By Kevin Meyer
We like to tell you about living in smaller and smaller homes. Change the mindset from wanting more storage space to desiring less to avoid storing junk. Get rid of unnecessary luxuries. Maximize the use of every room.
How much room is necessary for a nice couple to live comfortably? 3000 square feet? 2000? 1000?
How about 175 square feet. Yes, really. I bet some of us have offices larger than that!
Real-estate broker Steven Goldschmidt, senior vice president of Warburg Realty, showed the Prokops the apartment, which used to be one of about nine maid's quarters in the prewar building.
"We converted eight of them into four apartments," Goldschmidt said, with each apartment going for a little less than a half-million dollars.
Real estate crash? When a renovated maids quarters goes for a cool half mil? The Prokops actually got the ninth, which went for a little less.
Zaarath and Christopher Prokop -- and their two cats -- live in the smallest apartment in the city, a 175-square-foot "microstudio" in Morningside Heights the couple bought three months ago for $150,000. At 14.9 feet long and 10 feet wide, it's about as narrow as a subway car and as claustrophobic as a jail cell. But to the Prokops, it's a castle.
Yes that does make for some crazy living habits... or lean habits?
They don't have a trash can. The second something needs to be thrown out, they walk to the chute in the hallway.
That's the easy part. You won't believe how they handle cooking... or clothes. Obviously not for everyone, or perhaps anyone. But extremes such as this often have lessons... and once again the lesson is that we truly can do with less.