Name: I'm Much Happier Living In Copenhagen Than In The U.S. - Look Inside My Home | Unlocked
Uploaded: 2025-11-05T14:11:42.000Z
Duration: 10 min 1 s
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Past simple

It was kind of random that I chose Copenhagen for study abroad.

I think when I first got here, I just thought it was so beautiful and charming.

My dorm that I stayed in for study abroad was right by Nyhavn, which is that iconic canal with all of the colorful houses.

And that whole part of the city is old and historic, which you don't get much of in the US Especially in Texas, where I'm from.

So I think I was just very charmed by Copenhagen from the very beginning.

I'm 30 years old and I'm an American living in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Our rent is about 14,600 Danish kroner a month, which is about US$2,100.

I am a primary school teacher and I work at an international school here in Copenhagen.

Before I moved to Denmark, I was living in Dallas, Texas, and

The first time I came to Denmark was when I was studying abroad in college.

I did a summer program in Copenhagen and absolutely fell in love with it.

So a few years later, I went on a backpacking trip with one of my friends.

And of course I wanted to come back to Copenhagen.

And that is when I met my husband, who is Danish.

When I met my husband and we were doing long distance, of course we were talking about who would move where, and

he was very open to moving to the US actually.

But ultimately we decided that I would come here.

it's small enough that everything's still very accessible, especially with the public transportation that we have.

I never lived in a city with good public transportation before, so I really appreciate it.

As a parent, I also am so happy to live in Copenhagen.

The whole city feels very family friendly.

Like you never feel like you're a nuisance going around somewhere with your stroller.

But I tried to cram as much Danish learning into the first, like, year and a half that I was here.

I can have most everyday exchanges and conversations in Danish.

Right before I moved, I was mostly just really excited.

I guess I was just really ready to not be long distance anymore.

I was also feeling really burnt out from my teaching job in the US So I was just really ready for a change.

We started looking for apartments online and browsed around a bit, and

then we decided that a new build was probably Best for us for a couple of reasons.

We knew that we wanted a fairly modern kitchen and bathroom, which are harder to come by in the city center, especially if you have a budget, as we did.

We found this apartment online when I was here in Copenhagen and we were looking together, but

then I had to go back to the US So my husband came to a viewing of the apartment by himself and he, you know, sent me pictures and he said it looked good.

And then we applied and were able to get a lease.

Amai used to be the place where they would dispose of waste until the 1970s.

And so it was referred to by some people as Island.

I would say our rent is higher here compared to Dallas.

Texas cities have a much lower cost of living.

I think it's a good value for being in Copenhagen and for the amount of space that we have.

Especially because since we moved in, the landlords can't increase the rent very much every year.

So kind of the longer we live here, the more reasonably priced it seems compared to other things in the area.

Before we moved in, we had to pay two months of rent up front and three months of rent as a security deposit.

I think my last apartment in Dallas, I paid like $250 as a security deposit and the rent was like $1500.

So it was like a fraction of my monthly rent that I paid for the deposit.

And that's generally what I hear is people often don't get their security deposits back here.

When we moved here, we didn't really have furniture because I moved with three suitcases.

I didn't ship anything from the US and my husband had been living with a roommate before we moved in together.

So he didn't have a ton of furniture either.

Basically, I think he had a desk and a couple of bookshelves.

Everything else we also had to buy, like light fixtures, because those don't come installed in our apartment and most Copenhagen apartments.

And that's apparently something that a lot of Danes like.

They like to choose their own light fixtures and make it fit their style and kind of set the mood of the room.

But it was definitely not something that I ever had to do in the US So I was surprised that we had to do that.

So over here is our living room and also office.

When you go into different Danish homes, you'll notice that a lot of them have the same kind of like little Danish pieces.

So we have some of those scattered around.

One of them is this little hoptimist which comes in a lot of different like colors.

And then this monkey is ubiquitous in Danish homes.

Our one wall of kitchen, which is definitely much smaller than I was used to in the us.

I do love that the appliances blend in with the kitchen.

When we moved in, the apartment was a really good size for just me and my husband.

But now that we have a child and my husband works from home, sometimes it is feeling like it would be really nice to have an extra room that could be an office.

We have not adopted the European model of two separate duvets.

Mostly because when I moved here I just didn't like the look of it.

We were very lucky to have built in wardrobes.

Most people have to build their own wardrobes.

And like, bedroom closets are definitely not common in Copenhagen.

When we first moved in, this was our office guest room.

When I first moved here, I wanted to have a guest room so that if anyone came to visit me, they would have a free place to stay.

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I'm Much Happier Living In Copenhagen Than In The U.S. - Look Inside My Home | Unlocked

apparently

iconic

fluent

stress