My friend Tim lives in the smallest apartment I have ever seen. A single bed lines one wall, from which you could easily touch the opposite wall. When I asked if he’d been writing much lately, he told me he couldn’t because his desk was too small for a pen and paper (to be fair, he also mentioned he’d been watching a lot of Gunsmoke). My guess is the apartment is 150 square feet.
Tim doesn’t live in this apartment due to some commitment to anti-consumerism, minimalism, or the environment. He’s just very, very poor. He lives in that apartment because it’s safe, warm, and in a part of the city that gives him distance from his past.