It’s all there in our tagline: ‘better living in small spaces’. The Box Room exists to help life feel a bit bigger, even when your apartment seems a bit, shall we say, constrained. We’re interested in the wise ideas, the wonderful and the downright quirky – whether we’re talking about helpful ways to get your London flat ready for sale (thanks, Sarah Beeny!), tips on moving in with your partner for the first time, finding London’s ultimate man cave, or even ways to satisfy your need to live in storage (yes, that’s a real thing!)

This week, we’re looking at companies that share our ‘better living in small spaces’ philosophy, rounding up five friendly faces that are guaranteed to make your flat feel just that little bit more massive.

Boxman

You’ll have heard of the self-storage company that comes to you before – Boxman has made a bit of a name for itself around these parts when it comes to self-storage London style. Boxed-in Londoners requiring self-storage have traditionally had to traipse out to the danker parts of the city, hiring a van for the day in the process, and having to sign up for a whole room regardless of the quantity of things that they need to stash away. With Boxman, it’s a lot simpler. You store by the box, you book a time slot for delivery and collection of your boxes, everything is dealt with in a simple online dashboard, and prices start from £5 per month. When you want your items back, you simply click on your inventory and recall the specific box. It’s a hassle-free alternative to what is usually a real chore.

RestRelax

 

You’ve heard of the sofa bed, we’re sure, but how about the footstool bed – not so commonplace, is it? Meet ‘Rosie’, a neat little foam box that folds out into a useful crash pad, about the size of a camp bed. Why she’s called Rosie we’re not sure, but most of the products made by RestRelax – a size-conscious company after our own hearts – come with the kind of names you’d expect to find on an infant school’s register. Everything on the RestRelax menu is there because they’re keen to help out similarly space-constrained city dwellers. RestRelax, we salute you!

Boskke

We’ve mentioned Boskke before, but – as we’re sure you’ll agree – they’re worth another peek. The Boskke brothers, Patrick and Jake Morris, hail from New Zealand, where their family owns the well-known Morris & James pottery company. On moving to London, they became interested in ways to help indoor gardeners, and so the futuristic Sky Planter was born. All of the products in the Boskke range deal with stylish ways to develop green fingers in constrained spaces, and each comes with an ingenious method of drip-feeding your vegetation, ensuring that you won’t kill anything off through forgetfulness. Ideal for busy city-folk with one too little space and too many things on their minds.

Zipcar

No garage? No problems. It’s not like you really need a car in London anyway, and on the occasions that you do, Zipcar has you covered. It’s a great example of how tech can come to the aid of the city-dweller. Once you’ve joined you download the app, find a car near you, reserve it, unlock it using your ‘Zipcard’ and then drive it away. It’s a cross between renting a car and being part of a tech-driven car pool – a decent money-saver for anyone fed up with ownership fees and congestion charges, and better for the environment to boot. Zippedy do da!

Peerby

You know what clogs up small flats and houses? Things for household chores. Vacuum cleaners, toolboxes, electric drills, lawnmowers (presuming you’re lucky enough to have a lawn)… wouldn’t it just be easier if you could borrow them from someone nearby? Enter Peerby, a community-based website that rescues the word ‘share’ from Facebook and puts it back where it belongs. While it’s still a nascent community here in London, it’s a movement that seems to be growing, keeping the spirits up and the clutter down. A big thumbs up from us for Peerby!

Have you seen any other companies that aid ‘better living in small spaces’? Let us know about them in the comments below, and we’ll add them in ASAP.