Youre going to get a lot of responses with lots of angles and viewpoints, so it's going to come down to you to decide of course.
So anyways, efficiently compared to what? It comes down to how big do you want your plants?
You can control this with environment and pot size and other factors as well. The more area you give your plants
the bigger size potential. As before mentioned, larger pots will allow for bigger plants. You can research this for finer details.
But the trick is to find the balance of all the factors and come up with what works best for you and your space.
I suggest finding a space first then go from there. Might be easier for you, but I can understand a few reasons on why you would chose this path of logic.
You're set on soil so this will limit the styles or methods of growing. So Research the different ways you can grow your plants with soil. Different styles are better suited for larger yields while others lend themselves better for smaller grows. Lights are big time in the equation too. A general guideline rule I have learned on here is that 50 watts of HID lighting per sq. ft. is recommended. So knowing this kind of stuff too will limit what can be done to the plants based on the space.
So lots of learning to do. Hopefully this gets your brain flowing, and gets you to some more details so you can come back and get more detailed in your questions. Check out this soil grow
it's tops
https://www.rollitup.org/grow-room-design-setup/315003-grow-room-build.html
GL and welcome to RUI