However there are a few people out there that have literally thought out of the box when it comes to small spaces and the creative way to utilise every last centimetre!

These aren’t your Marie Kondo types decluttering their homes and hiding everything in sight. These are free spirits, artist and visionaries, people that would look at the space and think what could be done here to maximise space and have the creative foresight to build it. It's not for everyone and the constraints of actual day to day living can stop us living the dream, but let's dream and take some space saving ideas from these clever folk!

Heres are a couple of Tormar’s favourites that have come up with some of the more creative ideas, maybe due to personal circumstances or just a free spirit feeling.

If you haven’t watched this Netflix documentary, then you should! The Berlin creative Felix Starck and singer Selima Taibi decided to tour America; from Alaska to Argentina to find happiness in a converted school bus! This hour and half whimsical view of a year living in a bus whilst touring America is unmissable. 

They portray the reality and the hardships they faced in a real way and was refreshing to see this and it wasn’t just a smug 'look at us waking up in Alaska with these views!' However the most dreamy part of this documentary is for the insta worthy scenes they did come across which will make you look at your local number 10 bus in a different way! Oh yeah and Rudi the dog, he did get himself into trouble and it was heartbreaking in parts!

The van however is the most incredible part of this documentary and the genius ability to transform a standard school bus into a super hipster, New York loft like abode is phenomena! They totally gutted the inside of the bus so that they had a blank space to work with and they did pull out some great tricks to make the bus feel so much bigger.

There was a lot of work to convert this bus, but every part of the bus had been thought out to maximise the space they were working with and were able to think of multi use features. The sofa for example was designed so that it incorporated 2 large drawers and was also a pull out sofa bed at the same time!

Their master bed had two parts to it, one side that folded up to store the more bulky items like tools etc. And the other half had 4 big drawers for clothing. There are drawers everywhere, where you might not expect and these housed a lot of the more smaller items.

Using pieces of furniture for multi use purposes is a great way in which to save space, even if its a stool that is a book holder or a side table. Like Tormar's Dovedale stool, a perfect stool to have multi usage, a book holder... a side table...

The bus has running water and electricity and the most impressive is how stylish the shower room is, they have taken the coolest Berlin boutique hotel and placed it right there in the shower room! Although its not without hard work as everything was done by the couple and a few friends! But a great idea they had, was to not over power the shower with large tiles, but instead opted for smaller sized tiles to give the feel that the shower was bigger than it actually is. 

Shrinking and rescaling pieces really does help when wanting to utilise your smaller space. Even a smaller dining table or a smaller sofa will allow for the area you live in to feel less cramped.

So what happened to this bus? The bus was then raffled out once they decided to end the road trip due to the fact their dog Rudi was becoming increasingly ill. But it still remains that this bus is touring America somewhere in super cool, super sized style!

Another cool couple that really thought out of the box with living spaces were Londoners Rosie and Joel. They were finding the property in London was increasingly getting far too costly for them to live a full life, so they opted to live in a boat on the Thames. A growing trend that is emerging amongst the younger generation in London, pushed out of bricks and mortar living for a more creative living on the river. But this isn’t a sad story, this is an inspiring story!

It wasn’t without graft however that these two were able to turn a rusty boat into a really spacious house! They spent 90 hours a week transforming the 120 year old oil transporter into a chic riverside home.

The flooring complete with original red tape from an old school gym and they have also reclaimed the old copper piping to cut down on costs.

But the main thing they did, which is a clever way to increase the optical illusion of more space than you have, was to have the boat on two levels, the kitchen is higher than the living room giving you a grand view of the length of the boat.

The illusion of space is created as your eyes are drawn further up and along the boat making the room feel bigger than it is. This can work even if the difference of the two levels isn’t that big just elevating your area can have a great space creating effect.

Even placing pictures higher than normal on a wall will have the same effect, drawing your eyes up further. Rosie and Joel utilised this trick have by placing pictures up much higher, almost to the ceiling level to draw the eye up and give the feel of a much taller space.

Another trick is to keep the interiors simple and light which Rosie and Joel opted for. They have kept the interiors very natural with full wood interior, but have kept to lighter wood tones to give a spacious airy feel. They have also placed the wood cladding in a horizontal pattern so that the interior of the boat looks a lot longer than it is.

Another real great idea to create depth is to bring in some plants, they can be hung from the ceiling or on a table but will give that feeling of depth to the space making your think the space is a lot bigger than it is. 

Taking on a few of these tips and tricks will allow for a fresher feel within your home, making your mind feel less... well cluttered!