09/04/2026
We spend a lot of time thinking about kitchen cabinets, but how people buy, use, and even move their kitchens can look very different depending on where they live. Germany may have one of the most interesting examples.
In Germany, when you move out of a home or apartment, you may take your kitchen with you.
We're not talking about packing up your toaster and dishes or even taking the refrigerator with you. We're talking about cabinets, countertops, appliances, and, in some cases, basically the entire kitchen.
To Americans, that sounds completely backwards because we generally consider kitchen cabinets part of the house. If you buy a home, the cabinets come with it. If you rent an apartment, you expect to open the door and find a kitchen already there. Nobody tours a two-bedroom apartment, walks into an empty room with plumbing sticking out of the wall, and thinks, "Perfect. We'll just bring our kitchen."
But in Germany, that's not nearly as strange as it sounds.
Some unfurnished apartments are rented without a fitted kitchen, leaving tenants to purchase and install their own. Since they paid for it, the kitchen belongs to them. When it's time to move, they can sell it to the next tenant, make an arrangement with the landlord or dismantle it and take it along to their next home.
There's even something to look for when apartment hunting. German listings may advertise an Einbauküche, often abbreviated EBK, which means the apartment includes a fitted kitchen. In other words, "Good news! This one actually has cabinets!" can be a legitimate selling point.
Of course, this isn't how every home or apartment in Germany works, and plenty already have kitchens. But the idea of a tenant owning the kitchen itself is common enough that buying, selling, and moving kitchens is a real part of the housing experience.
Which immediately raises about 100 questions.
What if your new kitchen is a completely different size? What if the sink is in the wrong place? What if you have ten feet of cabinets and your new wall is eight feet long? Do you have a favorite base cabinet that has followed you through three apartments? At what point does a cabinet become a family heirloom?
So yes, in Germany, moving day can include packing the dishes, loading the couch, and dismantling the kitchen.
It sounds unusual by American standards, but it also makes a certain amount of sense. If you purchased the cabinets, countertops, and appliances, they're yours to sell, leave behind, or take with you.
We still have questions about what happens when ten feet of cabinets meets an eight-foot wall, but that's probably a problem for the German kitchen designer.
