The first time I saw the apartment, I laughed. The bathroom was a closet with a sink jammed into a corner and a shower head that sprayed directly onto the toilet seat. You had to sit sideways just to close the door. But the rent was right, and the location was unbeatable. So I took it, and then I had to figure out how to survive in a bathroom design that clearly hated me. The trick, I learned, is not to fight the small footprint but to work with it like a puzzle. Every inch matters. I swapped the clunky vanity for a shallow cabinet with a mirror front, and I hung a curved shower rod to give my elbows some breathing room. Suddenly, basic hygiene stopped feeling like a game of Tetris.

But the real trouble started when my brother announced he was visiting for two weeks. My place has exactly one bedroom, and I was already using the tiny second room as a home office with a pile of boxes in the corner.