When you want to live center city, space is at a premium. In Spanish cities there are minipisos (mini apartments) and micropisos (micro apartments). One micropiso of just 10 square meters (108 sq ft) in downtown Barcelona sold, in 2007, for 90,000 euros (about 120,000 dollars). Though, technically, anything under 20 square meters doesn’t qualify as a legal apartment.

Until we started out family, we lived in 40 square meters (about 400 square feet) in the center of Barcelona. It was enough space for a home office, a bedroom, a kitchen/eating area, and even a bathroom with a tub and a small washing machine. Thanks to things like tables on wheels (from Ikea), we were able to transform spaces as needed; the table was our kitchen counter, but we moved it aside when we needed to access the washing machine directly behind it.

In this video, faircompanies’ Nicolás Boullosa shows off our old place (in the minutes before we showed it to a childless couple interested in renting).