Switzerland is one of the smallest, but most densely populated countries in Europe. It has a population of approximately 7.3 million, with 173 people per square kilometer. Here, space is at a premium. In all other European countries, appliances are 60 centimeters wide. Here, they are 55 centimeters wide. Why? Space. There is a lack of it.
When we were looking for apartments, I noticed all the elevators were the same (tiny) size. This appears to be a pretty standard size that is just large enough to fit appliances in one at a time. Our kitchen is packed like the blocks from a game of Tetris, but it all fits. We are lucky to even have appliances like a dishwasher, oven, washing machine and dryer.
They are also smaller than we were used to in the US and only hold about a half to a third of what our washer in the US did. It also takes a bit longer to wash and dry a load here, clocking in at about 4 hours. The result, we wear things a little more before throwing them in the wash.
By the way, everything seems larger in the US. Check out the size of the US toilet paper roll compared to the Swiss role.
schwingeninswitzerland 