apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

I don't discriminate anything that can actually fit under my bed from going under there. However, my lack of a good night's sleep does make me curious to try out that philosophy...which means I need to clean out both my closet and underneath my bed. Ugh!

I have slept for most of my life on a single storage bed, this sort of thing - http://www.productwiki.com/leather-storage-bed/ - with all my hoardings underneath me. My parents put in these beds for my brother and i when we were very young, and have each kept everything we don't use much under there. School books, old dolls and toys, roller-skates, posters, anything you could think of is under there. Now I'm getting rid of it in trying to make my old bedroom suitable for guests. It's a big job finding places for things now!

I have never had trouble sleeping soundly though!

I have a low platform bed so there's not enough room for boxes, however I do utilize the space for my workout mat and the extra leaf to my dining room table. Because the bed is so low to the ground you can't see either under there even without a bedskirt.

I share an apartment with two room mates and there is one closet in the entire place.

Using under bed space is a necessity. I store everything from suit cases, a sleeping bag, two boxes with my linens, my drying rack, and several boxes that house often used stuff (such as shoes, work out close, scarves) that is easily accessible and then there are boxes that harder to get to that house seasonal clothing that isn't needed and extra office supplies, etc.

I sleep pretty well, but look forward to more closet space in my next apartment.

I've been slowly minimizing my under-bed storage in my apartment. I had my bed on those plastic things that raise your bed up a foot so I could fit all the under-bed storage I could under it.

This past year, however, I lost the risers to help me consolidate my... well, stuff! It's worked out pretty well, and I only use under the bed for weekend bags, out of season shoes, limited extra school supplies, and extra pairs of sheets. It sounds like a lot, but I still have quite a bit of space under by double bed!

I think there's no basis for this superstition. It's space, and it's a luxury not to have to store anything under it, or an obsession, you choose. Fearing something for no reason sure makes you more conscious to assign unfortunate things on whatever. True, some beds just don't allow for the "look" of it, which I would call a good reason not to store stuff under the bed, which lies in the category of luxury - to get the bed you really want, and maybe in ancient China, there are no dust ruffles. If material objects under your bed have the power to disturb you while you're sleeping, it may be because it's unsightly when you are awake, and it bugs you that you didn't think of where to put everything when you bought a bed you could see the underneath of. If you are storing pictures of people you don't know anymore under your bed, maybe you should just throw them away. You won't forget people you know, they won't die because you put a piece of paper with their image under your bed.

Get the kind of boxes with wheels. They are called "under-the-bed" boxes, and they have lids that open halfway. It's true that under the bed is not ideal for things you need everyday, unless you have a nifty drawer unit platform and it doubles as your dresser, but most people have things they don't need all the time but still need to keep, like window fans and Christmas ornaments. It's a good place to switch out your summer and winter clothes, so your closet keeps up with the seasons and isn't stuffed with sweaters and bathing suits. It's not bad energy to keep mittens and hats under your bed all summer. It's a friggin' good place for stuff like that.

This isn't even considering the loft beds that can be done so well, with a whole office underneath, or whatever. Or is that technically "downstairs" and not "under the bed"?

I agree! I opt not to belive storing stuff will keep me from sleeping. Actually having more drawers for stuff will give me great satisfaction! I live in a small apartment, storage space is precious. I like the bed with built in drawers. It's a cleaner look than storage boxes. I just bought a storage platform bed. I already wake up a lot through the night without storing anything under the bed. Being clutter free will be quite relaxing!
I got this bed:
http://www.bedroomfurniturenmore.com/NoBot/South-Shore-Back-Bay-Platform-Bed-with-Storage-Drawers-3159-217.htm

I store people under my bed… http://flickr.com/photos/alexterieur/3023708693/

;-)

In all seriousness, since I got my flou bed with storage I sleep better (the bed has much better support than my old ikea one) and I've started storing bed sheet, covers, blankets, bags and a bunch of random things under my bed and love the space saving!

Alex.

I avoid storing dead bodies under the bed. They tend to smell by the 3rd day.

Its like the 'transformers' of the bed world. does it turn into a jet too?

Feng Shui for the most part can be stupid - if we abided by it fully, no one's home would ever feel like home and then everyone is unhappy. And for anyone to say it looks tacky to have boxes under your bed or anything, they don't know everyone else either and not everyone feels the need to purge their things constantly. I have tons of momentos I'm not getting rid of just because someone says I should.

Since most of us have apartments (granted the name of this site), the underneath of the bed is Heaven on Earth for storing out of season things or extra things (like linens). We are in the process of buying a few more "under the bed" boxes so we can store more there. We have a very small linen closet that basically only fits our towels and a few extra bathroom supplies, so we use the underneaths of beds to store linens and extra blankets. I'm wanting to start storing some out of season clothing there too.

Granted we have a double bed and a daybed - so after we get done buying more, we will probably have six or more under the bed boxes - we currently have three that are all under the guest bed.

I keep my guitar/banjo cases under the bed.

I keep out-of-season clothing stored under my bed. And I never have trouble sleeping.

No garbage, no dead bodies (thanks for the reminder, kimg924)!

As long as it's easy to haul it out so I can vacuum under the bed once in a while, it's fair game.

I have a loft bed - my desk, computer, storage boxes, and bookshelf are under my bed, including a box of cards and letters. Oh noes. I'm going to die of an overactive imagination. The horror. The horror.

Come on, guys! This is an interior design blog. A bit more design, a bit less woo, 'kay?

I've used underbed storage for a wide variety of reasons. And why wouldn't I? The space is there and it's available...

Most memorable, perhaps, is for things like extra canned stuff (like canned plum tomatoes, black beans, etc) and white flour...I buy it all when it's on sale and under the bed it goes until it's ready to be used in the kitchen.

Under the kids' beds: one drawer for library books, so we always know where to find them; one drawer for clothes that are too big that we've bought at various thrift shops, and half that drawer for clothes that are too small, but not enough of yet to send out of the house.

Perhaps I sleep well because I know that the stuff under the bed is the stuff of well thought out financial decisions that will positively impact my family's bottom line? Or perhaps I'm just too tired to care a. what people think when they see black beans peeking out from under my bed and b. what feng shui, a practice born in a culture so very different from my own and which I'd never fully understand unless I knew more about the culture and its history, has to say?

Who knows. All I know is that I sleep well and I use my underbed storage space.

I dont like anything under my bed because of the feng shui. The one thing i do store under there are a small, thin box of my posters that i collect so that they can store flat. Also my dog likes to sleep under my bed, so i have to make sure he is happy.

All I can say to those who refuse to store things under the bed because of "feng shui", no whining about not having storage space any more - LOL - because you are wasting valuable space. Think about the size of your current bed - that's how much space is completely wasted underneath. That would give me a bad night's sleep right there.

We store old photos and correspondence under the bed. I suppose those would be better kept in books so that we could peruse them at leisure, but I'm not much of a scrapbooker.

We also store other sentimental things under there that we haven't been able to give up for one reason or another. I think that they are going to get the boot in favor of the extra blankets, sheets, and towels that have recently lost their home. I've been agonizing over where these should relocate. It took this post for me to figure it out!

As I still live in a dorm (hopefully moving out soon...) under-bed storage is an absolute necessity. I hated the long under-bed box I was using to store linens since getting it out made changing the sheets even more of a chore, and since I have my bed raised high in typical dorm fashion I don't have to worry about height, I finally got a few attractive laundry baskets from Space Savers to store my linens, shoes, and the extra pillows I use to prop up while reading or watching movies. They look good and offer under-bed storage that's easy to reach, so what's not to love?

And in regards to feng shui, I have a feeling that its inventors slept on rolled-out mats instead of off-the-floor beds, so keeping things under the bed would disturb sleep because it was physically uncomfortable.

Feng Shui needs to be taken with a grain of salt (drawn from a stone bowl, while facing east on a Sunday). SOme of it is just common sense, some of it is pure bunk.

Example: Bad Feng Shui to have a bedroom over a garage - because of noxious fumes. Seems pretty logical. The solution - wrap three pennies in a green hankerchief and keep it under the bed.

Sorry - even having failed physics I know that 3 pennies and a bit of cloth aren't going to protect me from carbon monoxide.

I used to know someone who had an apartment over a garage - she hated it so much she broke the lease to move since the fumes were horrible and the noise was bad when people were leaving. For the most part, I don't go by most of what people say is good karma in a house - if I like it/can stand it and it benefits me, it doesn't matter. It's sad how people let that stuff run their lives...it's like they might as well give up happiness.

We have four under the bed boxes (they're bags really, because when by some miracle one of them is empty, it can be rolled up and shoved in the free corner of another one, but anyway). We use them for a pretty basic variety of things. Because there is NO storage space in the bathroom whatsoever and it is directly off the bedroom, the bed has become home to razors and blowdryers of all forms when they're not plugged into the wall. Other than that, we save space in our tiny closet by storing our linens under there as well, but the biggest space saver is the excess blankets. I love blankets because I'm always cold, so people assume that I always need more blankets and take it upon themselves to provide me with them. I, being someone who cannot part with a heartfelt gift from someone I like, end up keeping all of them and they do get used in a near constant rotation, but when not in use, they live under the bed :)