LIVING IN ONE ROOM ON A SMALL INCOME

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 92, 9 July 1927, Page 20

LIVING IN ONE ROOM ON A SMALL INCOME

There are a great many women, like myself, who prefer to live alone in a little place they can call home, however poor and humble it may be, rather than in a hostel, boardinghouse, or as a paying guest. When I made up my mind to find a room within my very limited means, I had no capital, and, therefore, could not hope to furnish an empty room. This, and also the fact that I could only afford to pay a moderate rent, naturally meant that I had to look for my modest home in an unfashionable locality.

Perhaps I need hardly warn the girl or woman who wishes to follow my example as to the snags and difficulties she will encounter, especially as the average landlady prefers a man to a woman lodger; also that the great majority of people who have anything to sell are apt to put a higher price on it than the purchaser is inclined to pay.

As to the ideal room which is to become a woman’s only home, we may take it that it must be cool :n summer, warm in winter, with a , pleasant outlook, and situated on neither too high nor too low a floor. All this, however, forms an ideal which a spell of room-hunting will soon show to be very difficult of attainment. What is of paramount importance is that the house in which you find your room should be long to respectable people, and that the room, when it is shewn to you, should be scrupulously clean—a dirty room spells an undesirable character in the owner of the house. More important to most people than a beautiful view is the question of noise—that is if you are at all sensitive to sound, in which case beware of a house where there are tiny babies or fractious, unhealthy-looking children.

Everyone has to buy her own experience; but a few points may be useful: Make up your mind what service on the part of your landlord you intend to buy with the room. The only form of service I suggest is that of having your coal carried upstairs by the man of the house. Also, before taking an upstairs room, discover first whether water is easily accessible For obvious reasons, rooms become cheaper the more out of the way they are, and the further removed from tram or bus routes, a great inconvenience which should be avoided by anyone who has to get to and from work. Five minutes’ walk from either tiam or bus should be the limit, while it is also an advantage to have some provision shops close at hand. But these points are immaterial in the case of a woman who works at home or lives on a small allowance.

To return to the weary search of rooms, after days of wandering from place to place and from house to house. I at last managed to find a small top room in the little house of some respectable working people. The only furniture of my future home consisted of a bed. a chair and a chest of drawers. But though the room was small and the furnishings so few. and though the one window only overlooked the opposite row of small villas, this bare little room was so superior, especially as to airiness and cleanliness, to many which I had seen in more pretentious surroundings, that I made up my mind to take it for one month.

Apropos of this remark of mine, may I say that it is most foolish to take a

room, however attractive it may seem and however pleasant the landlord or landlady may be. for longer than a month. Indeed in some ways it would be wiser to take a room of the kind for a week before making any effort to improve or beautify it in any way. There is a type of woman who has every quality but that of being able to keep her mouth shut. There is another type of quite good folk who let out a room in their house, and give small, informal dances to their friends, perhaps charging a few pence each. If this happens twice a week, or even once a week, it is apt to be very nerve-racking to the lodger. These, and far too many other things to mention, can only be found out by actually inhabiting a house itself. Therefore do not take a room for a longer period than at most a montfi. Make a point of paying the full rent in advance for whatever short period you have definitely decided to stay. It means that your relations with your landlord will have begun on that ready-money basis which, as an old proverb tells us, makes long friends. When you have decided that you have found the right room and the right landlady, you can then turn with a lighter heart to the improvements that may seem necessary, or the home touches which you feel you can afford. Perhaps you have dreams of a divan

couch, with heaps of cushions, to take the place of the usual bedstead, which looks so bare and unrestful, and is also much too high to be used as a couch. If, however, a divan couch is beyond your means, the bedstead can be so transformed that it will present almost as attractive an appearance. Slip-on covers of some bright-col-oured materia] can be made to go over the hard-looking ends, while a couple of cushions placed at either end will give the effects of an inviting day-bed. The height can also be adjusted by the removal of the rolling castors, which ' often add an inch or two. and if “silent castors” are substituted, you will not only benefit by having an easily-moved bed, but your floor will also benefit.

Other improvements can be made gradually, until you have achieved just the sort of neat and cosy interior that will express your personality.