A housewarming wishlist for a small flat

Move into a 38-square-metre flat, hold a housewarming a month later, and you can guess what arrives. Three scented candles, a set of twelve wine glasses for a kitchen with one cupboard, and a floor lamp that has to go back because there is no floor left. In a small place every gift has to earn its space, and the only way to make that happen is to write the list before you send the invitations.

Furniture that does two jobs

List pieces that work twice. A storage pouffe is a seat, a footrest and the place the spare duvet lives. Nesting tables stack into one when nobody is over. A narrow console behind the sofa is a desk on weekdays and a buffet when four people come to eat.

If you ever want a guest to stay over, a sofa bed is the only realistic option, so put a good one on the list and let a few people contribute together. Nobody is going to spend €600 on their own, and nobody should have to. A wall-mounted drop-leaf table is the other piece worth listing: flat against the wall six days a week, a dining table for two on the seventh.

Storage that goes up the wall

When the floor is full, the walls take over. Floating shelves above the sofa, an over-door organiser in the hall, a tall bookcase 30 cm wide that holds as much as a squat one at twice the width. A magnetic spice rack on the side of the fridge frees a whole cupboard. A hanging shoe organiser on the back of the bedroom door frees another.

The bathroom and the entrance are where small flats get messy first. A shower caddy that hangs from the pipe, a towel ladder, a row of wall hooks by the door. These are the cheap, useful gifts for the guest who has no idea what to buy and would otherwise turn up with the fourth candle.

Kitchen kit for a two-cupboard kitchen

One multicooker replaces a slow cooker, a rice cooker and a pressure cooker, so put that on and leave the other three off the list. Stackable mixing bowls, a collapsible silicone colander and a set of nesting measuring cups take a quarter of the space their rigid versions do.

A magnetic knife strip clears a drawer. A slim rolling trolley, the 15 cm wide kind, slides into the gap between the fridge and the counter and holds the oil, the spices and the chopping boards. The twelve wine glasses can stay on someone else's list.

Light, mirrors and a few things with personality

Good light makes a small room feel bigger, and renters cannot touch the wiring, so list lamps that plug in. A table lamp for the corner, a floor lamp with a slim base, a string of warm bulbs along the shelf. One large mirror across from the window bounces daylight around the room and does more for the sense of space than any piece of furniture.

For the rest, a couple of plants that survive neglect (a pothos, a snake plant), a print you actually chose, two cushions and a wool throw. Nothing permanent, because in a rental you may be packing again in eighteen months.

Tech that takes an object away

The right gadgets in a small flat are the ones that replace other things. A Chromecast or an Apple TV means no cable box. A single decent speaker replaces a shelf of hi-fi and doubles as the kitchen timer.

A robot vacuum is more useful in a small flat than in a big one, because in 38 square metres dust and crumbs show within a day. A compact air purifier sized for one room is the other gift people are quietly grateful for, especially when the kitchen opens onto the bed.

Write it all down before the invitations go out. You can create a wishlist in a few minutes, paste in the links to the exact trolley and the exact lamp, and have it ready for anyone coming to the party who asks what you need.