Welcome to New York, where moving flat is more exhausting than dating

A space the size of a small corridor? Check. Questionable furniture in lieu of a bed? A mountain of fees? Check. Holly Baxter is finding that house hunting in the Big Apple is nothing short of arduous

Gaslighting and intrusive questions are also all part of the moving process (Getty)

Moving house in New York is not like moving house in London. For one thing, you acquire most of your furniture from someone else’s stoop while walking down a side street on a Sunday afternoon and following a handmade sign. For another, you start accepting that places you would previously have described as small corridors now count as entire apartments.

This is not necessarily new territory for me. I began my media career in London living in my friend’s airing cupboard, curled up around the boiler with my spare clothes attached to a single coat-hanger suspended from the ceiling. It didn’t feel like that much of a hardship at the time, although now I’m in my thirties, I’ve developed a niche, over-privileged desire for a mattress; to be completely honest, my expectations in a home might actually extend so far as to an entire bed. I am not, however, too good for a studio flat where you can lean over and cook a fried egg on the stove from the bed. When you live in New York, your priorities shift a little.