23. BYOC, BYOL, BYOK (translation Bring Your Own Closets, Lights and Kitchen)
Speaking of the lovely experience of finding your humble abode, you will get one with nothing in it. I’m serious, being an American I was completely unaware of this situation. Had I known!! PEOPLE!!- German apartments (and some other European countries) are bare- 4 walls and a floor and some plumbing pipes on the walls!! They will not have any built-in closets, kitchens or lights. Some don’t even have bathroom mirrors, drapes, or appliances. Ok, cost of typical German closet approx $500 Euros/700 USD x 3 closets?? There is a lack of storage space in most German apartments and you are lucky if you have any closets at all, drawers, shelves, utility closets, and cellars are a luxury!! I never thought of these things in the U.S. Once you purchase a closet, you will have to wait 10 weeks to get it, pay for assembly and will have to pay someone to dismantle it when you move. That means your closet will be a hanging clothes rack for many months, cluttering your bedroom or living room with shoes all around it. Don’t fight it, accept it you know what they say…Now, when you move in, you better start counting the empty wires hanging on your ceilings because you will be buying lights for every one of them. Make sure you carry around a metric tape measurer at ALL TIMES! And a notepad and pen (see number 24. for What to carry in your purse at all times). You will then be hiring someone at an exorbitant amount per hour to have them assemble and install the lights. If you’re lucky and if you look very, very hard you may be able to find an apartment with a kitchen included, if not, good luck, welcome to home ownership without owning a home! You will be learning very fast how to research, buy, measure, a full kitchen with all the appliances ovens, refrigerator, dishwasher etc. and waiting months to have it installed. FUN! All while storing your food on the balcony if the weather is cold enough. In America, if you rent an apartment the landlord or the property management handles repairs most likely. In Germany, you do. We moved into our apartment the washing machine and dishwasher never seemed to work properly, the dishes were dirty and the washing machine lovingly rings an alarm 7 times every 10 minutes when I do a load of laundry. We called our property management and they said we would have to pay the first 100 Euros/130 USD because the wear and tear of usage. That’s funny it happened the first week we moved in. My husband is much more understanding and doesn’t like to cause any waves especially in Germany, he just accepts it and pays, I was furious!!! I KNEW it was a problem with the water supply or something because they were coming from the same pipes! I was told by the Siemens tech which we paid for that it was a clogged pipe filter, which should be cleaned every year or two. Nice, we were fixing the previous tenants dirty filter, that’s B.S. if you ask me, but because I CAN’T curse in German, I am not allowed to voice my concern about that injustice. Welcome to Germany!