famous sissors with the orange, plastic handle, is also producing the same pair of sissors ergonomically designed to fit a left-handed person. The handle of this model is red-coloured instead of orange. To make things a little more complicated, there is also a right-handed pair that is red, but this one has Moomin figures on it.
For good quality covers with holes, Finlayson is a good brand. Their prints don't fade with normal wash and the fabric is durable.
I use the same mentality on the bumgun. Why wipe some of the poo of, when you can wash clean with water =D
Double door to outside is also to have a bit better sound isolation to the stairwell AND it's fire brake AND it'll ensure that the air circulation works right that there's no air coming from the stairwell to the apartment. It takes a bit longer for the fire to get through double door than single door. Obviously the outside door is thick and heavy and well insulated, but this still helps while not sacrificing any usable floor space because there's the threshold and inset anyway that's of no use to the tenant. Better put door there to get all the benefits for no real loss.
The chopping board, of course, can be used as an extra area for putting bowls, plates, baking sheets etc while preparing food, baking etc! I miss these in the kitchen I have nowadays although I've very rarely used them as chopping boards!
I usually have thin plastic chopping-boards on it. Easy to hide when not in use
Sauna is so good, since the warmth relaxes and gives you deeper clean, since you first sweat all the grime and stuff from your pores. Also after day in the cold outside it makes you warm through your skin deeper than a shower.
The inner doors at the foyer keep the warmth for better insulation and also it can help with sound proofing. So you don't need to be as silent as otherwise.
The duvet cover holes you can cut with scissors and then stitch the sides, so it won't undo the rest of the duvet cover fabric. Its so much easier to get the blanket in there and no need to struggle with the corners of the blanket.
so, sauna, for us Finns, is a "comforing zone, = to relax": a.k.a just to be you.
To be your real self, and allow to treat yourself well, its kinda spiritual.
In sauna: the life begins and it also ends. In sauna you are truly connected with yourself and your wellbeeing.
I live in Germany and had to import all these practical finnish gadgets, because also Germans do not have these: "Build-In-Cuttingboards", "Dying Racks", "Toilet-Bumguns",
A sauna next to a lake, cooling after löyly and having a cool beer and listening cranes singing in the stillness of the midnight sun. Pure bliss.
The cutting boards we have built in in our home are this hard plastic type where the surface comes easily off to be washed. Still we only use it for bread, but handy to leave the bread crumbs there with the cutting knife in eg a hectic morning moment. 😊
Sauna has nothing to do with the weather. In the summer we easily have sauna at least once a day.
Hi Dwayne,
I really like your channel.
I commented on the hand shower (Finnish version), i.e. the use of a bidet shower. Especially for women, a shower is absolutely necessary just because of menstruation. Therefore, in public toilets, it is highly desirable that one can be found in at least one toilet. And it's really nice to keep all the places clean. Gives confidence.
A double door or intermediate door (Finnish version of the word) is also convenient because it makes noise well - in both directions.
From the stairwell, you can't hear sounds clearly inside or outside the apartment, and in winter it blocks cold air from coming inside.
I think one of the funniest things in Finland is that housing associations have their own common sauna and often a free sauna shift for everyone once a week. In this case, you go to the sauna with your neighbors, women and men take different turns, of course. During the day, you might argue in the laundry room and in the evening, you may sauna naked with the same person.
Also on Christmas Eve, there is often a free sauna shift with the same system, and people use it a lot. It is the housing association's Christmas gift to the residents.
A lot of people also have 2 saunas here, one that's in your house and one that's outside.
Yes- a sauna deserves it's own building. Its better than the one in your home, it's the best. Sauna is life. Sauna, is more holy than a holy spirit.
Btw I was werry confuced that some of these things aren't world wide. Like the darn duvet cower thing- why wouldn't you have the hole there? It's clearly ment to be there.
Also there are a lot of wooden chopping boards so I don't get how cleaning the cupboard ones is any different- you can get them out of there. (for all I know we cut bread on it and nothing else xxD)
(and btw it is sturdy- at least I haven't met a non-sturdy-choppingboard inside of a cupboard- not yet at least)
Re bum guns - my first meeting with a bum gun was in Paris in the 1970s. There was one at every bidet in the hotel rooms. (Apparently the local light girls used them after every session.)
That cutting board is removal. Board can be removed and washed in the sink. And is usually for cutting bread...
Cutting board that you can pull out like in the early part of the video is just for cutting bread. You don' want to use it for thins like meat, vegetables etc. that would force you to fully clean it up. That is why most Finns have separate cutting board that is just free to move around and much easier to clean too. PS. Haha had to laugh about the 2nd sink as I did fall asleep in shower in my student apartment, it's that damn winter you get super drunk and go get a warm shower and then it's lights off from the brain really fast.
Bum gun sounds so much more wholesome than what we call them in Finland whitc is pillupuhelin = pussy phone... 🙈
The sauna is also, or used to be, the cleanest room a family has/had so everything that needs cleanliness is done there. Childbirth, washing, first aid, death etc. That’s why it’s so important to have a sauna.
sauna is a place where you stop for a while and stop thinking. you calm down for a moment in the middle of your busy everyday life. and of course after a cold winter day, I myself live in the second northernmost village in Finland, so winter here is also -35 degrees
The history of sauna in Finland dates back to our cold time and when the houses were huts. When the water was fetched from the well and people had to wash even though it was winter and cold outside, the sauna was the only way to wash so as to stay warm. The sauna has remained a common practice among Finns from those days. There you will bathe and can have social evenings with friends and family. Nudity is not a problem, but if you're shy, then a towel is okay. Sauna bathing is usually done by gender, i.e. women and men separately.
The so-called drawer "chopping board" is mainly for cutting bread. It is not stable enough for cutting meat and messy for vegies and fish. If you have a polyethylene cutting board for fish and vegetables you can stow it away in the space in the copping board drawer after washing.
sauna is so relaxing and healthy place... we have had saunas in Finland for about 9,000 years, so that tradition is in our blood
About saunas: Saunas are one of the key elements of Finnish culture. They have been around for thousands of years. Saunas have played an important role in Finns lives. You were born, you lived and you died in a sauna. You celebrate special occasions in sauna, take care of the sick and you even prepare food in sauna (for example palvikinkku - a ham that's cured in a smoke sauna). Traditionally sauna was often the first room to be built and the rest of the house was built around it. Being Finnish and sauna go hand in hand - sauna is almost a state of mind rather than just a room to bathe in.
sauna is an old invention, from a time before hot water pipes were an invention. there are also several types of saunas here, e.g. maasauna "earth pit sauna," savusauna "smoke sauna" or sähkösauna "electric sauna." - if we go a little further, "riihi" was also developed in Karelia, where grain was dried in a building that was heated like a sauna..
There's an old Finnish saying: "sauna is the heart of the home"
It stems from the older times, when most people would be born in the sauna (warm, hygienic, easy to wash away any mess and fluids), their health would be maintained in the sauna (another saying goes: "if sauna, booze and pitch/tar won't help, the illness will kill you") and in death, they would return to the sauna (old outbuilding saunas tended to also be easier to keep cool to preserve the body better until burial).
I think that the two drains system has saved many buildings from water damage. I once had a neighbourgh who always took a long shower when he was drunk. His drunken mind just likes the warmth and he often sits on the floor for an hour or something (this building has a fixed water payment and no individual water meters). And yes, he has caused at least one major water damage to his ex-girlfriend's rental appartment. I really hope that he has a water meter in his current appartment so that he at least has to pay for the extra water that he uses.
The idea behind that cutting board might be, that it's the same kind essential thing like fridge and oven are. When people move in, it's there. Drunken passing out on the shower drain is confirmed. You can probably order bed sheets E.g. from Marimekko, Finlayson, Pentik and Vallila. Finnish sauna is on the UNESCO's Cultural Heritage List. They have made a good video about the Finnish sauna culture. That other hallway door keeps also smells in/out. in houses that second door often divides the hallway, so when you come in, you first come a smaller space with its own radiator and then through that second door to a main hallway and living space. Either that or the entire hallway has that second door to living space. One way or another, there's usually two doors to keep heat in and cold out.
In oldern days, saunas were important thing for getting rid of parasites. It was the cleanest room (least alive microbes) in houses so that was traditionally the place to give birth. My grandma was only child in her family who was born in hospital and not in sauna...so when she was a child, the brother teased her of not being a child of that family as she was brought home from nearby city. 😅They were born 1920s and 1930s...in countryside. Many city people were giving birth in hospitals at that time.
Also nowadays, when you come back from trip to some place where there might be some nasty bugs like bed bugs, it is good idea to first leave luckages outside, put them to plastic bag, close the bags well and put them to hot sauna for few hours. The bugs will die and the appartment/house is saved from infestation.
Sauna helps to relax the mind but also muscles. In summer, after sitting in sauna in 60-100 Celsius degrees, suddenly 25-35 degrees (or what ever the temperature is) is not anymore that hot. Ofcourse it is also nice if you have not gotten dressed well enough at winter. After that sauna is also super nice.
Of course, saunas didn't use to be part of the house. They were separate buildings and that was probably a good thing too, because I think it wasn't that uncommon they burned down.
@@blechtic yes, that's true.
I’m not Finish but we have the dry rack in a cupboard in our house. I’d seen it somewhere and had it installed when we refurbished the kitchen. Love how it saves space on the sinc. In Sweden the cutting board in the bench is also common but it does usually smell after a while if you’re not extremely good at cleaning. We chose not to have that - and I think it is disappearing from at least Swedish kitchens. I love the “bungun”! Not common in Sweden, but I got used to them in Thailand. So hygienic!
It's a hand held bidet, the bum gun isn't accurate since it's also for periods etc.
@@mary-janereallynotsarah684yes it isn't called bumgun. It's p*ssy phone (p*llupuhelin in finnish)
The boardcutter was in all old Swedish homes back in 60's and 70's when I was a kid but it was only for cutting bread
Hi! Sorry if I'm repeating a comment if someone has already written about this, but... Long long time ago when people in this area moved to a new place they build sauna first because you had to get it done before winter and in sauna you have heat, you can get clean, sleep and make food so that was the first thing to do. After that you could start building the actual cabin in the becoming summers.
And the bidé is handy for the ladys at a certain time of a month...
The double drainage is mainly because of various appliances one might have in a bathroom and also that the flooring doesn't have to be tilted toward a single drain if there are lot of sq.meters in the room. Basically bigger the room, more drains. In apartment buldings this ever more so important to keep the walls and floorings dry and safe in case of utility breakages or failure resolting in possible water damage
In our apartment, which was brand new, the cutting board is only used for cutting bread. For other ingredients, there are a couple of plastic cutting boards that can be washed. We use the small shower, for example, to wash the baby's bottom... perfect.. From the inner door.. There is also a version where you push the handle up, the door locks. Although I don't know what it does.. Maybe extra security..?
I use the cutting board as an extra place to put stuff while cooking, like hot pans and pots. It's not really handy to use for cutting 'cos the cleaning is not that easy except for bread grumps. The original use for the cutting board was for kneading bread dough.
The corner holes are something I've lived with all my life here in Sweden, so I think it's a Nordic invention, not solely a Finnish one. I moved to London for a year 10 years ago and was very surprised that there were no corner holes on the duvet covers!! I missed them😂😂
I think you may already know, but saunas also offer incredible health benefits, especially when combined with ice bathing which is also enjoyed by many Finns.
Only ever used the cupboard cutting board for bread, like others have said. You can usually pull on the front of it to lay it flat too so it's easier to clean, and like the other one you can pull it out completely. It's not difficult to clean, and it's pretty handy.
Now living in apartment where is no bum gun and really miss it. I thought duvet cover corners was universal. Never thought those. Finlayson and marimekko sell those nearly world wide
I have seen al of this expect for the two drain thing in Sweden to :) But saunas is much less common in Sweden ofcourse. The amount of saunas and huge culture around it is absolutly a very finnish thing 🤩
i don’t go to sauna that much anymore it really isn’t that important to me these days, but i don’t think i could live without one, because i do want to go to the sauna sometimes. growing up we actually didn’t have a shower in our house until i was like 7 or something like that. we only had sauna. it’s like a building outside that has one room where you can like cool off and take your clothes off and stuff like that. we also used to use that room to do our laundry. and then there’s the second room the actual sauna. u heat it up with wood. it also had this other side that was used to heat up water before the water was ice cold so u had to warm it up so u could wash your self that way. so because we didn’t have a shower to wash our self’s we went to the sauna daily. i think that’s the reason why i don’t really care about going to sauna that much anymore, because i use to go so often.
but i still do like it sometimes, especially when i’m having some friends over. we have some drinks and go to sauna and chat a bit and then we go to a hot tub that we have. i also like to go by myself sometimes especially if i’m feeling sick or sad or something like that because of that feeling u get when your in the sauna, it’s really relaxing and good for you. us Finns often like to think that sauna is the solution for everything 😂
12:56 Recently when we have had more and more immigrants, one problem has risen among them concerning sauna. Out of habit, some have used it as a drying room, if you do that, you have to be really really careful. There have been incidents when fire has started because of sloppiness, so.
People always think Finns do things to stay warm in a cold country. But let me tell you, homes in Finland are properly insulated, you can wear your t-shirt at home during the winter. Windows are triple or quadruple glazed. I had never experienced cold indoors before I moved to the UK from Finland. And that was cold! It went to your bones and really made me to miss my cold country where I would stay warm at home was it summer or winter. If you live in a block of flats and have second front door, it's mainly to keep the noise away not for insulation.
Sauna is like a religion for us. I myself go three times a week all year round. That feeling after the sauna is heavenly
ua-cam.com/video/qY__OOcv--M/v-deo.html Finnish sauna culture , by UNESCO .ua-cam.com/video/ogQW27oJ3YU/v-deo.html USA ambassadeur in Helsinki talks sauna
Sauna is place for relaxing and getting clean. Finns have been born in saunas through history 'till mid 20th century before health care system was developed. Sauna is a clean place and it is beneficial for your health. There's nothing more relaxing than throw water on kiuas (that thing that holds rocks) and let the steam open your skin pores and drink something cold. If you want, you can add special essential oils into the water so you can have aromatherapy at the same time. I like to add a little waterproof light thing in kiulu (a pucket for water) and enjoy chancing colors, reminds me of northern lights. I also put on some relaxing spa music from speaker that is designed for wet surroundings (not inside sauna because of heath). Finnish children start to go sauna at very young age, but they are placed on lowest pench so temperature is not that high for them and they spend much shorter time in sauna than adults. That way they get used to sauna little by little.
Also Sauna is because it was considered as healing, it was once of the few places to get clean and even births were done in there. Also the heat killed insects, it made sure you Would be clean when we didn't even have running water and such, and it's really amazing place anyway. You can't get angry, since it's too hot for that and it's all about community, it also gives people an equalizer. Even a king is a king only when they have their crown and clothes on.. In sauna such things don't matter :) Also we have more saunsa than we have cars :)
Saunas are all the above; practical, good feeling and historical.
Since saunas have high hygiene level, way back in the days, on countryside, women could gave birth inside a sauna.
On early autum they used to dry flax linen after the harvest.
And on winter time they could use sauna to give extra heating and curing ham and other meat.
one thing most people dont know about is most apartments come with sauna turns included in price and every time i have rented new apartment i tell rent company that i dont use sauna so they usualy take 10-20e/month out of rent price...
I never use the built in cutting board for cutting things, but I have a tiny kitchen so if I'm running out of counter space while cooking or baking I'll often pull it out and kinda use it as a side table!
I also don't use the bidet, at least not how you're supposed to. I'll use it when I'm cleaning the bathroom but that's it, I actually didn't even know what it was for until I was like 16, although my home has always had one.
Idk if this is TMI but... The bidet (or as we also call it in finland, "pillupuhelin" = "🐱phone") is so handy if you happen to be a woman prone to making period messes lol, couldn't live without it
finn here :] , at home we use the cutting board thing for cutting bread mostly, and we store our plastic cutting boards on the little top cutting board lol, since moving out tho i use mine as my knife storage since i like never buy bread
that bidet shower thing tho is genuinely so good, i don't understand how its not normalized like everywhere else too
we just use the built in cutting board as a storage place for cutting boards. as for the bidet, i typically use it to was my hair over the sink.
+ that second door isolate sound little pit that the neighbors are not disturbed by the sounds
Two drains is pretty silly because you can just buy off and automatic cut off valve to a shower (like in swimming halls etc.) that cuts off the water every 2-5minutes.
Sauna us a bathing place to clense you body. You perspire in the sauna and wash yout hair and body in the shower. Most people have two or three sessions in the sauna and showers in between. Taking sauna also relaxes your body and mind. You feel all refreshed and content. Meditating in the heat helps you to forget your daily hectic life. Sauna is an ancient quintessential Finnish tradition. Every house must have one, some even two of them. Having sauna by a lakeside is wonderful. You take sauna and then jump into the lake to swim, then back to the sauna for another session and again into the lake...You finish this bathing experience with a cold beer and barbeque sausages. Afterwards you sleep like a baby. 😊
I do use bidet and it is great.
Also i use sauna more during summer time than winter time. It is just the feeling while and after sauna, that makes me to go there.
We also call them Bum Guns (my wife is Finnish) and she insisted we get one in our bathroom. I did not argue this.
You can live without a car but not without a sauna, and you use it all year even in the summer.
Sauna makes dirt and dried skin turn soft, making them easy to scrub them off. And if you want to clean yourself without any chemicals, sauna is a good choice.
Summer it gets up to +25 outside and i complain about weather being so hot.
Come evening i can't wait to go to sauna which is +70
feels even better during cold winter days.
I have one and i love them. You wipe it of everytime. No problem. When you use like for meet. Then you scrubb it of with soup, and when you do deepcleaning, you use salt and lemon and scrubb. Easy Peasy
there are two drains in some student apartments cos they where passing out duing heavy drinking, but only in Hekas in helsinki as far as i know. that is not usual thing in most of our flats.
The drying cabinet above the sink was patented in various forms before 1900s but was never really commercialized. So when enough patents expired Maiju Gebhard from Finnish Work Efficiency Institute publicized their version for free. The idea was to cut time women had to use each day for chores, so.. the dish drying cabinet is sort of feminist and also no-profit solution. That is how information should travel, when something comes that is easy to implement and improves our lives that information should be free, for ex open source.
The "how the hell isn't this the default everywhere" is a thought that i have had.. as a Finn.. I thought dish drying cabinets are global.. and duvet covers with corner holes... a LOT of things are such that we think they are just ubiquitous since they are no-brainer solutions, like.. anyone can figure that out... But then there are factors we don't know, like having natural sunlight when you dry dishes and that becomes a cultural thing so US kitchen sinks are usually by the window... so the idea of a dish drying cabinet is not going to spawn from the conditions. Dish drying cabinet relies on electrical lighting, which is also why it took to 1950s for it to become a thing. It was invented hundred years prior.
If you order sheets from Finlayson, Marimekko or well, any other Finnish shop, you'll get the handy holes. I bought sheets from Ikea once and never again will I make that mistake again, it's a nightmare trying to get them on without the holes. Oh, and I also know someone who fell asleep in the shower drunk and had to pay for the water damage he caused, it was close to 10 000 euros
Ikea used to have the holes in the duvet covers but got rid of them due to people in other countries complaining and thinking they were ripped.. So we can thank people outside of Scandinavia for that struggle! I stopped buying duvet covers at Ikea after they got rid of the holes
I use bide regularly, but not every time. Drying out the bum after using is somewhat bothersome imo, but sometimes paper just doesn't cut it.
And I use it all the time for other things, cleaning etc.
U should still use toilet paper lol. Even if just to dry ur butt.
@@mary-janereallynotsarah684 duh, but after properly cleaning yourself drying with a toilet paper is still very annoying and slow.
Some use a special towel for that 😅😹
@@viiruthecat Yes, that is what I do. Still slower than just wiping.
You don't need much of a slope to the drain. I like the hand shower, in my UK home I had bidets, such a waste of space and not as versatile. I use it to wash my hair over the basin. too. We have a wood burning sauna, the electric ones give me a headache. Even in the Uk I had a sauna or a steam room every now and again. I have the drying cabinet over the sink, duvets with cover holes. I have lived here for 13 years and thoroughly enjoy the Finnish way of live, although I'm not in the best of health these days.
I love your term for bidet shower! Bum gun makes it sound fun to use.
I've never used the bumgun for that, it's just really handy to wash the toilet itself with as hot water as you can :D
It's cold here only at North. Summers in South are around +20 to +34 degree Celsius.
When I moved from Finland to Spain, I mostly missed cheese slicer. I found one from Ikea and also other things I could not find. And yes, I have all these at my home but not double train in bathroom since I don’t live in student apartment ❤😂
I didn't know that duvet covers existed without the holes up top (sweden)
In Finnish the bum gun is often called pussy phone (pillu puhelin)🤣
Wow what a name lol!!
As long as I can remember, I've always had duvet covers that have those holes on the corners. Was more of a surprise when I happened to buy one from abroad and it didn't have them. So inconvenient.
Many of the new or renovated apartments (for example) don't have the wooden chopping boards hidden like that, due to them being a health issue, like mine doesn't have it anymore. But I do also remember, that not all of them were "built in" as that was. Yeah, this one had the built in and the removable one, but before you would just have one or two which both you could just pull out, use and wash.
The bide is a must, wouldn't want to live without it, super useful.
The dish drying rack over the sink is a basic thing to have here, no doubt.
I currently live in an apartment that has removed the double door option and I dislike this very much. Like in the video, it gives you extra security and protects from the extra noise coming from the stairwell.
I don't have a sauna in my apt, but I also don't miss it either. I personally dislike electric saunas and prefer wood heated saunas. Electric saunas, to me, feel dry and uncomfortably hot and wood saunas feel better on my skin. We use saunas here during the summer too - a place to relax, mellow down, socialize with your family or friends and ofc, clean yourself. I'm used to it being something you don't do fast, but with time and enjoyment, take dip in the sea, then go back in, rinse and repeat.
You can always put a removable cutting board on top of the original.
And I don't even have toilet paper, since I have the... bumgun? Here it's käsisuihku, which roughly translated means handshower. Eh... Not that you can't use the actual shower with hands. Oh, wait. Do you guys at least have a shower that you can take in your hand and move around?
And the double doors also keep the noise out. Which I actually don't have here in my apartment...
We have all of this in Sweden too. But the built in cuttingboard, we don’t make those any more in newer buildings and houses cause they do attract insects cause people tend to leave breadcrumbs on them. So no we don’t make them any more due to lack of hygene.
i have newer seen a household without dryin rack.
4:30 Its great if you get it new, but if youre in like rental apartment, you dont know what the previous tenants have done with it, so its just too sus to use. Personally I just keep a regular cutting board on top of it.
I think many people don't use the bidet here in Finland, I think it's much more convenient, clean and saves money.
Yes I think most Finnish people are quite practical people 😊. Nice video, thank you.