I can't imagine no elevator and walking up with groceries.
That's the norm in most urban centers in Europe. Houses are older than elevators, there's no space for a refit, and rebuilding them from scratch is often not feasible due to the time and cost involved.
I didn't particularly mind it though. Been living anywhere from 2nd to 5th floor without one, and it's perfectly fine.
We also don't buy truckloads of groceries as it works in the US apparently, but pick up stuff we need for the evening or next day on the way back from work, and that's that. I hardly ever broke a sweat from shopping.
During covid we bought 2 weeks of groceries at a time.
So it would only have been aninconvenience once every 2 weeks? Or you could have adjusted your grocery shopping to your situation...or gotten a wheeled cart...or any number of things.
I've lived in multiple 3rd floor walk-ups and I loved it (with a dog that had to go out regularly). If you have a physical limitation that prevents doing stairs it would be a nightmare and moving in and out isn't great. Otherwise it's really not bad, a tiny bit of exercise isn't going to hurt an otherwise healthy adult.
I stayed in a high-rise flat once where the lift was regularly used as a urinal. Climbing the stairs was much preferable to riding up in a stinking box.
Honestly, doing laundry in the basement when I lived on the 3rd floor was the most annoying part of having no elevator.
Third floor ain't that bad as long as you don't exceed your carrying capacity. Going up 3 floors by stairs isn't much compared to the ~10 minutes of walking back from the store. Really not that bad with a bag each hand.
It starts getting much with places with > 4 floors but that's pretty rare without an elevator. You waste more time waiting for the elevator than actually going up anyway when you're on floor < 3.
When you live in a city generally the pattern changes. You don't take the car and go do your biweekly costco trip and come back with 20 bags of groceries. You get like 1-4 at a time, and go more often.
A lot of the time just going out anywhere, you can fit a quick grocery stop on your way home so you come back with maybe 5 items. It's perfectly reasonable to leave work, grab a quick steak at the butcher, some veggies at the store, and you get home with fresh food to cook. Or even go back out because you forgot an item.
City life is just a whole lifestyle. It gets you in shape, and you just don't think that much about having an elevator to go to the second floor.
I lived on the 3rd floor in my first apartment, no elevator. We had no car either so we dealt with it by getting groceries more often. The grocery store was only a few blocks away, so it wasn’t terrible. We could have made it easier with a bike or a folding cart, but we were young and stupid so we just carried it.
I also took the subway to work which added at least another 2-4 sets of stairs I walked up every weekday. Getting to my front door honestly felt like only half of my commute home. It absolutely sucked, but my calves were incredible.
I used to work in public health in NYC. I got to see all the people comign into the hospital. The elderly folks who had lived their whole lives on the higher floors of walkup apartments were almost always in great shape compared to their contemporaries who weren't getting exercise every day.
Lived 4th floor for 2y (4th floor as in 4th floors up from the ground floor), good for exercise
It's the standard in NYC outside of bougie luxury buildings with a lobby. 4 floor walkups are painful, especially while carrying heavy shit.
It's also commonplace to walk up and down a half dozen sets of subway stairs here before you even get to wherever you're going. Most subway stations are not accessible.
3rd floor
You buy less stupid shit because you have to carry it. Also never skip leg day.
6th floor, no elevator. I think of it as part of my daily exercise. It doesn't bother me day to day, but moving in sucked. I think I would be annoyed waiting for an elevator.
It was fine. In NYC roommates and I have been in different apartments that were both 5 and 6 floor walkups. This was when we were in our 20's - early 40's. Thing is that after a few weeks you don't really notice the stairs anymore. Bonus is your legs will be pretty strong!
Sure we also had to lug groceries/laundry up the same flight of stairs, a bit annoying but nothing unusual. Didn't have a car either so all that stuff would get carried x amount of blocks from the apartment or even a subway trip.
In my late 40's / going into 50's I'm not so sure I'd still do those type of walkups anymore.
PS - Yeah pay for movers when doing moves in/out of walkup buildings, you really don't want to do that yourself. It's fine when you only need to go up the stairs once/twice a day but repeatedly for a move is much harder.
Fine for living without children.
But moving in and out was a lot of work.
Yeah, I was definitely fitter as well. It did suck that it wasn't safe to keep your bike downstairs, so I had to drag that thing up and down every day.
Yeah, a shitty no frills bike is best to leave downstairs, otherwise in the cellar is the other option.
I went the other route and got a more expensive, lighter bike. Pretty sure they would've stolen even the shittiest of bikes, my first one was.
It used to annoy me when I still had a car, because I had to carry up a lot more groceries at once and I was an unfit sack of shit. Now I walk to the store every three days or so, meaning the weight is a lot less at once and it's just a minor extension of my evening walk...
Exactly how much groceries do people have? I currently live two stairs up from the ground floor as I have lived for more than 15 years. It has honestly never even crossed my mind that carrying up groceries could ever be a problem.
Third floor (two sets of stairs), ten years with my mother. Groceries were the worst, but you haul and you get used to it. The human brain and body can get used to a lot of things. Carrying groceries is not one of the worst things it can get used to. Not even close lmao.
It has never bothered me. I paid movers to get my shit up here, and they did. It is rare that an extra flight of stairs or two matters on your way to/from the car.
It's ok, I think more about the apartment itself than the stairwell up to it but it's an ok enough stairwell.
Yeah, I liked it. I carried the groceries two or three blocks from the store already, what's a couple flights of stairs?
Day to day life was fine but it sucked ass when...
Moving furniture in or throwing out/giving away old furniture
You buy too many groceries at once
You store your bike upstairs
I've had in unit laundry so I can't comment on that
I had an apartment in the 5th floor without an elevator. I liked it at the time and it had some advantages (great view of the city, cheap rent) but was horrendously impractical if you needed to carry anything big up. Even simple things like taking out the trash were really annoying.
I've never lived in a building with an elevator. I've lived in multistorey apartments, townhouses and live in one now.
Stairs are part of life.
I've never had an issue with groceries and stairs.
Heavy furniture and stairs on the other hand are a reminder that you need friends in your life, if only to have them help you move :)
People who live with stair cases have better overall health outcomes as they age. Turns out that exercise is really good for your health.
I spent a week in Denmark in a fourth floor apartment without elevators. It’s normal there. You also only buy a day or two worth of groceries at a time from stores like Aldi.
That must suck for disabled people.
Disabled people in the Nordics get assistance services for free. The hours vary based on the degree of disability. Those do anything needed in the household, including groceries.
I'd say anything up to a third floor is ok, you just get used to it. I'm only on the first but my walk to the supermarket does include a ~2 floor staircase and don't think that much of it anymore. It still feels awkward when you get something big delivered and wonder if they'll bring it up the stairs though.
It was a struggle to move but other than that it didn't really effect me. I walk about a mile for groceries so the added stairs weren't a huge problem.
Another issue was the layout of the building. It wasn't just a tall column with an elevator. It had multiple staircases so it was a struggle for visitors and delivery people to find apartments.
Oof, yeah I've seen buildings like that. In NYC in the Lower East Side inside some of the older buildings you walk up one flight of stairs then walk the hallway across the length of the building to the other flight of stairs. That sort of setup feels so much worse vs just toughing it out up a column of stairs.
Never had an elevator, but the highest I've ever been is the third floor. I loved it, but yeah I definitely made 1 trip for groceries
I still do, though I only live 2 floors from ground level. It's not really an issue with groceries since the store is one street away, so I go like 3 times a week.
I have not, but I had a friend who always ended up getting apartments on the 3rd floor, and I helped him move several times. Would not recommend.
I was in a fourth floor walk up. It was fine until in one year I broke my foot and my dog's back was paralyzed. Going up four flights of stairs on crutches sure sucked, as did carrying a 50lb dog up and down three times a day.
I did once in college. I lived in the attic of an old Victorian house so three floors up. Old crappy stairs. I loved it. It was only me though and my girlfriend for a bit so not much groceries to carry up.
I did in college and I liked it.
I didn’t necessarily like it because no elevator, and I was only on the third floor, but the lack of an elevator was never much of a problem.
I do remember at the depth of my depression, those stairs seemed like to much at times.
But looking back, knowing what I now know about psychology, those stairs were actually helping me with the depression.
It wasn't a big issue until I screwed up my ankle really bad. A couple years later I messed up my back and moved out.
My wife and I lived in a 3rd floor walkup and yes it could be annoying but we loved it because we had three facings and lots of light. We left because after some knee surgery it was just not doable long term. The passive excersise was sorta nice but you have to be able to handle it.
I've done that when I was younger... It's great exercise. Also had to walk to shop and carry bags home, since I had no car.
It's actually dangerous how out of shape people let themselves become.
I grew up on the third floor without an elevator. Thinking of it, I've lived mostly without elevator most of my life. Some places on the first floor but mostly 2-3 floor. A year on a top floor penthouse apartment without elevator on the top of a hill. Last place was fourth floor with an elevator. Now I'm back to stairs only. It feels perfectly natural for me.
I needed a second to remember whether this building has an elevator. Never used it.
Many smaller apartment buildings have no elevator. Above 4 floors that's certainly annoying, but not unheard of.
So, yes, I don't mind it. Never buy more than what fits in a bagpack plus one shopping bag. Easy if you don't have a car and all supermarkets you go to are in walking distance.
I didn’t really care day-to-day but it’s awful moving into/out of one or any other time you have to carry a lot. I did it when I was young without minding too much but wouldn’t even try now that I’m old enough that my knees can tell when a storm is coming.
I live on the second floor and it's NBD. Used to live on the third floor of the same building and that was a little worse, only because the stairwell isn't climate controlled so it gets very steamy in the summer. Still, not a big deal.
Importantly though, I hardly ever have to carry a large load of groceries up the stairs. I live near a corner shop and get most of my groceries there as I run out of stuff, so I hardly ever have to do the big shop. And when I do need stuff from a supermarket, I order from Instacart, so the delivery person will do the stairs with my stuff.
3rd floor of 6. Wasn't too bad. In a city with lots nearby so regular small trips to places. Move in and move out were annoying but one-offs
I owned a 3rd floor walk-up condo for about 20 years. The two flights of stairs were no problem outside of moving day which only happened twice in twenty years.
I was not a huge fan of walking up several stories for everything, no.
Normally it's just more inconvenient to do anything, like getting mail or groceries - slightly, but it does add up. When moving in or out or replacing furniture, anything like that, it's suddenly very inconvenient.
On the bright side, I guess the extra exercise probably doesn't hurt.
I lived in a lower level apartment with no elevator. Kind of like a basement apartment but it's ground level in the back. I can't remember what that's called.
Groceries sucked but I'm no quitter! Got everything in 1 trip. 🤡
Also I was allowed to have a bigger dog since no one was underneath me, but I was forbidden from owning a pot bellied pig. 😔
Some bad things would be:
headlights directly in living room at night (behind the TV)
flooding concerns from the front garden
difficulty using stairs if injured or moving heavy stuff
not handicap accessible so have to turn away friends and go somewhere else
the people upstairs sounded like they were stomping everywhere and also rearranging their furniture every day
other typical shitty apartment things
At least the stairs were covered though
I don't have OCD but I do have a problem with spinning around. When I do a series of motions that collectively have me do a full 360 clockwise turn, then I have to do a counterclockwise turn to undo it.
I also live in the third floor so whenever I take the stairs, I have to do three spins afterwards to "unspinn" myself.
So no, I do not like living in a building without an elevator
I'm sorry, that sounds so inconvenient. I'm sorry that a piece of your brain space needs to be assigned to this, and I can imagine it feeling so uncomfortable until you're able to unspin. That's awful.
Second floor now, third floor earlier, so what? I’m up the stairs before the elevator would even have arrived. Are you, like, 80?
Being 80 wouldn't explain it. My 80+ aunt with severe arthritis (as in having had multiple surgeries on her feet and hands) managed two stairs up and down several times a day with no complaints. She considered it good excercise and saw it as one thing that keept her on her feet.
That's the norm in most urban centers in Europe. Houses are older than elevators, there's no space for a refit, and rebuilding them from scratch is often not feasible due to the time and cost involved.
I didn't particularly mind it though. Been living anywhere from 2nd to 5th floor without one, and it's perfectly fine.
We also don't buy truckloads of groceries as it works in the US apparently, but pick up stuff we need for the evening or next day on the way back from work, and that's that. I hardly ever broke a sweat from shopping.
During covid we bought 2 weeks of groceries at a time.
So it would only have been aninconvenience once every 2 weeks? Or you could have adjusted your grocery shopping to your situation...or gotten a wheeled cart...or any number of things.
I've lived in multiple 3rd floor walk-ups and I loved it (with a dog that had to go out regularly). If you have a physical limitation that prevents doing stairs it would be a nightmare and moving in and out isn't great. Otherwise it's really not bad, a tiny bit of exercise isn't going to hurt an otherwise healthy adult.
I stayed in a high-rise flat once where the lift was regularly used as a urinal. Climbing the stairs was much preferable to riding up in a stinking box.
Honestly, doing laundry in the basement when I lived on the 3rd floor was the most annoying part of having no elevator.
Third floor ain't that bad as long as you don't exceed your carrying capacity. Going up 3 floors by stairs isn't much compared to the ~10 minutes of walking back from the store. Really not that bad with a bag each hand.
It starts getting much with places with > 4 floors but that's pretty rare without an elevator. You waste more time waiting for the elevator than actually going up anyway when you're on floor < 3.
When you live in a city generally the pattern changes. You don't take the car and go do your biweekly costco trip and come back with 20 bags of groceries. You get like 1-4 at a time, and go more often.
A lot of the time just going out anywhere, you can fit a quick grocery stop on your way home so you come back with maybe 5 items. It's perfectly reasonable to leave work, grab a quick steak at the butcher, some veggies at the store, and you get home with fresh food to cook. Or even go back out because you forgot an item.
City life is just a whole lifestyle. It gets you in shape, and you just don't think that much about having an elevator to go to the second floor.
I lived on the 3rd floor in my first apartment, no elevator. We had no car either so we dealt with it by getting groceries more often. The grocery store was only a few blocks away, so it wasn’t terrible. We could have made it easier with a bike or a folding cart, but we were young and stupid so we just carried it.
I also took the subway to work which added at least another 2-4 sets of stairs I walked up every weekday. Getting to my front door honestly felt like only half of my commute home. It absolutely sucked, but my calves were incredible.
I used to work in public health in NYC. I got to see all the people comign into the hospital. The elderly folks who had lived their whole lives on the higher floors of walkup apartments were almost always in great shape compared to their contemporaries who weren't getting exercise every day.
Lived 4th floor for 2y (4th floor as in 4th floors up from the ground floor), good for exercise
It's the standard in NYC outside of bougie luxury buildings with a lobby. 4 floor walkups are painful, especially while carrying heavy shit.
It's also commonplace to walk up and down a half dozen sets of subway stairs here before you even get to wherever you're going. Most subway stations are not accessible.
3rd floor
You buy less stupid shit because you have to carry it. Also never skip leg day.
6th floor, no elevator. I think of it as part of my daily exercise. It doesn't bother me day to day, but moving in sucked. I think I would be annoyed waiting for an elevator.
It was fine. In NYC roommates and I have been in different apartments that were both 5 and 6 floor walkups. This was when we were in our 20's - early 40's. Thing is that after a few weeks you don't really notice the stairs anymore. Bonus is your legs will be pretty strong!
Sure we also had to lug groceries/laundry up the same flight of stairs, a bit annoying but nothing unusual. Didn't have a car either so all that stuff would get carried x amount of blocks from the apartment or even a subway trip.
In my late 40's / going into 50's I'm not so sure I'd still do those type of walkups anymore.
PS - Yeah pay for movers when doing moves in/out of walkup buildings, you really don't want to do that yourself. It's fine when you only need to go up the stairs once/twice a day but repeatedly for a move is much harder.
Fine for living without children.
But moving in and out was a lot of work.
Yeah, I was definitely fitter as well. It did suck that it wasn't safe to keep your bike downstairs, so I had to drag that thing up and down every day.
Yeah, a shitty no frills bike is best to leave downstairs, otherwise in the cellar is the other option.
I went the other route and got a more expensive, lighter bike. Pretty sure they would've stolen even the shittiest of bikes, my first one was.
It used to annoy me when I still had a car, because I had to carry up a lot more groceries at once and I was an unfit sack of shit. Now I walk to the store every three days or so, meaning the weight is a lot less at once and it's just a minor extension of my evening walk...
Exactly how much groceries do people have? I currently live two stairs up from the ground floor as I have lived for more than 15 years. It has honestly never even crossed my mind that carrying up groceries could ever be a problem.
Third floor (two sets of stairs), ten years with my mother. Groceries were the worst, but you haul and you get used to it. The human brain and body can get used to a lot of things. Carrying groceries is not one of the worst things it can get used to. Not even close lmao.
It has never bothered me. I paid movers to get my shit up here, and they did. It is rare that an extra flight of stairs or two matters on your way to/from the car.
It's ok, I think more about the apartment itself than the stairwell up to it but it's an ok enough stairwell.
Yeah, I liked it. I carried the groceries two or three blocks from the store already, what's a couple flights of stairs?
Day to day life was fine but it sucked ass when...
I've had in unit laundry so I can't comment on that
I had an apartment in the 5th floor without an elevator. I liked it at the time and it had some advantages (great view of the city, cheap rent) but was horrendously impractical if you needed to carry anything big up. Even simple things like taking out the trash were really annoying.
I've never lived in a building with an elevator. I've lived in multistorey apartments, townhouses and live in one now.
Stairs are part of life.
I've never had an issue with groceries and stairs.
Heavy furniture and stairs on the other hand are a reminder that you need friends in your life, if only to have them help you move :)
People who live with stair cases have better overall health outcomes as they age. Turns out that exercise is really good for your health.
I spent a week in Denmark in a fourth floor apartment without elevators. It’s normal there. You also only buy a day or two worth of groceries at a time from stores like Aldi.
That must suck for disabled people.
Disabled people in the Nordics get assistance services for free. The hours vary based on the degree of disability. Those do anything needed in the household, including groceries.
I'd say anything up to a third floor is ok, you just get used to it. I'm only on the first but my walk to the supermarket does include a ~2 floor staircase and don't think that much of it anymore. It still feels awkward when you get something big delivered and wonder if they'll bring it up the stairs though.
It was a struggle to move but other than that it didn't really effect me. I walk about a mile for groceries so the added stairs weren't a huge problem.
Another issue was the layout of the building. It wasn't just a tall column with an elevator. It had multiple staircases so it was a struggle for visitors and delivery people to find apartments.
Oof, yeah I've seen buildings like that. In NYC in the Lower East Side inside some of the older buildings you walk up one flight of stairs then walk the hallway across the length of the building to the other flight of stairs. That sort of setup feels so much worse vs just toughing it out up a column of stairs.
Never had an elevator, but the highest I've ever been is the third floor. I loved it, but yeah I definitely made 1 trip for groceries
I still do, though I only live 2 floors from ground level. It's not really an issue with groceries since the store is one street away, so I go like 3 times a week.
I have not, but I had a friend who always ended up getting apartments on the 3rd floor, and I helped him move several times. Would not recommend.
I was in a fourth floor walk up. It was fine until in one year I broke my foot and my dog's back was paralyzed. Going up four flights of stairs on crutches sure sucked, as did carrying a 50lb dog up and down three times a day.
I did once in college. I lived in the attic of an old Victorian house so three floors up. Old crappy stairs. I loved it. It was only me though and my girlfriend for a bit so not much groceries to carry up.
I did in college and I liked it.
I didn’t necessarily like it because no elevator, and I was only on the third floor, but the lack of an elevator was never much of a problem.
I do remember at the depth of my depression, those stairs seemed like to much at times.
But looking back, knowing what I now know about psychology, those stairs were actually helping me with the depression.
It wasn't a big issue until I screwed up my ankle really bad. A couple years later I messed up my back and moved out.
My wife and I lived in a 3rd floor walkup and yes it could be annoying but we loved it because we had three facings and lots of light. We left because after some knee surgery it was just not doable long term. The passive excersise was sorta nice but you have to be able to handle it.
I've done that when I was younger... It's great exercise. Also had to walk to shop and carry bags home, since I had no car.
It's actually dangerous how out of shape people let themselves become.
I grew up on the third floor without an elevator. Thinking of it, I've lived mostly without elevator most of my life. Some places on the first floor but mostly 2-3 floor. A year on a top floor penthouse apartment without elevator on the top of a hill. Last place was fourth floor with an elevator. Now I'm back to stairs only. It feels perfectly natural for me.
I needed a second to remember whether this building has an elevator. Never used it.
Many smaller apartment buildings have no elevator. Above 4 floors that's certainly annoying, but not unheard of.
So, yes, I don't mind it. Never buy more than what fits in a bagpack plus one shopping bag. Easy if you don't have a car and all supermarkets you go to are in walking distance.
I didn’t really care day-to-day but it’s awful moving into/out of one or any other time you have to carry a lot. I did it when I was young without minding too much but wouldn’t even try now that I’m old enough that my knees can tell when a storm is coming.
I live on the second floor and it's NBD. Used to live on the third floor of the same building and that was a little worse, only because the stairwell isn't climate controlled so it gets very steamy in the summer. Still, not a big deal.
Importantly though, I hardly ever have to carry a large load of groceries up the stairs. I live near a corner shop and get most of my groceries there as I run out of stuff, so I hardly ever have to do the big shop. And when I do need stuff from a supermarket, I order from Instacart, so the delivery person will do the stairs with my stuff.
3rd floor of 6. Wasn't too bad. In a city with lots nearby so regular small trips to places. Move in and move out were annoying but one-offs
I owned a 3rd floor walk-up condo for about 20 years. The two flights of stairs were no problem outside of moving day which only happened twice in twenty years.
I was not a huge fan of walking up several stories for everything, no.
Normally it's just more inconvenient to do anything, like getting mail or groceries - slightly, but it does add up. When moving in or out or replacing furniture, anything like that, it's suddenly very inconvenient.
On the bright side, I guess the extra exercise probably doesn't hurt.
I lived in a lower level apartment with no elevator. Kind of like a basement apartment but it's ground level in the back. I can't remember what that's called.
Groceries sucked but I'm no quitter! Got everything in 1 trip. 🤡
Also I was allowed to have a bigger dog since no one was underneath me, but I was forbidden from owning a pot bellied pig. 😔
Some bad things would be:
At least the stairs were covered though
I don't have OCD but I do have a problem with spinning around. When I do a series of motions that collectively have me do a full 360 clockwise turn, then I have to do a counterclockwise turn to undo it.
I also live in the third floor so whenever I take the stairs, I have to do three spins afterwards to "unspinn" myself.
So no, I do not like living in a building without an elevator
I'm sorry, that sounds so inconvenient. I'm sorry that a piece of your brain space needs to be assigned to this, and I can imagine it feeling so uncomfortable until you're able to unspin. That's awful.
Second floor now, third floor earlier, so what? I’m up the stairs before the elevator would even have arrived. Are you, like, 80?
Being 80 wouldn't explain it. My 80+ aunt with severe arthritis (as in having had multiple surgeries on her feet and hands) managed two stairs up and down several times a day with no complaints. She considered it good excercise and saw it as one thing that keept her on her feet.