In a flat under the guest bed plastic storage container. If there is not guest bed, then under your own bed. Also if you have some closet rod room you can hang stuff on hangers with clothes pins / laundry clips and wrap them in plastic protectors.

Blankets live in my linen/sewing room in the deep lower drawers which are made from cedar wood. (Except for this week when I have more than a dozen wool blankets outside tucked around my newly-moved beehives during this unexpectedly cold weather. I do love my bugs!)

Plus for down comforters (and pillows) I use wonderful large, late 19th-early 20th c. wicker trunks (think much bigger than foot lockers, easily nearly 27" tall) that were once used in my DH's family's palmier days to transport the household's laundry from the city house to the country one. Where it was washed, dried on lines, ironed and then packed and sent back in the trunks, by train, every other day except Sunday. They are lined with a canvas-like fabric made from linen and have heavy leather handles and straps. Down items stored in these trunks stay fully lofted all the time, and ready to use.

Araguato

Lirio - those trunks sound wonderful!

I do have linen closets (2), and keep towels, sheets, etc. in those closets. I don't use comforters anymore (I have come to prefer coverlets, duvet covers, etc.) and I don't keep alot of extra "covers" either. What I do have are kept in a chest in a (unused) bedroom. Blankets are kept in the linen closet off the master bedroom. Quilts, extra blankets, etc. are kept on shelves in the laundry room. Pillows are kept in BR closets (upper shelf).

I don't know if you have children or not, but if you are like us and have only two in the home, chests/dressers in guest bedrooms are great for storage. Also a chest in a closet is nice storage too. Something I've seen in magazines that I thought was neat is a towel bar mounted on the inside of the closet door. You can hang sheets, tablecloths, lightweight bedding, etc.

tina

You can always buy a chest or dresser to store the linens.

If you are really pressed for space, you can fold blankets in half and store them between the mattress and box spring of a bed.

Spare pillows can be stored in plain sight on a bed. Just buy shams or pillow covers to go with your bedding. Or buy pillow covers that match your furniture and store the pillows on your sofa.

If you have down pillows, you can get pillow covers that are smaller than the pillows are, and just smoosh the pillow into the cover. For example, a standard pillow is 20 inches by 28 inches. You can fit this pillow into a cover that is 20 inches by 20 inches. It will just be very plump.

Comforters *can* go in space bags, but you shouldn't flatten them completely especially if they are down. Only take about 50% of the air out of the space bag, so that the filling of the comforter isn't completely flat. Some comforters don't recover well if they've been smashed flat for long periods of time.

Where do these guests sleep? If in a guest room, could you store the linens under the bed? If they use an inflatable bed, could you store the linens with the folded up bed?

I have a trunk we bought when we were first married and used as a coffee table...it has resided in our upstairs hallway for 29 years housing extra blankets, etc...recently I've thought of doing away with it and getting tall free-standing linen closets instead.

okay, y'all have much bigger houses than I do, let alone having inherited perambulating laundry trunks, lol!

right now, guests sleep on a futon in the living room. I am planning to turn one of my two useless "spare" room into a guest bedroom. I may be able to get appropriate chests or other furniture in there for storing the stuff. Heck, maybe I'll just put all my "spares" on the spare bed!

Just looking for ideas, because up to now, I really haven't found a good place for these items, and am storing them mostly in large plastic pins. Unsightly.

I find most drawers, even the bottom drawers on chests, too small.

Some really good ideas here. I will let them percolate through my brain -- thank you!

camlan - your suggestion to fold blankets in half and store them between the mattress and box spring of a bed is brilliant! I am going to implement this one and gain some closet shelf space in the guest room. Thanks!!

My guest room is my son's room. He is on the road months at a time, but is still his arena. Guests use my personal bedroom, set up for them when they are here. I sleep in his room during this time and hate the memory form mattress. What a great idea to store blankets under there. Perhaps it will be more comfortable for me and so easy to access.

Right now my linens are on the top shelf of closets (small house). Seasonal linens stored in plastic bins stacked in the garage. I loved the tip on folding sheets and putting them in their matching pillow cases. It was actually fun to organize and found cases once lost.

I am partially through a remodel and dont have a linen closet (glad I saw this post because I had forgotten that I will need one!).

I store bigger things on shelves in the closets.

I bought a couple of things similar to this at ikea that has built in cloth shelves that I put sheets and towels in:

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/20210554/

I also bought a cheap metal shelf unit for around $30 from ikea that I use in a closet:

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10069763/

For a condo that i rent out, I something similar to this, but it was wider:
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/10069763/
I had it built into a space in the bathroom.

We are currently renovating a loft. To create the master closet, we took some space from the living room and some space from the bedroom. The closet is on the same level as the living room which is about 3' (4 steps) up from the bedroom. Voila- we created a long storage area under the newly-created mezzanine closet -- about 3' high x 3' deep by 14' long ---- we can hold all the extra linens and all the luggage and more!

I have had a Lindi trunk from Pier 1 for years. It started out as a place to store my son's sports uniforms and paraphernalia. Now they are grown, so I store blankets in it. It comes in this color and dark brown and has held up well.

Here is a link that might be useful: Lindi Trunk

I lusted after the ikea chests but don't have one in our area, so I went to a used office supply place and bought a 2 drawer lateral file cabinet in the grey I wanted. (about $60)
I had a piece of black glass cut for the top so guests won''t have to worry about damaging the surface (and another for the pie safe to make them 'match'.
These deep drawers hold the bulky linens perfectly and the drawers open soooo easy. I got the color I wanted but file cabinets can be painted easily.

clever. and love the headboard!

I don't think I've seen this mentioned here yet..

I bought 2 or 3 of the space saver bags that they advertise on television. I put all my comforters in 1 (about 3 or 4) and then placed my sheets on top. I put my extra pillows in another. Once I vacuumed out all of the air I was left with a 2' cube that I put on the high shelf of my bedroom closet. Anytime a guest comes over and needs a comforter/pillow I open the bags and shake the item out. Then they're good as new. Before I got these I would literally take up my entire linen closet with stuff. Now I put my extra towels in these as well to save space.

These also help with water damage. I had a pipe burst in my master bathroom the other day. Everything in my closet was soaked, but the blankets I had in there stayed dry. I know I sound like an infomercial here haha, but I swear by these things now.

thanks. I believe someone above warned about the experience of their comforters not "bouncing back" after being in space bags. But it's certainly one of the options.

We use the space-saver bags too ---- I am amazed by them (just bought a few more, although what I really should do is get rid of some blankets and pillows -- my apartment isn't big enough for that many overnight guests LOL)

Do you have space to use a trunk or chest as a coffee table? I remember your homey, cozy place, but not all the details. I should go back and look!

I've never had trouble.. but my comforters are all lighter weight cotton. I have a heavy cotton winter comforter and a down filled one I probably wouldn't put in the space saver. But those are already so heavy I don't think they have extra air lol. I keep those 2 in rubbermaid totes under my bed.

I felt stupid for not thinking of this first — have some empty luggage in your closet?