5 things people with tidy ottoman beds always do – prevent messy chaos and make finding items easy and stress-free

If, like me, you have a small bedroom, then a storage bed is probably one of the best investments you can make.

Opting for a bed frame that features hidden storage space of some kind means you're maximising every possible square inch of storage space in a small bedroom, which is exactly why ottoman beds are so popular.

An ottoman is a style of bed where the mattress and bed base lift up to reveal an empty cavity below, and this hidden area is perfect for stashing all sorts of items, from spare bedding and towels to out-of-season clothes.

However, as with any storage space, if we don't employ a few savvy organisation tricks, our underbed storage can soon become a bit of a dumping ground for all sorts of odds and ends, and there's nothing worse than rummaging around looking for an item we're *sure* is under the bed, yet can't find.

Here's what people with tidy ottoman beds do to keep this storage space clean, clutter-free, and free from the chaos of messy items.

1. Consider what you store

If you've been struggling to add enough storage ideas to a small bedroom, then the addition of an ottoman bed can be *very* exciting. Suddenly, there's this whole new cavernous storage space in your bedroom, and it's very tempting to immediately start piling in everything that's been cluttering up your bedroom to get it out of sight.

However, this is where some consideration pays off. After consulting friends, family, and home-organisation experts, the one thing I've heard time and time again is that you don't necessarily want to put items you need to access on a daily basis inside your ottoman bed.

Yes, the mattress is easy enough to lift, but it still takes a little more effort than simply opening a cupboard door. And as one of my colleagues with an ottoman bed recently pointed out to me, if your partner is still in bed, you won't be able to access the inside of the ottoman bed first thing in the morning!

Instead, the ottoman's storage space is best reserved for items that we only use occasionally, rather than on a daily or even weekly basis. Think spare bedding, out-of-season clothing such as winter coats or thick jumpers, holiday clothes, or spare linen such as towels and blankets.

It's also worth noting that feng shui experts echo this advice for maintaining 'free-flowing chi' or energy in the bedroom. There are seven things feng shui experts say you should *never* store under your bed, but 'soft, neutral items such as spare bedding or blankets,' get the thumbs up according to Alexandra Berthault, Feng Shui expert at Chez Holistics and Board Member of the Feng Shui Society UK.

2. Think big, not small

You might also want to consider the scale of what you're storing in an ottoman bed in order to keep it neat and tidy.

As home decluttering and organising consultant and founder of Tidylicious, Hester Van Hien, explains, 'ottomans are usually best for storing a few larger items in, rather than lots of smaller items. They provide quite a deep storage space, and if you pile up lots of smaller items, then it’ll be difficult to see what’s at the bottom.'

And as Hester says, 'what’s out of sight, often goes out of mind.' You want to know exactly what's in your ottoman bed, and not be rummaging around in it every few days looking for missing items.

3. Containers, containers, and more containers

This leads us on to the next trick that people with tidy ottoman beds always employ: containers.

Yes, putting storage *inside* storage might seem strange at first, but the storage inside an ottoman bed is usually a large open space, so adding smaller containers inside it will help to keep things organised.

'When you segment the space into smaller spaces, it makes it easier to contain and organise,' agrees Siân Pelleschi, the owner of home and office decluttering and organising service Sorted! and current President of APDO, the Association of Professional Declutterers and Organisers.

'It also means that should you need to get to those harder to reach areas under the bed, then rather than scrabbling about, you can pull the container to you for easy access,' shares Siân.

Just make sure that any items in containers can still 'breathe'. Opt for storage bags or 'boxes' made from breathable natural fabrics rather than sealed plastic boxes, as plastic can trap moisture and cause mould problems.

4. Label anything you can't see

For extra tidy points, label, label, and label again. Yes, when we put our items into containers, we may *think* we'll remember exactly what's in there, but in practice I've certainly found I rarely do.

Make sure to store 'like with like' and then label your containers so you know exactly what's inside, especially if they're zipped containers rather than open ones.

'If you do want to store smaller items, I’d recommend using separate containers for each category of items,' agrees Hester. For instance, keep all of your summer clothing in one container and winter clothing in another so that you're not rummaging through everything to find what you're looking for.

You can buy cardboard tags, such as these £2.85 Strung Tags at Amazon, to label each container, and if you want to be *really* organised, you could also write down everything you store under the bed in a notebook or the notes app on your phone so you can remember exactly what's under your bed without any rummaging.

5. Store things upright, not flat

As may be becoming clear, a tidy ottoman bed is all about first thinking through *what* you store inside it, and then making it as easy as possible to remember exactly what's inside and instantly locate it once you lift up the bed base.

And the last of Hester's top tips for this is to 'store items upright, rather than piling them up.'

'Consider storing your bedding and towels upright, so that you can see them all, rather than the bottom ones being out of sight,' shares Hester. 'I roll up my fitted sheets and duvet covers and then stand them up on their short side. It makes maximum use of the height of deep storage spaces such as storage ottomans or deep drawers.'

Ingenious: in fact, that's advice I'm going to start employing in all of my storage areas, especially when it comes to bedding organisation.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, remember to never store anything damp under your ottoman bed, as this is one of the most common causes of an ottoman bed going mouldy.

That means that if you wash your bedding or out-of-season clothing before storing it away, make sure it's *completely* dry before stashing it under your bed. Otherwise, any residual moisture left within the items will have nowhere to go, and trapped moisture can trigger mould.

However, armed with all of these top tips, you're now set to maximise every square inch of this hidden storage space, and join the ranks of those with the tidiest ottoman beds out there!