Jennifer Laing

In Case You Missed It: Every so often, BrickUnderground digs through the archives to find the best advice our experts have shared through the years.

To many New Yorkers, a pet is a fish and a garden is a few small boxes of herbs on a windowsill—and that’s just fine with them. EcoFarm—the brainchild of Alex and Nacho, two engineers (one Dutch, the other Spanish) based in Rotterdam, Netherlands—takes the concept one step further, combining the two to create a totally modern looking fish tank with a pretty herb garden that sits atop.

By now you’ve likely checked out what the Guardian newspaper has christened “the smallest house in the world” that’s for sale in north London for about £275,000 ($450,000). At 188 square feet, it’s tiny even by New York City standards. But what it lacks in size, it makes up for in nifty ways to get the most out of the space. Here, some of the best features:

At first blush, moving in New York City seems like a breeze. After all, how much stuff could one small apartment actually hold? Answer: A lot! The tiniest of studios can pack up into dozens and dozens of boxes. And once all of those boxes are piled high into a new space, it could take days or weeks to dig yourself out.

If a shared rental in a neighborhood that gets the parental seal of approval tops your list of apartment must-haves, then this Lenox Hill three-bedroom for $5,095 could be for you.

According to the layout, every room (except one bath) has a window

At first glance, this 1,820-square-foot two-bedroom, two-bathroom garden duplex renting for $5,500 a month in leafy Brooklyn Heights seems a bit unusual: The second bedroom is actually a lower level rec room—which may strike some families as inconvenient, but upon further consideration we couldn’t help but think this was actually an ideal arrangement.