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Thomas Loncq, 35, and Himika Masago, 34, moved back to Paris in 2023 after two years of living together in Japan, and they needed a place to stay.
“After returning to France, we needed to find a place right away, but we were unemployed, and renting a place seemed difficult,” Masago told Business Insider.
It made sense for the couple — who both have a background in architecture — to first move into the micro-apartment that Loncq already owned as they settled down into their new lives in the city.
Living tiny
Loncq had bought the micro-apartment five years ago for €90,000, or about $98,050, and had been renting the place out while he was in Japan. The room measured nine square meters, or about 97 square feet.
“I was looking to buy something to invest in but I didn’t have a big capacity to lend money from the bank. I also wanted to find something in Paris, and that’s how I ended up buying such a small place,” Loncq told BI.
The apartment is housed in a building that was built in the 1930s, and it was originally a “chambre de bonne,” or a maid’s room.
Nestled under the roofs of Paris’ apartment buildings, these micro-dwellings were originally meant to be the private quarters of domestic helpers.
There are about 113,000 chambres de bonnes in the capital, according to a study by the Parisian Urban Planning Agency, per Le Parisien.
The couple’s micro-home is in the 11th arrondissement of Paris, where apartments cost an average of €9,637 per square meter, according to the latest March data from French property website Seloger.com.
Similar-sized rooms in the area cost anywhere between $53,000 and $132,000, per active listings on real-estate platform Properstar.
“There are no tourist spots. This area is not a high-class residential area, but is called downtown Paris, and has the highest population density among the 20 arrondissements of Paris, making it an easy place to live,” Masago said.
Cutting clutter
The 97-square-foot micro-home has just enough space for a futon, a mini study, a kitchenette, and a standing shower. The toilet is shared with other occupants on the same floor, Loncq said.
Thankfully, the couple didn’t have that much trouble decluttering.
In preparation for Loncq’s move to Japan, he had already sold most of his belongings. Likewise, Masago had gotten rid of a lot of stuff before she moved to Paris.
Living minimally comes like second nature now.
Masago said they are both more selective about what they buy. “He collects CDs, and I collect vintage plates, but we no longer buy them just because they’re cheap.”
In addition to thinking about what they want and need, they also stopped caring about what others might think.
“I no longer think about things from an outsider’s perspective, like, ‘I look nice when I own this,”’ Masago said.
Creating extra storage with a raised floor
The micro-apartment didn’t have that many storage options in the beginning. Most of the cabinets were only installed after it was decided that they were going to move in together.
Inspired by Japanese interior design, the couple decided to build a raised floor that covers most of their apartment. This meant that the area under their floor could be used as storage space.
The only part of the floor that isn’t raised is a spot by the entrance. By creating a difference in height between their entryway and the rest of their home, it also feels like there’s a separation between the spaces, Masago said.
“This eliminates the psychological block of sitting on the floor,” she said, adding, “It feels like a living room, so there is no resistance to sleeping or sitting on the floor with a futon spread out.”
Additionally, the floor of the couple’s standing shower is much higher than the rest of the home, due to the slope of the drain pipe running underneath, she said.
If they didn’t build a raised floor, there would have been a height difference of over one foot between the shower floor and the rest of the room, she added.
Perks of living tiny
There are benefits to living in a micro-apartment too.
“I like to live here because since the space is small, sunlight comes into all parts of the room,” Masago said. Keeping their apartment tidy is also a breeze, since there aren’t that many things they have to clean.
Living in the micro-apartment was meant to be a temporary arrangement, and the couple hopes to move out this year, Loncq said.
“We stayed here longer than I expected to, I think, because we feel quite comfortable,” he said. “We are used to the place now, so now if we get a 20-square-meter apartment, we’ll feel like it’s a palace. What would we do with all that space?”
