A key expat skill is packing light but there’s another important art to master – knowing the essentials to buy for your new home once you arrive. Fitting it out in truly local style will help you not only to fit in with your new neighbours, but also to impress the flock of eager visitors who will no doubt soon be arriving as your guests, lured by the prospect of a moneysaving holiday.
Here’s our top 10 list of items for living in Spain and kitting out a sunny Spanish pad:
One: Olive Oil
Spain is the world’s top producer of olive oil, and, if you’re planning to embrace local cuisine as well as culture, bottles of high quality olive oil will soon become a cupboard staple.
Two: A clothes line
Tumble dryers are rare in Spain – why use further electricity when the weather is so good? Even if you don’t have a garden, stringing up a line on your apartment balcony is more than acceptable, and many apartment buildings have an internal patio where laundry can also be hung.
Spanish Olive Oil, Source
Three: Napkins
Not just for restaurants or special occasions, Spanish guests will expect to have a napkin handy while eating.
Four: Una Cafetera
Good coffee requires a cafetera, so banish that jar of instant coffee and wake up and smell the real coffee!
Una cafetera in its three parts. You’ll figure it out when you get here…
Five: Blinds or shutters
Blinds and shutters aren’t anywhere near as common in the UK as they are here in Spain; ask any Spaniard who’s gone from here to there– it’s a big shock for them! Curtains just don’t keep out the hot summer sun (or the light when indulging in a siesta), so which will it be – Venetian? Roller? Made from esparto grass?
Six: Bombonas
Plenty of Spanish properties don’t have access to a mains gas supply, so you may need to get bombonas (bottled butane gas) delivered and get used to changing the cylinders as needed.
Lovely aren’t they?
Seven: A mop
Carpets are rare so housework is no longer dominated by the whirr of a vacuum cleaner. Instead tiles (often decorative as well as practical) are most common, along with wooden floors which can require waxing and varnishing. And apparently the mop was invented in Spain, so even when cleaning you’ll be following a local tradition.
Eight: Vino
This should be red and plenteous, and, with the highly affordable local prices, your home should always be well-stocked!
Red wine is often served in glasses like this at home… (Source)
Nine: Side plates
Serve bread with EVERYTHING. Even meals which are already carb-heavy.
Ten: Un brasero
Not strictly necessary (central heaters will do) but worth having just for the novelty of it. This ingenious, electrical contraption is placed, or sometimes even fitted, beneath the tableclothed dining room table and serves to keep your legs warm during the cold winter months. This is about as Spanish as it gets!
El brasero, hiding beneath the table. Pure genius (Source)
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This is very helpful and has me really excited to move to Spain! Thanks, Josh.
Pleased I could enlighten you Mike! When are you moving over? I thought I’d read somewhere on you blog that you meant to come last September?
Napkins, Spaniards do indeed love napkins. You’d do well to just leave a pile for each guest. Especially if they’re eating pollo asado con papas, a fave local combo. That’s roast chicken and potatoes, guys.
The only time I’ve been to the Canary islands– Tenerife in 2010 –I ordered a dish of Canary-style salted potatoes and ended up drinking almost 2 litres of bottled water to offset the saltiness. That was then, my palate is probably más maduro now.
Ugh, so happy to not have braseros or bombonas anymore! Seems I’m growing up…
Yeah, to tell you the truth I am not one for Bombonas either. While kinda retro they’re also a massive pain in the ass to change. Braseros though– they are awesome.
So true!
I haven’t noticed the napkins, but maybe it’s because I’m used to them from Denmark..
I had a Brasero in Seville, and it was the BEST! Apart from the fact that it used so much electricity that we couldn’t cook when it was on without having the fuses pop once in a while 😉
Yes that is a problem in our flat too, albeit its the wheelie-radiators combined with use of the dishwasher that our fusebox can’t handle. Winter’s over now though so radiators are stowed away in their cupboards!
[…] Ho letto un post interessante di un americano che vive a Granada e che ha elencato i 10 oggetti indispensabili per vivere in Spagna. […]
This post makes me want to go to Spain and know the culture there!
I’m confused about the napkin thing … is that not common somewhere? Growing up in small-town USA, we always had them.
Braseros aren’t necessary in the north, where most houses have heating, but I love it when we go to the pueblo, which gets super cold, and have sobremesa!
Obviously napkins are used all over, but I don’t think they are used quite as abundantly in the UK as they are in Spain. We tend to just leave one on our lap, or, if you’re super old-skool, tuck it into your jumper at the neck. Jolly good.
I’m still not convinced about the brasero things – they’re kind of uncomfortable because I’m always afraid of burning my toes on them. I have a wheelie radiator instead and would kill for central heating.
And on the curtains/blinds note, I’m surprised they don’t have screens here to go with them. My flat is always filled with hungry mosquitos in the summer! Screens are a bit ugly but definitely preferable to millions of mosquito bites.
They are a bit stone age aren’t they? We also use wheelies. They do a great job and they keep the room warm for about an hour after they are turned off!
You just reminded me of the impending mosquito feeding frenzy. Gulp.