I really want to know more about the lifestyles of people responding in this post.
It appears we share a lot of similar interests! Forgive the novel below.
Our space is small, made smaller by the fact that it is only 1 bedroom for three people. Spouse works from home, I'm a student/work from home, and we have a 14 yr old at home. Teen son has the bedroom, but one entire wall is a closet in his room. We have bookshelves covering two of the remaining walls, and his desk & bed on the other. Half his closet is his closet, the other half is the gear closet with all of our backpacking/camping/general outdoor gear. Shelves and hooks make this type of compact storage possible. Plus, we aren't gear heads. We have exactly what we need to do backcountry trips for four seasons in most regions of the PNW. I know people with 4 sets of snowshoes, multiple tents and stoves, etc. We have one set each, one stove, one three season backpacking tent and one 3-season family car camping tent, etc. It's much cheaper to rent/borrow anything we don't have rather than moving to a larger place just so we can store it for 350 days of the year.
We are in the PNW so need more outerwear than normal clothing. A 12-hook coat rack on the wall and boot trough beneath it in the entry hall handles this.
Bikes have covers and are stored outdoors, locked securely, to the apartment community's bike rack. Covers are literally brown tarps that I folded in half and sewed to make them into a pocket that slides over the bike. If this wasn't an option, we would have put up wall racks somewhere in the apartment and pretended the bikes were artwork, lol.
Our kayaks are stored standing upright and strapped to the rails at either end of our balcony deck. This gives us the center for hanging out/entertaining. Plus, the kayaks make nice little walls so we have privacy from our neighbors when on the deck.
Our car camping chairs/tables double as our deck furniture.
Our bedroom is the dining room. We use two bookcases, facing inward and with a curtain between them, as walls. We did use the earthquake wall anchors so they don't fall over. If we can't repair, we'll take the hit to our deposit without complaint. Each bookcase acts as a closet for each of us. Mine mainly holds clothing items that would go in drawers (I use baskets on the shelves) and most of my personal hobby items, like craft materials, as well as some books. My partner put a closet rod in hers (she's more into clothing than I am) and uses the lower shelves like drawers. We also each have of one of those three-tiered wire fruit basket things hanging in two corners. These hold all of our accessories (belts, bandanas, etc).
The coat closet is actually our closet. Shoes in the bottom, clothes that need to hang on the rod. Tools and sewing machine on the shelf. We are in the casual PNW, so our REI-style wardrobe is all we need, so perhaps we don't need as much clothing storage as others would (two females, BTW, so I don't think it is a gender issue). There is also a linen closet, which houses the linens, cleaning supplies, and laundry basket. All other items are stored in either the kitchen or bathroom cabinets.
The living room has a couch, a small entertainment center, and two bookcases. My desk is also tucked into a corner. Bookcase #1: this is the biggest bookcase. It stores all my nerd stuff -- two microscopes, 1 small telescope, accessories, books and field guides, and the board games.
Bookcase #2: This is my partner's stuff. Art supplies mainly, and some books.
Entertainment center doubles as partner's desk. Her computer is hooked up to the TV/monitor, and she has a swing out keyboard stand thingy for her keyboard and drawing tablet. Since we stream and don't buy DVDs etc, the storage under the monitor is for the printer, scanner, ink cartridges, paper, etc. Headphones are our friends when working/studying on different projects.
We also keep a small folding table beneath the couch/futon that we can set up in front of the couch. Bring in the camp chairs, and we have a table for 4 for entertaining, board game nights, or a bigger work area. Since the couch is a futon, we also have a place for overnight guests to stay (which has already been useful). Yoga mats, foam rollers, and our TRX system is also stored in a bin under the couch when not in use.
We spend most of our time outdoors, whether really outdoors or just hanging out on our deck. There are 4.5 "spaces" for us to use for privacy -- teen's room, our room, living room, the deck, and my office nook. Most of the time, the space feels luxurious even though it's sub-800sq ft even counting the deck.
The key to thriving in a small space is to not own much, not want much, and to have well defined spaces to provide people privacy or at least a convincing illusion of privacy. A mistake people often make is trying to go open concept. This works great if you are one person in a small space or if you have a huge space. Otherwise, you need well defined spaces that at least provide visual privacy from others. We are also quiet people by nature. This probably makes it easier to be in such as small space without feeling crowded.