VIDEO: How a man lives and works in a 78-square-foot Hell’s Kitchen ‘studio’

The going rate for a Hell’s Kitchen studio is upwards of $2,000/month, but when now 32-year-old Luke Clark Tyler moved into his pad in 2011, he signed a lease for only $750. This might sound like a bargain, but the freelance designer/architect is living (and working!) in an astonishingly small 78 square feet, which by Sharably’s account is the smallest apartment in America. And when you break that down by price per square foot, he’s actually paying almost twice as much as the neighborhood average. But nevertheless, Tyler is happy to have the extra cash to enjoy the many dance performances in his ‘hood and says that after living tiny for more than five years, “we adapt very easily as people.”

Believe it or not, Tyler’s previous apartment was 96 square feet. So, when he saw this pad listed on Craigslist (“I don’t know if it qualifies as a studio,” he admits) he wasn’t deterred. He spent a very reasonable $170 building his own bed that flips down into a couch and also outfitted the closet with custom built-in storage that holds basically all his belongings, including a microwave, printer, dishes, books, toiletries, cleaning supplies, and clothes. He also has a mini fridge and a desk, and though he doesn’t mind not having a kitchen or having to share a hallway bathroom with three other people, he does wish he had a sink.

[Via Sharably]

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