Andy and I are trying to live a minimalist lifestyle, but there are some things we just can't get rid of. Things like his tools (handy to have), travel and adventure gear (expensive), and other things like winter bedding (seasonal). These are items that we don't always use, but we do use them occasionally so we can't just get rid of them. That means we have to store them somewhere.
Normally the closet would seem like a good storage place. But what if you don't have a closet...or if your closet has other things in it like clothing? Or in our case, we decided to do Airbnb, so we cleared out the second bedroom in our apartment so we could host visitors. By creating an empty guest room we found ourselves in need of more storage. We had quite a few Rubbermaid storage bins that we had used when we moved, but sat empty and stacked up in our closet. So Andy and I got to work.
When we moved from Virginia to California we downsized and ended up getting rid of our bed frame. That was our first step in becoming minimalist. We moved with our queen-sized memory foam mattress and used it on the floor. It was actually very liberating and comfortable! So, we decided to combine our frame-less mattress and our need for storage. We filled the Rubbermaid containers (not all of them, that's a lot of stuff!) and arranged them under our queen-sized mattress. It worked perfectly!
We arranged the Rubbermaid (or you could use Sterilite) containers (preferably all the same kind) 5 wide on each side. Then in the middle, we did 3 long (13 total containers). That arrangement fit our queen-sized memory foam mattress perfectly. We did not do anything else. We simply made the bed and slept in it that night. I dreamt about falling out of bed all night, but come morning everything was still in place and both Andy and I felt great.
We have been sleeping on our Rubbermaid bed frame for over a month now and it has gone really well. The containers have not shifted, and we have not fallen out of bed or even felt a difference. The containers are also easy to pull out if we need something. Andy was afraid that we would both roll toward the middle, but that has not happened either. Overall, the Rubbermaid bed frame has been perfect! We now have a bed off the floor AND more than enough storage.
Pro Tips: If you added a bed skirt, no one would even notice the bed was made of Rubbermaids. You could also add bed slats if you want to firm it up even more.
(This post was not sponsored by Rubbermaid or Sterilite.)
