The dreaded cleaning day in the bostadsrättsförening.
Housing associations
In addition to forming an exceedingly long word bostadsrätts is becoming the most common form of living in Sweden. You can either rent or buy an apartment in Sweden but paying a very large amount of money for an apartment does not mean you own the actual apartment – just the right to a percentage of the association that owns the building your apartment is in. If it sounds complicated it is. It is also a system based on everyone working together to look after the building which often results in disputes. It’s not a perfect system but it's the one we’ve got.
Don't overrun your time slot in the laundry room.
Communal laundry rooms
If you live in an apartment building you most likely have access to a communal laundry room. It is great to not have to hang up your laundry all over your apartment but sharing a laundry room also comes with challenges. Leaving angry or passive-aggressive notes is a traditional method of Swedish communication and the angry laundry room note is a special category close to our hearts. If you accidentally overrun your time slot or forget to remove the fluff from the dryer filter do not be surprised if you are met with a note containing both profanities and perhaps even mild physical threats.
The dream of a summer house.
Summer houses
Sweden is one of the countries in the world with the highest density of second homes. There are more than 600,000 summer houses for a population of ten million. It really took off in the post-war period when Sweden became more prosperous. We had plenty of space and trees to build houses from. This meant that it was quite achievable for a lot of people to leave town in summer and spend it at their summer house in the countryside or in villages built just for holiday cottages. Of course this is not the case for everyone any more. Although you may have noticed that everything shuts down in July and towns and cities are deserted. That is just part of the Swedish dream of the perfect summer.
Small but quaint – an allotment cottage.
Allotment cottages
A light version of the summer house is to have an allotment. That could either be just a small plot of land you grow vegetables on or a plot with a small house on it, known as a 'kolonistuga'. Allotment areas are normally within the town limits or in an area just outside town. This was originally a way for people living in towns to have a plot of land to grow food. These became incredibly popular during the pandemic and prices went up sharply making them less accessible.
Healthy in moderation.
Sauna
The custom of sitting naked in a very hot room makes sense when you have experienced the cold Swedish winter. The Swedish word – sauna – comes from badstuga, a place you go to get clean. The tradition of hitting each other with birch twigs is meant to clean the skin and quickly cooling off in snow or cold water can retain the heat inside the body. There are even scientific studies showing that having saunas is good for the immune system and can reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke. As with everything, it can be made into a competition. The World Sauna Championships were held in Finland and were almost always won by Finnish people. The contest consisted of staying in the 110-degree sauna as long as possible. That was all fun and games until a person died in 2010 and the competition had to be canceled forever.