Bristol man slept in a ‘shoe cupboard’ for five months after being unable to find housing

A man who was unable to find a sublet in Bristol saved £2,500 by living in a “shoe cupboard.”

26-year-old Liam Gardener payed just £150 a month to live in a 3ft wide and 10ft long cupboard, after being unable to find short term housing in the city.

The recruitment officer stayed in the cupboard for five months, after the tenancy at his old flat ran out.

Originally from Cornwall, Liam had planned to move to Australia in June 2024 when the tenancy ran out at his old flat. His commission-based recruitment left him keen to stay living and working in Bristol in order to save, but after not finding any suitable subletting to see him through this five-month stint, a co-worker offered him a “shoe cupboard” to stay in.

He said: “My friend at work who sat opposite me I remember joking about how I couldn’t find a sublet. As a bit of a joke she said ‘you can stay in my cupboard if it comes to it’.

“As it got closer and closer to my tenancy being up I couldn’t find anything.”

Despite the space fitting little more than a single mattress, Liam and his co-worker drafted an agreement which outlined he would pay £200 a month to live there. His friend said he “didn’t have to’ pay anything”, but it was decided that he would split the bills and pay a total of £50, and a further £100 for rent.

Due to the restricted space, Liam was forced to sell most of his belongings, moving in with only a single mattress and a duffel bag of clothes.

via SWNS

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Liam explained the primary issue with finding his housing was the length of the tenancies: “A lot of them were either one year tenancies or six month tenancies, and I didn’t want to lock into another agreement in case I left early.

“In the end, I said ‘how big is your shoe cupboard?”

The two cleared the cupboard to see how much room it offered. Liam’s single IKEA mattress just about fit into the space, only with its “corners rolled up”. As an unofficial extra tenant, it is illegal to sublet if you are renting without the landlord’s permission. Liam had to pretend to be in a relationship with his flatmate to not raise suspicion.

“I never actually had to do it, but that was the backstory if anyone asked”. he said.

“One time the landlord came round to fix something and I basically had to empty the room and make it look messy again. The room had a slanted roof so I kind of hand to crawl into bed and there were no windows.”

via SWNS

Describing the adjustment to living in a cupboard, Liam said: “Especially at the start I would wake up in the middle of the night and obviously there are just walls everywhere really close. I’d wake up confused, reach out and it would be just wall.

“It would take me a couple of seconds to adjust and be like ‘I’m in the cupboard.'”

Liam dropped some of his belongings at his parents home in Cornwall and chose to sell valuable items from DJ decks and computers to put towards his year abroad funds. As such, he was able to “kill two birds with one stone.”

The cupboard only had a handle on the outside, Liam says it “clicked locked” when it was closed, so to avoid getting stuck he jammed a towel in the corner of the frame and kept a pair of pliers close by “just in case” he got trapped.

He added how his parents were “freaked” to hear of his living situation: “I knew my mum would freak out so I said I was staying in my friends’ spare room.

“And then it came down to it, they came up to Bristol from Cornwall to take some stuff back home and I said ‘come and look where I’ve been living.

“She freaked out a little bit. She thinks it’s funny now, but she didn’t at the time.”

Liam gained the name “cupboard boy” around his flatmate and friends, before spending a year in Australia and now works in London. He is currently staying in an Airbnb until he finds a secure flat to live in.

Featured image via SWNS