A Guide to Selecting Appliances to Fit Your Small Apartment Lifestyle

Getting the Right Tech

The Kitchen is the best place to start – because that is where the most clutter occurs.

The living area with its entertainment systems, and the bedroom are for later episodes in your Compact Living adventure.

The solution is to get just what you will use. For example: unless using a counter-top food blender is part of your daily dietary regimen – you can just as easily use a hand-held blender for those occasional needs. A hand-held blender can be put away when not in use. It is easier to store.

The Difficult Thing First - Cooking

In the event that your apartment does not have a fitted stove/oven your cooking needs come down to some simple choices.
First do you actually cook? Or do you heat pre-prepared meals?
For cooking, and depending on what you cook, you might consider

a counter-top griller / fryer
an air fryer
a wok

For pre-prepared meals – a microwave oven is the way to go.
Some microwaves – such as the ones featured here – have more functionality for cooking also.
Giving you almost the best of both worlds.

Both of these solutions can be complemented with an electric wok for preparing healthy stir-fried meals.

Stir-frying is by far the healthiest cooking method – using very little oil and providing an opportunity to create tasty meals that have not had all the vitamin content cooked out of them.

The Art of Compact Living

Bring life to Compact Living by outfitting your Compact Lifestyle space with the optimum small home appliances.
Smart choices make the seemingly utilitarian approach a happy and liveable one.

My small home appliances Guide to Compact Living saves you from the heart-ache and pain of becoming a victim of "Buying Junk You Dont Need"! I cut through the veil of marketing BS to present you with the "short-and-sweet", no-nonsense version - of Important Things to Buy - That Work.

The Easy Things - Boiling Water and Making Toast

A beautiful Electric Kettle is a must have. (An electric kettle is just a neccessity).
The beauty of a glass jug kettle – apart from its aesthetic appeal, is the practicality of being able to see the inside of it. One thing that most people overlook in a Kettle is cleanliness and scale build-up.

Most kettles these days have a contained water vessel for the boiling of the water and the heating element is not exposed to the corrosive activity of water or the salts contained in it.

With a glass kettle – and depending on the quality of the water in your area, you can see how quickly scale builds up on the heating plate.
Because the glass kettle is made from Borosilicate glass, scale does not affect the wall of the kettle.

Your kettle will run more efficiently when you clean it regularly – at least once a month.
When you can see the scale building up on the heating plate.And since your glass kettle is already an elegantly Designed piece of equipment, there is no need to have it “match” anything else in your kitchen.

There is No Life Without a Toaster

Ideal for a quick breakfast or making a snack, or a toasted sandwich as part of a quick dinner.
The toasters I have featured here are the best I have seen. Given that all toasters are basically the same – with some different outward cosmetics, my recommendations have tended toward full-functionality and clean Design.

Stainless steel works best. There is no 'trendy' color and strange shape to grow tired of.

Your toaster does not have to “go with” anything. Keep your Compact Life choices simple.
Luckily - I have a range of toasters right here.

The Next Important Thing in Your Compact Apartment is Floor-Care.

Sure, sweeping with a broom is a simple choice. But brooms do not quite get into all the hard-to-reach corners. And cannot be used on carpets. Not really. Hence the Vacuum Cleaner.
A small living space needs only a SMALL Vacuum Cleaner.
A powerful and efficient machine that is:

easy to move around
easy to store
can vacuum carpets – if you are the sort of person who likes carpets.

If the Vacuum Cleaner can fulfil these three criteria – it is perfect for your Compact Living needs.
It is up to your budget, and time constraints as to whether to get a DIY Vacuum Cleaner, or a robotic machine. Personally, I have little faith in the Robo-Vac. It is not much different to the Dust-Buster mini vacuum machine.

The Steam Age of Ironing is Still Here

This is TEO. TEO lives at Carlos III University of Madrid in Spain. He can iron clothes.
You cannot afford to buy him. Or pay for his upkeep.

So it looks like you will be looking at my Steam Irons here.

Why is this in here? Well. We all like to look good. Or most of us do.
It is the only small appliance that has nothing to do with home-care, and only to do with the Carer of the Home.
The steam irons featured here have been chosen based on user reviews and design appeal. And their longest Warranty certifications.

These are not the most technically complicated of Steam Irons. They will get the job done. With some style. And without the rocket science.
There will never be domestic robotic steam irons. Not affordable - or in the near future.

Steam irons will vanish as fabric technology renders them obsolete. So "Get Yours Now! While Stocks Last!" etcetera.

This trend has already begun with non-iron and crease-resistant fabrics. Clothing manufacturers just have to get the perma-crease shirts and trousers right.
Enough to always look smart, and we are away.

After all - we manage to do this in Star Trek!