In Praise of Living with Housemates Abroad / New House Tour

I live in a reasonably-sized bedroom, but I believe there are many great benefits of living in a smaller room, especially when you're in a house FULL of varied, awesome, friendly, nerdy housemates! (Seriously, we're all nerds about something, it's fascinating.)

First, let me describe my house for you.

I live in a house. It’s 3 meters wide at the main door on the street. My house has a garage, nicely-equipped kitchen, and a comfortable living room on the ground level. The living room and back 5 bedrooms were previously part of a separate structure, but at some point the wall between the (current) kitchen and living room was knocked down, combining the two and giving the house a super weird footprint. Rooms in the back lack the view of the canal, have less natural light, and are a bit hot, but are also  a bit cheaper.

Let's take a quick tour of my new place!

Here's the garage. Park your bike and take off your shoes, thank you!

A full kitchen (definitely a perk, even without natural light. TWO refrigerators for 9 people - VERY NICE. Even a microwave and an oven!! (One that will not explode, this time.) There's also a piano here, for some reason, but it is BADLY out of tune.

HI LIAM

A very comfortable living room - no wooden couches here, thank you! Perfect for roommate movie nights or long sessions of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. (HI CLAIRE)

Up here we've got a small kitchen (from when this segment was its own house), a little garden tucked away, and three more bedrooms.

From the garage there's a truly wonky set of stairs that reaches the five bedrooms in the larger section of the house:

There are 10 bedrooms (~4 x 5 meters in my case, but a few are bigger/smaller), each with their own bathroom. This is my bedroom. Each bedroom has it's own bathroom attached. Basically everything I own in this hemisphere is in this room.

I'm planning to make my bathroom into a garden next month. Stay tuned for bambooooooo!

And my view of the canal. Needless to say... I get a lot of mosquitos in here. 

The balcony is nice and I have a few plants, but it has no drain (???) so rainwater tends to accumulate during the rainy season. (again, love those mosquitos...)

I love living in a small bedroom in my own house, because it comes with one indispensable benefit (roommates!), and a ton of other benefits. It's homey, it's comfortable, things don't break down TOO often, and the giant rats that regularly pillaged our kitchen seem have to finally moved out or died, so yayyyyyyyyy.

Benefits of Living with Housemates Abroad

Ok, my Japanese washing machine that I
have to use google translate to understand...

It’s Economical

Smaller place, smaller price. I think that’s pretty evident. My room might cost more than it really should, but it’s still on the Reasonable end of the spectrum of HCMC foreigner housing, and I have my own house. I appreciate the freedom.

It’s Easier to Clean

While it’s true that SE Asia is a very dusty place, it’s equally easy to clean because of the usual construction materials. Most of the floors are tile and are mopped three times a week. My room has wooden slats on the floor, which is very comfortable, although a bit of a trap for kitty litter/food over in Oreo's hallway.

You’re Less Likely to Accumulate ‘Stuff’

Pretty basic geometry, I guess, but less room means less stuff. That’s especially important to me, because when I eventually leave Vietnam I will have to ship the things I keep to my destination, which tragically costs money. I also was a pretty extreme packrat in my American apartments, so this kind of spartan attitude is a refreshing change of lifestyle.

A Small Room Means Less Wasted Air Conditioning Power

And less AC used saves you money. My AC in particular sucks a bit, but that in itself is a nice reason to save some money and lay in front of the fan instead.

Easy and Cheap to Decorate

It’s so important that your room act as a home-base for you. I need to claim my space when I move, and make an environment that doesn’t make me feel like a transient. You have to feel comfortable. A smaller space means that you can focus on a few special objects or pieces of art that can really transform a space.

It’s Hard to Lose Stuff

Hi Oreo!

In theory, less space means fewer places for stuff like keys and pens to hide. However, like in the case of that d*mn AC remote I inexplicably lost in my room last year, I’m still good at losing stuff. Last year's disappearance of multiple vegetable peelers from the kitchen remained an annoyingly stubborn mystery. I just kept buying them. Where do they go?! Who takes a veggie peeler, much less many veggie peelers??

Easy to Overhaul and Purge

Perhaps my second favorite thing about living in a small space is that it’s really easy to see when you’re reaching the saturation point with your things. Clothes, especially, have revealed themselves as a thing that I have too much of. (For instance, I purged almost 3 dozen clothing items in this last move, and it still seems like I don’t have space for everything. And it’s hard to argue that having more clothes is materially improving my world, so the purge is good.)

Not the ‘Party House’…

When your hangout spot is a space that only seats 7-8 comfortably, you don’t throw many big parties. Sure, we have dinners, but they’re not ragers, and no one has any room to cause a ruckus (well, mostly). Plus, the (very noisy) neighbors behind us get all 'broom-whacking-the-window-and-yelling' angry if we're up talking past 10pm in the living room. *pppbbbbbbtt*

…but Planning a Party is Much Easier

Having less space means that small parties can be more intimate and easier to plan. It also means that it’s more likely you’ll interact with your roommates.

Population Density

You knew I was going to say something about this, didn’t you? 🙂

But it’s true – a trend toward small rooms in larger buildings overall helps increase population density. Furthermore, most of your neighbors all have these types of small spaces, too, and the benefits are easy to see anywhere you look in the vital street-level activity. More people in less space is fundamentally more environmental… but also more social.

The Neighborhood!

In Vietnam, your neighborhood will most likely be a vital, busy place, for at least one really good reason: everyone’s room is small and hot, and so everyone’s outside. Our neighborhood is one of the best in the city – it’s simply awesome.

From the people to the services, the food to the location, the very best part of our house is actually everything outside its walls. I have no doubt that I’d spend even more time in my room if it was bigger, and I’d be doing myself a serious cultural disservice.

The House!

Perhaps the most salient perk is that small rooms require we interact with each other more. This would definitely have been a negative in my mind if you asked me 4 years ago, but I’ve had a change of heart. My roommates in Vietnam (with one very huge exception, ahem) have all been pretty amazing people, and I benefited from their cultural knowledge and friendliness. If I were living in a house like this with my family (and if I was Vietnamese, my extended family), I can see this degree of forced intimacy helping create a richer family life by default. It's true that I'm an introvert, and that working with all foreigners is exhausting, but I'm getting better at mingling.

Plus, I get to cook for people I like again! Life is good.

Ultimately, a small room + roommates will make your experience in a different country even more varied and exciting – it’s just a matter of perspective and a sense of possibility.

If that all doesn't convince you, look around your own bedroom: are you willing to move everything you own by yourself on a motorbike at midnight in the rain, trip by miserable trip? Because these things happen. 

Are you a traveler? How many things do you own?