Thank you for watching me, a humble American, react to German Houses vs American Houses. This was very interesting! Thanks for subscribing! source: • Video
@@TheOnlyOneSpeedfreak i feel like they have become way more popular over the last decade. I´ve been seeing them at some places and they are always new or recently refurbished flats.
Yes! I think nowadays mainly only students appartements don't have it. And small refrigerators are def. not common! But yes, dryers are not necessarily standard here. Most/many people dry on drying racks/lines.
in villages, small towns and suburbs, yes. Not so much in urban areas unless you are wealthy enough to have a flat with a big enough kitchen. I never had one in my 40 years of life. but the flat I grew up in was tiny as can be. having an oven was more important.
In Germany they don't classify bedrooms but only rooms; a bedroom could also be designed as a living room and vice versa. We count the rooms. What you do with the room is your business.
Except for kitchens and baths, which are defined as such and not counted as rooms (Most likely since they require specific plumbing and electric outlets. Also they often come with tile flooring which is way harder to remove than the standard living room flooring). You will often read things like "3ZKB" or the long version "3 Zimmer, Küche, Bad" so 3 rooms + kitchen + bath.
3ZKB also tells you there is no Balconies or Terraces, tha B says there is a toilet and a Bathtub. Would it be a shower cabin, it would say 3ZKD meaning toilet and D=Dusche. And btw. In the GDRpart they still use another term 3RaumWohnung, which also means 3Rooms plus kitchen plus bathroom/ shower cabin with toilet. And yes, walls are usually brick walls. That may be the reason these houses are pretty sturdy an last for decades or even hundreds of years.❤❤❤
Whenever americans explain what things are typical german, I'd take that with a pretty big grain of salt. Also, regional differences do exist in Germany as well.
you should. because most of the things talked about in this video aren't true. i never have seen a urinal in a home, most people don't go that often shopping etc.
@@Cyc0de My Opa had a urinal in his home's bathroom. It was the only place in the world I have ever seen a urinal in a home. To be fair I don't think I saw one in any other German homes - but I did see it once in Germany.
Garbage disposals are NOT illegal in Germany (there is no federal law, which would prohibit them). However, local regulation may forbid them, you should always check your community regulations. Some people actually have them, they are just very rare here. And they are nod bad for the water, it's nonsense. They are actually good for sewage, because most people dispose garbage through sewage anyway. These food remains attract rats. If the remains go though a disposal system, the particle are to small to be identified as food by rodents.
Hi, some remarks from a guy who owns a "typical" German house: - the bathroom in the video is rather small, our main bathroom is about 130 sqft - most toilet flushes have 2 buttons, 1 for a small flush (about 10 liters) and 1 for a bigger flush (up to 40 liters) - we don't count the number of bedrooms but the number of rooms that are not a kitchen or a bathroom - no doors between kitchen, dining area and living rooms means that it is impossible to heat a single room. Very important regarding our energy cost! - mounting heavy things to the wall using a wallplug is no problem as the walls are made of stone or concrete. You can try to break it with your fist, but I don't recommend it. Cheers, Fred
Not only the energy costs. I like different designs like bright kitchen and eating table, cosy living room, and smell like natural food while cooking and vanilla in living room and heat ( only bathroom and living room).
With something mounted to a wall we also need to search first, but only to avoid cables and water tubes. It is no problem in newer houses, but the old ones (100year+) often have very loose wall plaster where stuff doesn't hold well.
no toilet in Germany flushes with 10 liters on the small and up to 40 on the big flush. It's usually ca 3 liters for the small and 5-7 on the big flush. Even the old pressure flushes did not need more then ca. 10 liters.
I have never seen an Urinal in a private home!!!! And i was born and raised here! Garbage disposals are not common here, i throw it to the "Biomüll". Drying mashines are absolutely common, most people have one (including me) but i prefer to hang clothes outside, that's cheaper and "eco-friendly". My freezer is bigger than the one he showes in the video, and most people i know have a big one. That guy is wrong in so many topics! And i have not finished the video, let's see what else he gets wrong😂
In a typical American house, there is no hallway. You enter into the living room. Thus, the living room could never be used as a bedroom. German dwellings open into a hallway and each room typically has a door (although open concept kitchens are on the rise nowadays). So in a traditional German house or apartment you can freely assign the rooms where you want them to be. This is why we count rooms, not bedrooms.
He is talking so much bullshit. Dishwashers are very common, everyone have them where I live. Refrigiators are not that small like he thinks. His house looks like from the 80's not the standard anymore.
I think it really depends. Most of my friends (who live in small city apartments with small kitchens) have even smaller refrigerators than the one in the video (including myself) and not an extra freezer. But I would agree that most german homes have a dishwasher (maybe except if the kitchen is even too small for that, like in some old apartments from the 50s, like mine). Also, houses from the 80s or even older are not that uncommon here?
While I'm sure that houses without dishwashers exist - not gonna start an argument on that - it feels rather uncommon for me, as I've yet to see a no dishwasher home. So even when there's somehow a region in germany where this would happen to be the standard, I sure wouldn't say that ''having no dishwasher is common in germany''.
@@basicinputoutputsystem1664 I dont have one, my parents dont have one, of my two sisters only one has one that she barely uses. Its easier and faster to just clean your dishes anyway.
I guess it depends if you live in an apartment (what this video is about) or a (newly build) house. Most apartments from the pre-unification era simply don't have the space reserved to add a dryer.
Dishwashers are absolutely common in German middle class households and up. If you live in a really small apartment or you're a student, you probably don't have one. Dryers are also fairly common. Not as universal as in America because we only use it for certain kinds of laundry and still air dry a lot of things, but still common in middle class households, especially if you have kids and huge amounts of laundry.
How we count rooms: an ad for an apartment would look like this for example: "3ZKBB" which stands for 3 rooms ("Zimmer"), Kitchen ("Küche"), Bathroom ("Bad"), Balcony ("Balkon"). In German apartments you can decice how you want to use your rooms, except kitchen and bathroom, that's why they are listed extra and not count towards the 3 rooms. You could have one living room, one bedroom and one office. Or a living room, a bedroom and a room for your child. Or three bedrooms and no living room to live with roommates. That's one advantage of the living spaces being completely unfurnished. 🙂
4:00 it’s not a pipe having water running through it, it’s just the mounting rail for the shower head 5:44 extremely rare to find one of these in a private home and to be honest also a little bit unnecessary and disgusting. Just sit down to pee, what’s the big deal 7:00 no, we usually don’t have these big metal buttons, these are restaurant appliances, not usually home appliances. Usually we have plastic buttons but two of them, one larger for big business and one smaller that uses less water and goes only as long as you press the button. The larger button drains the whole tank.
@@louiskonig545 There is no scientific argument proving your point, rather contrarily: usually theres no difference between standing and sitting, but if your prostate is too big, then sitting is healthier. "Every man should 'know' this." - well, it's not knowing, it's just laziness and ignorance, stressing fake masculinity despite better knowledge - and at some part the habit because even now it's more likely that the woman cleans the bathroom and not the man. Guess it doesnt matter if you like living in filth.
Hi from Germany A lot of people wear houseshoes, my parents too. Most of the bathrooms I know haven’t a window in the middle of the room (only a regular window, my bathroom has a window in the roof). And I never lived in a house with a urinal 😅 there are a lot of bathrooms without a window 😢 had a lot of them in my life. Yes, we take our wardrobe with us. Mine is really big but it was really expensive and I like it. Get well soon 🤧 Greeting from the very north of Germany 👋
yeah, we call Bathrooms without windows "Dunkelbad", because you'll never see the light of day in there. But nowadays, theese need to have air ventilation to prevent mold (and smells...).
wow that house seems really old 😂 brown radiators aren't a thing since the 70's 😂 also the glass blocks ("Glasbausteine" in the bathroom) are equally old 😅 9:30 we don't have garbage disposals - we throw our trash in a bin not in sewage so it won't pollute our water 😉 i have a washer dryer but i usually dry on a rack (like he showed) or the clothes lines on the attic (appartment building but i live on the top floor so the attic is more like an expansion to my flat 😋) dishwashers are fairly common - if you can or will effort it. i only have mine because there was a 'buy 3 pay 2' when i bought my fridge and stove 😅 also my fridge is bigger than the one in the video. even the build in fridges i know are bigger than he showed... my parents have an 'american style' fridge and i can fit almost as much stuff in my fridge. i never understood how you can so easily use a kitchen that someone else used to use... i mean i wouldn't fell well even after furiously cleaning it. even here i don't move into a flat if there already is a kitchen. we take all our furniture with us. to me it's like with the kitchen i personally don't like to use other people's furniture. i have a similar couch to this one. my aunt has a 'stressless'-couch (norwegian company) that looks similar to the one you showed but it can be folded/altered until one lays flat 😅 all in all i'd say the flat in the video is typical german but at the same time it's not. there are many regional, ethnical or even building related as well as age (of the tenants) related differences that you gotta watch 10 or 20 more videos like this to have an idea what is typical german and what is inividual preference. i mean one family homes in suburbs aside i don't think flats in indiana are the same as in new mexico or washington. even in the u.s. there will be differences to what is typical.
Fridges and freezers are small because we love fresh food and big ones consume much more energy. The washing machine pre-drys the clothes with 1200-1400 turns/minute at the end. It takes less than a day to get it dry. Just Open the Windows Full for some minutes regulary and get rid of the humidity. An electric dryer is also consuming a huge amount of energy so many people try to avoid it. Same with aircons in private homes.
And the next food store is usually a few minutes away. Easy to get fresh food every other day. No need for the big freezer/ fridges American style. It all makes sense as it is. Big Country, long distances = big storage units, big fridges ... Small country, short distances = small storage units, small fridges ... ❤❤❤
Garbage disposals: There is no national ban in Germany, but most municipalities prohibit the discharge of kitchen waste, even in shredded form, into their drainage sets...and I had always a dishwasher and a dryer in the smallest apartment!
Dishwashers are typical in Germany. These flat seems old from the design. Urinals are not typical. We also have big fridges and most of them are fridge-freezers.
15:55 Yes, we do take those with us if we move, but you probably imagining hauling the entire thing out of there in one piece, that's not the case, we would dismantle the entire thing and move it like it would come from IKEA as a flat pack.
Wood is not just "easier & cheaper" but simply nicer & more beautiful/cozy.. 😊 And yes, we take our wardrobe/closet with us! You cannot "leave sth. for the next person" that might absolutely not be their taste! We take everything with us except the toilet, shower/tub, sink, radiators.. Everything that's _furniture_ gets taken with, therefore also the kitchen. We wouldn't choose a house/home based on the fridge!! That's wild! 😂
But as students often it was said: do you want to take our kitchen, furniture ... for a little price ( like half of original price if new, quater if used). But nowadays landlords rather want a total empty apartment to check everything is technically ok before new renter moves in.
I don't know in what kind of apartments he lived in so far and where he lives but that's not a "typical" German appartement. Only very few do have an urinal. And there are a lot of apartments that don't have a window in the bathroom. And he has a cheap bars for his bed if his break that often.
Another reason we dont have this big fridges is that we dont have to cool everything. eggs, some veggies we dont store in the fridge but in the cellar for example
3:42 Oh Ryan, this pipe is just a height-adjustable holder for the shower handle and does not supply water. Water pipes usually run in the wall here too. The bathroom is also particularly small and cramped because it had to be located in the attic, which was converted into a living area. Such houses typically also have a bathroom on the first floor and this is only the second bathroom or that of the children.
I guess that was something fancy that someone really wanted. That´s more uncommon than a misprint of Pikachu 1st Edition... (yeah, I made that up, no idea about those cards lol)
I have, but the family who built that house had two sons. You don't need one if you have three daughters. Sitting down to pee just takes more time but it is not that bad once you're used to it.
I ve seen the first private urinal over 23 years ago at a teachers home who invented us for a BBQ. And since then I see more and more people getting these.
I recently talked to a friend about our grocery shopping habits and he was quite shocked that I go to some supermarket almost every day, even multiple times on a few days. Its just part of my daily routine, since its on the way to my work, where I can walk to. Also I don't have a car and live in a 4th store appartment without an elevator, so shopping a big amount is just a hassle.
12:13 it's not about being able to move a week's worth of groceries, it's about not having to for living comfortably. Distances to basic necessities seem to be a bitch in the US
You asked, and yes, this were lightswitches. It can be, that the thing below was an electrical outlet. In Germany we count the rooms entirely, not only the bedrooms. The washing mashine in my apartment is in the basement. So, I have more space in the kitchen.
Most small apartments like for students usually have a kitchen built in already. The reason for no kitchen in some bigger apartments or houses is, that Germans tend to move less then Americans, so they like to built their home like they want
When you wash your cloth and it turns out stiff, that's because you didn't wash out the soap completely. Btw: We use much less aggressive detergents here in Europe, as those you use are mainly there to compensate for the really badly designed horizontal spinning washing machines. :)
Counting the rooms: Everything that doesn't have a specific/determined function like bathroom or kitchen and can therefore be used as bedroom is a "room". Meaning a flat/appartement would be described as "3 Zimmer" (3 rooms) for example, meaning it's 2 bedrooms, 1 living room, + kitchen + bathroom. And no, no garbage disposal! Never!
Funny how he sells his own pretty outdated interior as typical German. His flat looks like it's stuck in the 90's. No, we are not Borg and our apartments do not look the same everywhere^^. If you want to get a real overview of German houses and flats I suggest you check out real estate websites, type in different search areas in Germany and scroll through the images. I do that regularly just for fun.
I could easily buy groceries for a week if I wanted to both on foot or by bike, got a Hackenporsche (a big wheeled bag) and a trailer for my bike toghter with a big messanger backpack. And yes, we take the huge clothet with us, you know how quickly two germans have taken that thing appart for transport? Maybe 10 minutes.
In germany a three room house or appartment is a three room house. kitchen, hallway and bathroom are not counted. but houses/appartments dont go by "bedrooms"
the plumbing of the shower IS behind the wall. What you see is merely the pole at which you can adjust the height of the shower head, f.w. if your child wants to take a shower or if you do not want to get your hair all wet…
No garbage disposals allowed through waste water in Germany. While technically possible it's not allowed because it means a lot of food waste in the waste water attracting rats. So we just have a bio waste garbage bin in many cities in Germany. If you have a garden many Germans also have their own compost heap to make new humus as fertilizer.
Apartment descriptions in Germany do not indicate the number of bedrooms, but rather the number of undetermined rooms. They say 3 rooms, kitchen, bathroom. Because the kitchen and bathroom can only be used as a kitchen or bathroom, while all other rooms can be used as desired. A room can be a children's room, but if you don't have children it may be more of a study. Whether I turn a room into a living room or a bedroom ultimately doesn't matter and depends on where the room is and how big it is.
Every house I know overhere in Germany has a dishwasher, same goes for clothes dryers. Garbage disposals are not really a thing here but they are available ( I have one in my kitchen). Also our frigde/freezers are usually bigger than the one shown. Modern kitchens generally have built in units or side by side like in the US. We do have lots of drywall installations nowadays. Urinals are not very common, maybe 5% of bathrooms have them at home, if that. The button on the toilet is so big because you can service the mechanism through the hole which is inside the wall.
It varies, sometimes previous tenants leave their furniture there but this is discussed beforehand as most rental agreements do not allow it. You have to leave the apartment clean and often renovated.
Although my brother has a urinal in his bathroom, I‘d say it‘s unheard of in Germany too. You will surely find urinals in American homes too if you search long enough, and it‘s the same here in Germany.
Switzerland here: You don't count bedrooms. You count rooms in general. 4 1/2 rooms mean 3 "bed"rooms, the living room and an open kitchen eating area.
Normaly we do not have a carbagedisposal in our sink, because that is usual in our kitchens. We get rid of our waste in our wastebins . Food leftovers are being thrown into the compostbin ( seperate bin for garden waste ( dead flowers, mowed gras, brenches and such)
Urinals are not typical in residential homes. Garbage disposals are prohibited in Germany (and most of Europe). If you air-dry clothes you can iron them to soften the fabric.
This is really an older house, possibly from the 80s. In modern houses there is everything that is common everywhere today. Large refrigerator with integrated freezer, dishwasher and washing machines, dryer, microwave, etc. In our house we have a solar system, heat pump and air conditioning and several cars. It's a bit annoying that all houses in Germany are the same.
Dishwashers exist, washing machines exist and dryers exist. And they are all common. Sometimes there is variation if l the washing machine and dryer are integrated into the kitchen, installed in a bathroom or in a separate little room or even in the basement. I live in an appartement house and in the basement there is a room with all the washing machines and dryers, each the property of an appartement unit. Yes, like thr kutchen, you have to bring them and buy them yourself. They are not preinstalled.
German directness: 1. Ryan is sick once again (something that happens regularly and often. I just ask myself why. I haven't had a cold, a sniff, or a flu for more than 14 months now. I am 63!). 2. Ryan won't read in the comment section regularly because ever so often the topic of huge freezer/fridge combos in the USA vs. our smaller fridges in Germany had been discussed, where it was said that we would not need overly huge fridges for several reasons, some of which are that we go shopping more often (several times a week) or that we would like to keep our electricity bills low (a huge freezer/fridge combo eats up electricity!). 3. Toilet flush systems in Germany are designed to save water. 4. Apartments (I prefer to say flats normally) go by room count, not bedroom count. For example, a three room apartment in Germany means you usually get two bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen (can be open plan to the living area, but often is separate) and a bathroom/shower room. Short: 3ZKB (3rooms, kitchen, bath)- A four room flat would most likely consist of three bedrooms (also two bedrooms and an office would be possible), a living room/dining area, a kitchen, a bathroom, perhaps another toilet (guest toilet or half-bath).Short 4ZKB (4rooms, kitchen, bath's') 5. When moving, people usually take all furniture with them, including huge wardrobes/armoires. And sometimes kitchens, yes. But then - moving is not that much an issue as it is in the USA. People here are less likely to move every one or two years. Long-term stay/long-term renting is quite normal. Once you own a property, the likelihood you stay in there for a lifetime is rather big, anyway. 6. Garbage disposals are not allowed by most cities and municipalities because they are very bad for the environment and they might attract rodents. So, we separate our waste very dutyfully.
Toilet flushing plate is that big cause it covers the mechanism. U can remove the plate to fix most issues soon. And u only have those plates, when the toilet cistern is installed into the wall.
To have a freezer in the kitchen is uncommon. Why. It needs more Energy because of the surrounding temperature. Everybody i know has the freezer in the basement for this reason. Also freezer that open from the top are way more common.
15:40 Yes, we do. It comes apart in sections (really need 2 people to do that and put it back together in the new home). And it matches the remaining bedroom furniture … head- and footboards of the bed, nightstands, dressers …
4:00 That´s not a pipe, that is the thing that lets the Showerhead move up or down, so you can put it at a height you want it to be. Pipes are very much in the walls in germany. Altho i´d prefer some kind of Maintenance shaft. Because it is expensive to have a pipe fixed. And while we do have drywall, it´s not at all used in the same way as it is in america. It´s usually used to put fake walls, in case you want to make a HUGE room into two sepperate ones, but they´re often still solid walls.
18:44 The American couch with a recliner build in can be found in Germany but it’s rather a fancy thing. Couches mostly have fixed seating and back parts, but also have a wide choice of the ones with lose seat cushions and pillows which can be turned into a bed. Or L-shaped couches where the I part can be lifted and there’s storage space underneath.
Regarding hanging stuff on the wall: We also have drywall in Germany. In our house it's drywall for inside walls and concrete for outside walls. For drywall I use drywall anchors. Good ones can hold up to 150 to 200 pounds. So for most things there's no need to find a stud. On concrete walls you drill a hole and use rawlplugs/screw anchors/wall anchors (every dictionary uses a different word for Dübel...).
we don't typically say "3 Bedroom" unless we actually mean that there is three bedrooms. We'd normally say "3 Rooms". That would then also include the living room and office, so basically any room that could be used as a bedroom if needed. It does not however include the kitchen and bathrooms, so it's not the actual number of rooms in a house.
17:05 This is a panel with light switches on top and a socket at the bottom. These are generally larger than those in the United States, which comes with the advantage that you can easily locate them with your fingers. The socket has the advantage that the plug can't become loose easily, reducing the risk of accidental unplugging.
the toilet buttons are usually two. One for less water and one for more water. At times, it depends on whether you push the bottom or the top of a big button how much water is being released…
The toilet button is so big, because it also acts as a service hole for the water tank. The water tan k is in the wall behind the tiles. In case there is a minor issue, you can take the button off and grab inside to fix it.
There are also bathrooms without windows. It depends on the floor design. Especially in flats it's common that the bathroom doesn't have a window but are surrounded by rooms. Maybe the flat has just windows to one side at all, because on the other 3 sides are other flats. In such a case the bathrooms have a ventilation to get the wet air out after showering.
In the shower the thing where the shower head is attached is not the pipe where the water is floating through its just the construct to hold the shower head so you can move it up and down as you want. The pipes here are also in the wall.
This is not a typical German rental apartment! This is an attic apartment with lots of sloping ceilings! German houses have thicker walls made of sand-lime brick, insulation, air and clinker on the outside. The German or European kitchen has no disposal in the sink! Organic waste is disposed of separately in a specially provided waste container.
We burn food waste and extract the energy from that. At my home we have three bins. One for organic waste, one for recyclables, and one that goes to the dump or gets burnt.
The living room counts as a bed-room as it is usually not the room you enter in from the street. There is a hallway you enter, leave your shoes in a lot of cases, hang your coats and from which you can choose many doors. One will lead to the kitchen, one will lead to one toilet, others will lead to bedrooms and one will lead to a room where the TV can be plugged in to the satellite dish and before digital TV the terrestrial antenna outlet. This room is usually a bit bigger and often has a balcony or a terrace (depends if it is on ground level or not). It could still be used as just another bedroom, when you have flatmates and do not live there with a family.
Bathroom: The shower head is not screwed to the plumbing, that is just something that is there for the showerhead. No water running through.The plumbing is in the wall, too.
In Germany there are all sizes of refrigerators, even if smaller "combination devices" (freezer and refrigerator) are often installed in the kitchen units. Many families also have extra freezers, usually in the basement, so that they can stock up on food.
9:24 We have no garbage disposals. We separate waste into organic waste, plastic packaging, paper/cardboard, glass, residual waste, batteries and accumulators, electronic waste, chemical waste, special waste and hazardous waste. Each type of waste has its own organized recycling or disposal. What you throw into your “garbage disposals” and arrives at your wastewater treatment plant is here collected in the organic waste garbage and then composted in a plant or you can compost it yourself on your own property and save some money.
Since Germany doesn't have in-built closets, there really is no distinction between bedrooms and other rooms. We only distinguish kitchens (because it needs water installation), bathrooms (because it needs water installation), and generic other rooms that could be anything except kitchen or bathrooms. So, a typical ad for a house / apartment will give you the number of kitchens (typically just 1 of course), bathrooms, and ... rooms.
17:50 Yes you can actually drill a hole whereever you want. Since the 60s or so, Electric cables are actually mounted 20 cm above the floor as a standard in every house, so you know exactly where the cables are at any time, and Pipes only go where they are needed and usually aren´t anywhere else either. Drill a hole, put a dowel in and then you can either screw something to the wall or put a nail for a Picture frame or whatever.
In Germany you don't specify the number of bedrooms, you specify the number of rooms in total (excluding kitchen, hallways or small storage rooms. Since we don't have built in wardrobes it is up to you how to use the rooms.
A suburban finn here... I know this is something weird for Americans but grocery stores and restaurants are typically located on residential areas. There are two grocery stores within a very short walk (0,5 miles) from my home and 11, of which two are 24/7 hypermarkets, within a short bike trip (2 miles). If I need something I can get it immediately. No need for a huge fridge or a freezer. Usually I order all basic food stuff for a week delivered to my home and I just walk to the store when I want something fresh or just baked.
17:03 The Switches on the wall next to the door .. Top: 2 Switches for Lighting, usually for ceiling lights ... Middle: the square pad looks like a Dimmer, the longer you touch it, the brighter/darker the lighting gets. (Could be also a blind cover for future extensions :) ... Bottom: power outlet (Schukosteckdose / Schuko socket flush-mounted) 🤣🤣
one other thing about what we take when we move. There is a very easy explanation for it. Turn the house on it's roof and everything that falls down, we move.
15:13 The stiffness is caused by the kalcium in the water setting during the hang drying. You can put a bit of vinegar in your washing water and they will be softer. Otherwise simply moving the clothes a bit will soften them up too.
14:48 A tumble dryer generates electricity costs. If you have the space and it doesn't have to be done quickly, you can save yourself that. That's why I dry all my laundry on these racks in the cellar. It doesn't have to be warm, just not too damp in the cellar. It would be quicker outdoors, but I'm too lazy to have to bring the laundry in quickly when it rains. After two days at the latest, everything is completely dry.
Washing does come out somewhat stiff unless you take fabric softener fluid that goes into the washing machine. But it's not a concern. Cause you just shake n fold them. The regular humidity in the room AND the warmth and humidity from your body or the iron (if you care to iron stuffs) will soften the fabric again in no time!
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Urinals are NOT typical for German houses.
I wish they were though.
True,but now I want one.😊
2 of my 3 last apartments had a urinal. both not in the main bathroom but in a separate guest toilet. still very weird tho.
@@TheOnlyOneSpeedfreak i feel like they have become way more popular over the last decade. I´ve been seeing them at some places and they are always new or recently refurbished flats.
I think some people have these because normaly you sit down to pee in germany and this gives you the clean opportunity to pee standing
I think the typical german home definitly has a dishwasher
Yes!
I think nowadays mainly only students appartements don't have it.
And small refrigerators are def. not common!
But yes, dryers are not necessarily standard here. Most/many people dry on drying racks/lines.
I think he's talking about apartments in big cities, where they are actually rare because of the limited space.
As a German, I have seen a few apartments without a dishwasher in my life.
in villages, small towns and suburbs, yes. Not so much in urban areas unless you are wealthy enough to have a flat with a big enough kitchen. I never had one in my 40 years of life. but the flat I grew up in was tiny as can be. having an oven was more important.
I don't know any household without
In Germany they don't classify bedrooms but only rooms; a bedroom could also be designed as a living room and vice versa.
We count the rooms. What you do with the room is your business.
Except for kitchens and baths, which are defined as such and not counted as rooms (Most likely since they require specific plumbing and electric outlets. Also they often come with tile flooring which is way harder to remove than the standard living room flooring).
You will often read things like "3ZKB" or the long version "3 Zimmer, Küche, Bad" so 3 rooms + kitchen + bath.
3ZKB also tells you there is no Balconies or Terraces, tha B says there is a toilet and a Bathtub. Would it be a shower cabin, it would say 3ZKD meaning toilet and D=Dusche.
And btw. In the GDRpart they still use another term 3RaumWohnung, which also means 3Rooms plus kitchen plus bathroom/ shower cabin with toilet.
And yes, walls are usually brick walls. That may be the reason these houses are pretty sturdy an last for decades or even hundreds of years.❤❤❤
@@ololic thats 3,5 rooms... 3 rooms means the kitchen is part of the living room
@@antjeschwarz7874
But in GDR apartments not all walls are built with stone. Plattenbau means built with premanifactured concrete walls, not brick.
hahaha ok that makes more sense.
Whenever americans explain what things are typical german, I'd take that with a pretty big grain of salt. Also, regional differences do exist in Germany as well.
Also city vs rural is often kickin in hard
True
he is telling these things so confidently 😂
you should. because most of the things talked about in this video aren't true. i never have seen a urinal in a home, most people don't go that often shopping etc.
@@Cyc0de My Opa had a urinal in his home's bathroom. It was the only place in the world I have ever seen a urinal in a home. To be fair I don't think I saw one in any other German homes - but I did see it once in Germany.
Garbage disposals are illegal in germany, because they are bad for the water
If the gouverment want to clean the water it is to expensive.
And we have a dedicated trash can for organic waste. This will be used for Bio-Gas production or for compost prodution.
And Germans know how to seperate waste. :D
WHAT
Garbage disposals are NOT illegal in Germany (there is no federal law, which would prohibit them). However, local regulation may forbid them, you should always check your community regulations. Some people actually have them, they are just very rare here. And they are nod bad for the water, it's nonsense. They are actually good for sewage, because most people dispose garbage through sewage anyway. These food remains attract rats. If the remains go though a disposal system, the particle are to small to be identified as food by rodents.
American explains to Amarican how a typical German house is like - thats a game of telephone happening right there
Hi, some remarks from a guy who owns a "typical" German house:
- the bathroom in the video is rather small, our main bathroom is about 130 sqft
- most toilet flushes have 2 buttons, 1 for a small flush (about 10 liters) and 1 for a bigger flush (up to 40 liters)
- we don't count the number of bedrooms but the number of rooms that are not a kitchen or a bathroom
- no doors between kitchen, dining area and living rooms means that it is impossible to heat a single room. Very important regarding our energy cost!
- mounting heavy things to the wall using a wallplug is no problem as the walls are made of stone or concrete. You can try to break it with your fist, but I don't recommend it.
Cheers, Fred
Not only the energy costs.
I like different designs like bright kitchen and eating table, cosy living room, and smell like natural food while cooking and vanilla in living room and heat ( only bathroom and living room).
- Families don't do their grocery shopping 4-5 times a week.
With something mounted to a wall we also need to search first, but only to avoid cables and water tubes. It is no problem in newer houses, but the old ones (100year+) often have very loose wall plaster where stuff doesn't hold well.
no toilet in Germany flushes with 10 liters on the small and up to 40 on the big flush. It's usually ca 3 liters for the small and 5-7 on the big flush. Even the old pressure flushes did not need more then ca. 10 liters.
I think what he showed in the video was an apartment, not a single family house. Apartments tend to have smaller bathrooms.
I have never seen an Urinal in a private home!!!! And i was born and raised here! Garbage disposals are not common here, i throw it to the "Biomüll". Drying mashines are absolutely common, most people have one (including me) but i prefer to hang clothes outside, that's cheaper and "eco-friendly". My freezer is bigger than the one he showes in the video, and most people i know have a big one. That guy is wrong in so many topics! And i have not finished the video, let's see what else he gets wrong😂
Wir hatten früher eines 😂
Rich people flex😂
@@adelheidunbekannt5670Das war aber bestimmt eine Seltenheit 😅
🤣
Most things are right but the drying machine is not totally common.
And I would not buy it, prefere fresh air.
In a typical American house, there is no hallway. You enter into the living room. Thus, the living room could never be used as a bedroom. German dwellings open into a hallway and each room typically has a door (although open concept kitchens are on the rise nowadays). So in a traditional German house or apartment you can freely assign the rooms where you want them to be. This is why we count rooms, not bedrooms.
New houses are different though. Kitchen and living room are almost always connected without doors
Garbage disposals are not used in Europe as they are bad for the environment
From what I know they are not allowed in Germany.
@@klarasee806
I myself have never seen one in France or England or Ireland or Denmark.
@@klarasee806 That's right.
Cars are also bad for the enviroment. Based on your reasoning, they shoudn't be used either, but are. How?
Garbage disposals: I call them rat feeders.
He is talking so much bullshit. Dishwashers are very common, everyone have them where I live. Refrigiators are not that small like he thinks. His house looks like from the 80's not the standard anymore.
Na its also very common to have no dishwasher. Are you in a more rural side? I think i now more househoulds without dishwasher then with one.
I think it really depends. Most of my friends (who live in small city apartments with small kitchens) have even smaller refrigerators than the one in the video (including myself) and not an extra freezer. But I would agree that most german homes have a dishwasher (maybe except if the kitchen is even too small for that, like in some old apartments from the 50s, like mine). Also, houses from the 80s or even older are not that uncommon here?
While I'm sure that houses without dishwashers exist - not gonna start an argument on that - it feels rather uncommon for me, as I've yet to see a no dishwasher home. So even when there's somehow a region in germany where this would happen to be the standard, I sure wouldn't say that ''having no dishwasher is common in germany''.
@@basicinputoutputsystem1664 I dont have one, my parents dont have one, of my two sisters only one has one that she barely uses. Its easier and faster to just clean your dishes anyway.
I guess it depends if you live in an apartment (what this video is about) or a (newly build) house.
Most apartments from the pre-unification era simply don't have the space reserved to add a dryer.
Dishwashers are absolutely common in German middle class households and up. If you live in a really small apartment or you're a student, you probably don't have one.
Dryers are also fairly common. Not as universal as in America because we only use it for certain kinds of laundry and still air dry a lot of things, but still common in middle class households, especially if you have kids and huge amounts of laundry.
I wouldn't say that this is an example of an average German household. At least not from the year 2024. This is what it looked like 30-40 years ago.
Dishwashers are pretty common and the average home would definitely have one. But the garbage disposal in the sink does not exist here.
How we count rooms: an ad for an apartment would look like this for example: "3ZKBB"
which stands for 3 rooms ("Zimmer"), Kitchen ("Küche"), Bathroom ("Bad"), Balcony ("Balkon").
In German apartments you can decice how you want to use your rooms, except kitchen and bathroom, that's why they are listed extra and not count towards the 3 rooms.
You could have one living room, one bedroom and one office. Or a living room, a bedroom and a room for your child. Or three bedrooms and no living room to live with roommates.
That's one advantage of the living spaces being completely unfurnished. 🙂
4:00 it’s not a pipe having water running through it, it’s just the mounting rail for the shower head
5:44 extremely rare to find one of these in a private home and to be honest also a little bit unnecessary and disgusting. Just sit down to pee, what’s the big deal
7:00 no, we usually don’t have these big metal buttons, these are restaurant appliances, not usually home appliances. Usually we have plastic buttons but two of them, one larger for big business and one smaller that uses less water and goes only as long as you press the button. The larger button drains the whole tank.
The big Deal is That IT is more natural and healthier to piss while standing. Every man should know this
@@louiskonig545 No, for a healthy prostate there’s no difference between sitting and standing.
@@louiskonig545 There is no scientific argument proving your point, rather contrarily: usually theres no difference between standing and sitting, but if your prostate is too big, then sitting is healthier. "Every man should 'know' this." - well, it's not knowing, it's just laziness and ignorance, stressing fake masculinity despite better knowledge - and at some part the habit because even now it's more likely that the woman cleans the bathroom and not the man. Guess it doesnt matter if you like living in filth.
Hi from Germany
A lot of people wear houseshoes, my parents too. Most of the bathrooms I know haven’t a window in the middle of the room (only a regular window, my bathroom has a window in the roof). And I never lived in a house with a urinal 😅 there are a lot of bathrooms without a window 😢 had a lot of them in my life.
Yes, we take our wardrobe with us. Mine is really big but it was really expensive and I like it.
Get well soon 🤧
Greeting from the very north of Germany 👋
Schleswig- Holstein?
Yes 👍
@@yuukis2021 moin 🙂
yeah, we call Bathrooms without windows "Dunkelbad", because you'll never see the light of day in there. But nowadays, theese need to have air ventilation to prevent mold (and smells...).
Flensburg?
wow that house seems really old 😂 brown radiators aren't a thing since the 70's 😂 also the glass blocks ("Glasbausteine" in the bathroom) are equally old 😅
9:30 we don't have garbage disposals - we throw our trash in a bin not in sewage so it won't pollute our water 😉
i have a washer dryer but i usually dry on a rack (like he showed) or the clothes lines on the attic (appartment building but i live on the top floor so the attic is more like an expansion to my flat 😋)
dishwashers are fairly common - if you can or will effort it. i only have mine because there was a 'buy 3 pay 2' when i bought my fridge and stove 😅 also my fridge is bigger than the one in the video. even the build in fridges i know are bigger than he showed... my parents have an 'american style' fridge and i can fit almost as much stuff in my fridge.
i never understood how you can so easily use a kitchen that someone else used to use... i mean i wouldn't fell well even after furiously cleaning it. even here i don't move into a flat if there already is a kitchen.
we take all our furniture with us. to me it's like with the kitchen i personally don't like to use other people's furniture.
i have a similar couch to this one. my aunt has a 'stressless'-couch (norwegian company) that looks similar to the one you showed but it can be folded/altered until one lays flat 😅
all in all i'd say the flat in the video is typical german but at the same time it's not. there are many regional, ethnical or even building related as well as age (of the tenants) related differences that you gotta watch 10 or 20 more videos like this to have an idea what is typical german and what is inividual preference. i mean one family homes in suburbs aside i don't think flats in indiana are the same as in new mexico or washington. even in the u.s. there will be differences to what is typical.
Dark radiators radiate heat more efficiently then bright ones. I allways paint mine in a dark color, brown, red or a mixture of those.
By the way, there is no problem drinking the water of the shower, high quallity drinking water
Except the water is as hard as mine.
Without adding Vitamine K2 and D that lead the chalk in the bones they are disturbing kidneys and more.
@@MiaMerkur BS
Fridges and freezers are small because we love fresh food and big ones consume much more energy. The washing machine pre-drys the clothes with 1200-1400 turns/minute at the end. It takes less than a day to get it dry. Just Open the Windows Full for some minutes regulary and get rid of the humidity. An electric dryer is also consuming a huge amount of energy so many people try to avoid it. Same with aircons in private homes.
And the next food store is usually a few minutes away. Easy to get fresh food every other day. No need for the big freezer/ fridges American style.
It all makes sense as it is. Big Country, long distances = big storage units, big fridges ...
Small country, short distances = small storage units, small fridges ...
❤❤❤
Problem with having a fixed high mounted shower... is that if you are short person the water is cold before it reach you...
Just take cold showers so the water is heating up in the air :P
The clippety-clip is just a little metal shelf that's basically clued onto the bathroom tiles and can hold all your showering necessities.
No garbagedisposal is not common at all in germany we have the biomülltonne (food waste)
Garbage disposals: There is no national ban in Germany, but most municipalities prohibit the discharge of kitchen waste, even in shredded form, into their drainage sets...and I had always a dishwasher and a dryer in the smallest apartment!
Dishwashers are typical in Germany. These flat seems old from the design. Urinals are not typical. We also have big fridges and most of them are fridge-freezers.
15:55 Yes, we do take those with us if we move, but you probably imagining hauling the entire thing out of there in one piece, that's not the case, we would dismantle the entire thing and move it like it would come from IKEA as a flat pack.
4:01 That‘s not a pipe in the sense that water runs through it. It just holds the shower head so it can easily be adjusted to your individual size.
Wood is not just "easier & cheaper" but simply nicer & more beautiful/cozy.. 😊
And yes, we take our wardrobe/closet with us! You cannot "leave sth. for the next person" that might absolutely not be their taste! We take everything with us except the toilet, shower/tub, sink, radiators..
Everything that's _furniture_ gets taken with, therefore also the kitchen. We wouldn't choose a house/home based on the fridge!! That's wild! 😂
But as students often it was said: do you want to take our kitchen, furniture ... for a little price ( like half of original price if new, quater if used).
But nowadays landlords rather want a total empty apartment to check everything is technically ok before new renter moves in.
@@MiaMerkur Yes. Vormieter. 😊
I don't know in what kind of apartments he lived in so far and where he lives but that's not a "typical" German appartement. Only very few do have an urinal. And there are a lot of apartments that don't have a window in the bathroom. And he has a cheap bars for his bed if his break that often.
Another reason we dont have this big fridges is that we dont have to cool everything. eggs, some veggies we dont store in the fridge but in the cellar for example
3:42 Oh Ryan, this pipe is just a height-adjustable holder for the shower handle and does not supply water.
Water pipes usually run in the wall here too.
The bathroom is also particularly small and cramped because it had to be located in the attic, which was converted into a living area. Such houses typically also have a bathroom on the first floor and this is only the second bathroom or that of the children.
I am 54 now.
BUT
I have nerver seen a Urinal in a private house at all.
I guess that was something fancy that someone really wanted. That´s more uncommon than a misprint of Pikachu 1st Edition... (yeah, I made that up, no idea about those cards lol)
I saw one and it was in a German apartament building built in 1940 in Kraków. Never seen one in Germany.
I have, but the family who built that house had two sons. You don't need one if you have three daughters. Sitting down to pee just takes more time but it is not that bad once you're used to it.
I ve seen the first private urinal over 23 years ago at a teachers home who invented us for a BBQ. And since then I see more and more people getting these.
@@ayoutubechannelhasnoname6018 He was quite an inventor.
Yes, we take that with us, too, when we move. We take EVERYTHING! 😄
I recently talked to a friend about our grocery shopping habits and he was quite shocked that I go to some supermarket almost every day, even multiple times on a few days. Its just part of my daily routine, since its on the way to my work, where I can walk to. Also I don't have a car and live in a 4th store appartment without an elevator, so shopping a big amount is just a hassle.
It is sport anyway! Actually when going home from grocery I lift the bags up and down on my way home for some muscles.
No garbage disposal, that is for the "Bio-tonne" but dish washer is quite normal.
12:13 it's not about being able to move a week's worth of groceries, it's about not having to for living comfortably. Distances to basic necessities seem to be a bitch in the US
Plus the food is more fresh when you buy them max. two days in advange not seven days.
You asked, and yes, this were lightswitches. It can be, that the thing below was an electrical outlet.
In Germany we count the rooms entirely, not only the bedrooms.
The washing mashine in my apartment is in the basement. So, I have more space in the kitchen.
Most small apartments like for students usually have a kitchen built in already. The reason for no kitchen in some bigger apartments or houses is, that Germans tend to move less then Americans, so they like to built their home like they want
Die Küchen Position ist doch eh durch die Herdanschluss Dose und die Wasserleitung vorgegeben.
@@thebamplayer was hat das mit der Kücheneinrichtung zu tun?
i have NEVER seen a urinal in a houshold what the hell is this
My house in Switzerland had one
When you wash your cloth and it turns out stiff, that's because you didn't wash out the soap completely.
Btw: We use much less aggressive detergents here in Europe, as those you use are mainly there to compensate for the really badly designed horizontal spinning washing machines. :)
Counting the rooms: Everything that doesn't have a specific/determined function like bathroom or kitchen and can therefore be used as bedroom is a "room".
Meaning a flat/appartement would be described as "3 Zimmer" (3 rooms) for example, meaning it's 2 bedrooms, 1 living room, + kitchen + bathroom.
And no, no garbage disposal! Never!
Funny how he sells his own pretty outdated interior as typical German. His flat looks like it's stuck in the 90's. No, we are not Borg and our apartments do not look the same everywhere^^.
If you want to get a real overview of German houses and flats I suggest you check out real estate websites, type in different search areas in Germany and scroll through the images. I do that regularly just for fun.
I could easily buy groceries for a week if I wanted to both on foot or by bike, got a Hackenporsche (a big wheeled bag) and a trailer for my bike toghter with a big messanger backpack. And yes, we take the huge clothet with us, you know how quickly two germans have taken that thing appart for transport? Maybe 10 minutes.
In tower houses the bathrooms are often/mostly w/o window.
Yes, slippers are called Hausschuhe here ("houseshoes").
In germany a three room house or appartment is a three room house. kitchen, hallway and bathroom are not counted. but houses/appartments dont go by "bedrooms"
the plumbing of the shower IS behind the wall. What you see is merely the pole at which you can adjust the height of the shower head, f.w. if your child wants to take a shower or if you do not want to get your hair all wet…
i also never saw a german household without a dishwaser lol, ive seen it alot in eastern europe but not in germany
No garbage disposals allowed through waste water in Germany. While technically possible it's not allowed because it means a lot of food waste in the waste water attracting rats.
So we just have a bio waste garbage bin in many cities in Germany. If you have a garden many Germans also have their own compost heap to make new humus as fertilizer.
house shoes: there are many many forms of them. From your typical slippers, over those "clogs" he was showing down to plushy rabbits to slip into xD
Apartment descriptions in Germany do not indicate the number of bedrooms, but rather the number of undetermined rooms. They say 3 rooms, kitchen, bathroom. Because the kitchen and bathroom can only be used as a kitchen or bathroom, while all other rooms can be used as desired. A room can be a children's room, but if you don't have children it may be more of a study. Whether I turn a room into a living room or a bedroom ultimately doesn't matter and depends on where the room is and how big it is.
Every house I know overhere in Germany has a dishwasher, same goes for clothes dryers. Garbage disposals are not really a thing here but they are available ( I have one in my kitchen).
Also our frigde/freezers are usually bigger than the one shown. Modern kitchens generally have built in units or side by side like in the US.
We do have lots of drywall installations nowadays. Urinals are not very common, maybe 5% of bathrooms have them at home, if that.
The button on the toilet is so big because you can service the mechanism through the hole which is inside the wall.
It varies, sometimes previous tenants leave their furniture there but this is discussed beforehand as most rental agreements do not allow it. You have to leave the apartment clean and often renovated.
Although my brother has a urinal in his bathroom, I‘d say it‘s unheard of in Germany too. You will surely find urinals in American homes too if you search long enough, and it‘s the same here in Germany.
Switzerland here: You don't count bedrooms. You count rooms in general. 4 1/2 rooms mean 3 "bed"rooms, the living room and an open kitchen eating area.
Normaly we do not have a carbagedisposal in our sink, because that is usual in our kitchens. We get rid of our waste in our wastebins . Food leftovers are being thrown into the compostbin ( seperate bin for garden waste ( dead flowers, mowed gras, brenches and such)
Urinals are not typical in residential homes. Garbage disposals are prohibited in Germany (and most of Europe). If you air-dry clothes you can iron them to soften the fabric.
You already sound better. Stay fine and ty 4 your videos! :)
This is really an older house, possibly from the 80s. In modern houses there is everything that is common everywhere today. Large refrigerator with integrated freezer, dishwasher and washing machines, dryer, microwave, etc.
In our house we have a solar system, heat pump and air conditioning and several cars. It's a bit annoying that all houses in Germany are the same.
Dishwashers exist, washing machines exist and dryers exist. And they are all common. Sometimes there is variation if l the washing machine and dryer are integrated into the kitchen, installed in a bathroom or in a separate little room or even in the basement. I live in an appartement house and in the basement there is a room with all the washing machines and dryers, each the property of an appartement unit. Yes, like thr kutchen, you have to bring them and buy them yourself. They are not preinstalled.
German directness: 1. Ryan is sick once again (something that happens regularly and often. I just ask myself why. I haven't had a cold, a sniff, or a flu for more than 14 months now. I am 63!). 2. Ryan won't read in the comment section regularly because ever so often the topic of huge freezer/fridge combos in the USA vs. our smaller fridges in Germany had been discussed, where it was said that we would not need overly huge fridges for several reasons, some of which are that we go shopping more often (several times a week) or that we would like to keep our electricity bills low (a huge freezer/fridge combo eats up electricity!). 3. Toilet flush systems in Germany are designed to save water. 4. Apartments (I prefer to say flats normally) go by room count, not bedroom count. For example, a three room apartment in Germany means you usually get two bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen (can be open plan to the living area, but often is separate) and a bathroom/shower room. Short: 3ZKB (3rooms, kitchen, bath)- A four room flat would most likely consist of three bedrooms (also two bedrooms and an office would be possible), a living room/dining area, a kitchen, a bathroom, perhaps another toilet (guest toilet or half-bath).Short 4ZKB (4rooms, kitchen, bath's') 5. When moving, people usually take all furniture with them, including huge wardrobes/armoires. And sometimes kitchens, yes. But then - moving is not that much an issue as it is in the USA. People here are less likely to move every one or two years. Long-term stay/long-term renting is quite normal. Once you own a property, the likelihood you stay in there for a lifetime is rather big, anyway. 6. Garbage disposals are not allowed by most cities and municipalities because they are very bad for the environment and they might attract rodents. So, we separate our waste very dutyfully.
The toilet buttons are large because they are also an access hatch for maintaining the flushing mechanisms inside the wall.
Toilet flushing plate is that big cause it covers the mechanism. U can remove the plate to fix most issues soon. And u only have those plates, when the toilet cistern is installed into the wall.
We don't say 3 bedrooms. We say 3 rooms. they don't even have to be living rooms. The only ones we don't count are bathroom, kitchen and closets.
The "clippedy clip" is a shower shelf.
To have a freezer in the kitchen is uncommon. Why. It needs more Energy because of the surrounding temperature.
Everybody i know has the freezer in the basement for this reason.
Also freezer that open from the top are way more common.
Most people I know have a fridge-freezer combination right in the kitchen.❤
Exactly what we have.
If you shake your clothes before and after you hang them up to dry, it takes out almost all the wrinkles (if not all) and softens the material.
15:40
Yes, we do.
It comes apart in sections (really need 2 people to do that and put it back together in the new home).
And it matches the remaining bedroom furniture … head- and footboards of the bed, nightstands, dressers …
I dishwasher is extremely (!) common in Germany. When Americans explain typical German homes… 😁
4:00 That´s not a pipe, that is the thing that lets the Showerhead move up or down, so you can put it at a height you want it to be.
Pipes are very much in the walls in germany. Altho i´d prefer some kind of Maintenance shaft. Because it is expensive to have a pipe fixed.
And while we do have drywall, it´s not at all used in the same way as it is in america. It´s usually used to put fake walls, in case you want to make a HUGE room into two sepperate ones, but they´re often still solid walls.
18:44
The American couch with a recliner build in can be found in Germany but it’s rather a fancy thing.
Couches mostly have fixed seating and back parts, but also have a wide choice of the ones with lose seat cushions and pillows which can be turned into a bed.
Or L-shaped couches where the I part can be lifted and there’s storage space underneath.
Regarding hanging stuff on the wall:
We also have drywall in Germany. In our house it's drywall for inside walls and concrete for outside walls. For drywall I use drywall anchors. Good ones can hold up to 150 to 200 pounds. So for most things there's no need to find a stud.
On concrete walls you drill a hole and use rawlplugs/screw anchors/wall anchors (every dictionary uses a different word for Dübel...).
we don't typically say "3 Bedroom" unless we actually mean that there is three bedrooms. We'd normally say "3 Rooms". That would then also include the living room and office, so basically any room that could be used as a bedroom if needed. It does not however include the kitchen and bathrooms, so it's not the actual number of rooms in a house.
17:05 This is a panel with light switches on top and a socket at the bottom. These are generally larger than those in the United States, which comes with the advantage that you can easily locate them with your fingers. The socket has the advantage that the plug can't become loose easily, reducing the risk of accidental unplugging.
the toilet buttons are usually two. One for less water and one for more water. At times, it depends on whether you push the bottom or the top of a big button how much water is being released…
Most of what he is talking about is not typical german. It depends on the region, rural or urban areas, poor or rich, etc.
The toilet button is so big, because it also acts as a service hole for the water tank. The water tan k is in the wall behind the tiles. In case there is a minor issue, you can take the button off and grab inside to fix it.
There are also bathrooms without windows. It depends on the floor design. Especially in flats it's common that the bathroom doesn't have a window but are surrounded by rooms. Maybe the flat has just windows to one side at all, because on the other 3 sides are other flats. In such a case the bathrooms have a ventilation to get the wet air out after showering.
I'm not going in the supermarket 3-4 times a week. I have things to do 😅 max 2 a week. And my refrigerator is huge for only one person
In the shower the thing where the shower head is attached is not the pipe where the water is floating through its just the construct to hold the shower head so you can move it up and down as you want. The pipes here are also in the wall.
This is not a typical German rental apartment! This is an attic apartment with lots of sloping ceilings! German houses have thicker walls made of sand-lime brick, insulation, air and clinker on the outside. The German or European kitchen has no disposal in the sink! Organic waste is disposed of separately in a specially provided waste container.
We burn food waste and extract the energy from that. At my home we have three bins. One for organic waste, one for recyclables, and one that goes to the dump or gets burnt.
The living room counts as a bed-room as it is usually not the room you enter in from the street. There is a hallway you enter, leave your shoes in a lot of cases, hang your coats and from which you can choose many doors. One will lead to the kitchen, one will lead to one toilet, others will lead to bedrooms and one will lead to a room where the TV can be plugged in to the satellite dish and before digital TV the terrestrial antenna outlet. This room is usually a bit bigger and often has a balcony or a terrace (depends if it is on ground level or not). It could still be used as just another bedroom, when you have flatmates and do not live there with a family.
Bathroom: The shower head is not screwed to the plumbing, that is just something that is there for the showerhead. No water running through.The plumbing is in the wall, too.
In Germany there are all sizes of refrigerators, even if smaller "combination devices" (freezer and refrigerator) are often installed in the kitchen units. Many families also have extra freezers, usually in the basement, so that they can stock up on food.
9:24 We have no garbage disposals.
We separate waste into organic waste, plastic packaging, paper/cardboard, glass, residual waste, batteries and accumulators, electronic waste, chemical waste, special waste and hazardous waste. Each type of waste has its own organized recycling or disposal.
What you throw into your “garbage disposals” and arrives at your wastewater treatment plant is here collected in the organic waste garbage and then composted in a plant or you can compost it yourself on your own property and save some money.
When I look at the interior design and architectural style, it seems to me to be a house from the 1970s!
Since Germany doesn't have in-built closets, there really is no distinction between bedrooms and other rooms. We only distinguish kitchens (because it needs water installation), bathrooms (because it needs water installation), and generic other rooms that could be anything except kitchen or bathrooms. So, a typical ad for a house / apartment will give you the number of kitchens (typically just 1 of course), bathrooms, and ... rooms.
The 'pipe' on the wall is the rail you can move the shower head fixation up and down on.
sometimes translated as 'shower wallbar'.
17:50 Yes you can actually drill a hole whereever you want. Since the 60s or so, Electric cables are actually mounted 20 cm above the floor as a standard in every house, so you know exactly where the cables are at any time, and Pipes only go where they are needed and usually aren´t anywhere else either.
Drill a hole, put a dowel in and then you can either screw something to the wall or put a nail for a Picture frame or whatever.
In Germany you don't specify the number of bedrooms, you specify the number of rooms in total (excluding kitchen, hallways or small storage rooms. Since we don't have built in wardrobes it is up to you how to use the rooms.
A suburban finn here... I know this is something weird for Americans but grocery stores and restaurants are typically located on residential areas. There are two grocery stores within a very short walk (0,5 miles) from my home and 11, of which two are 24/7 hypermarkets, within a short bike trip (2 miles). If I need something I can get it immediately. No need for a huge fridge or a freezer. Usually I order all basic food stuff for a week delivered to my home and I just walk to the store when I want something fresh or just baked.
17:03 The Switches on the wall next to the door .. Top: 2 Switches for Lighting, usually for ceiling lights ... Middle: the square pad looks like a Dimmer, the longer you touch it, the brighter/darker the lighting gets. (Could be also a blind cover for future extensions :) ... Bottom: power outlet (Schukosteckdose / Schuko socket flush-mounted) 🤣🤣
one other thing about what we take when we move. There is a very easy explanation for it. Turn the house on it's roof and everything that falls down, we move.
18:52 This couch would be called *"Ome couch"* ~ Grandmothers couch > For smo eldery, not able to sit to much down ;)
The plumbing is in the wall, the showerhead rides on a dedicated rail (looking like a tube).
1:40 that´s why we don´t say "3 bedroom" but just "3 rooms". Those are generally 2 bedrooms + 1 living room. Kitchen + bath additionally (usually).
15:13 The stiffness is caused by the kalcium in the water setting during the hang drying. You can put a bit of vinegar in your washing water and they will be softer. Otherwise simply moving the clothes a bit will soften them up too.
14:48 A tumble dryer generates electricity costs. If you have the space and it doesn't have to be done quickly, you can save yourself that.
That's why I dry all my laundry on these racks in the cellar. It doesn't have to be warm, just not too damp in the cellar.
It would be quicker outdoors, but I'm too lazy to have to bring the laundry in quickly when it rains.
After two days at the latest, everything is completely dry.
The clothes are stiff after drying on the hanger but we love that and hate the soft feeling of the ones that were dried by the dryer.
Washing does come out somewhat stiff unless you take fabric softener fluid that goes into the washing machine. But it's not a concern. Cause you just shake n fold them. The regular humidity in the room AND the warmth and humidity from your body or the iron (if you care to iron stuffs) will soften the fabric again in no time!