Micro Housing Seattle – Home Is Where The WiFi Connects Automatically
OK so there wasn’t a place to wash your hands. That’s fine as the kitchen sink was only four steps away. And so what if the apartment—all 192 square feet of it—was half the size of a budget hotel room? The $822 monthly rent included all utilities plus free Wi-Fi and a double bed.
Like many millennials I work with, Claire hates the idea of commuting to work from places like Edmonds, Mill Creek or the Northgate area. To buy a place in the “burbs” is not realistic for her right now.
To avoid a 1.5-2 hour drive in to work each day with 10,000 of her closest friends, she made the decision to move into a micro-pad. She said she kinda viewed home “as where the WiFi connects automatically.”
Claire doesn’t have a lot of stuff—doesn’t want a lot of stuff. She also doesn’t have a lot of income. She was living with a pal for about a year and this is her very first apartment. She spent eight weeks scouring Seattle and finally found a place in Capitol Hill
More than a quarter of all households in the United States today are made up of just one person, up from 17 percent in 1970.
Single-person households have also inspired a national movement toward smaller living spaces. And nowhere is this trend more in evidence than micro-housing Seattle.
Seattle is on the forefront of micro-housing. These are the tiny, (and I do mean tiny) one room haciendas. When I say one room, well . . that’s the entire house – one room.
We have the country’s fastest growing city (population 640,500), and you can now see micro-housing buildings in many places around the city. This type of living space is said to be one key to solving the housing affordability problem in the region. 
However, many disparage this style of living as a crazy experiment in downsizing that will inevitably fail.
Granted, some micro-unit buildings look like skinny, checkered townhouses, often towering over the squat cottages and bungalows that dot Seattle neighborhoods. Others resemble sleek, ultra-modern low-rise apartment buildings.
Inside, typically you’ll find a dormitory style of eight private sleeping rooms, each with its own bath and kitchenette, that share a full-size common kitchen for anyone who cares to cook. Few do.
Seattle has the highest number of micro-dwellings in the country—3,000 at last count. Some of these homes are as small as 90 square feet. That’s about the size of two prison cells put together. WooHoo!
It’s not for the claustrophobic. If you are a gardener, forget it. However, there are some benefits including the chance for people with modest incomes to settle in hip urban neighborhoods like Capital Hill, Queen Anne, Ballard and the Lake Union area.
How about you? Could you see yourself living in a space about the size of your current bedroom? Could you share a common kitchen? It’s not for everyone. I have to say, my only experience with anything close to micro living was when I was in the Marine Corps living in a Squad Bay with 100 of my buddies.
Tell me your thoughts or own experiences with close-quarters living.
