Airing cupboard - wasted space help!

[BusyNothings]

Not sure if in the right place but this is literally keeping me up trying to figure it out. We have a very deep airing cupboard in our second bedroom which is basically a linen closet/dumping ground and I want to make it useful for storage etc.

It's only a half height one from about hip height up to the ceiling as its over the stairs - very much traditional airing cupboard. But it's huge! So deep that when its empty I can't reach the back without climbing in. If we didn't need the storage space we could quite easily make it into a tall reading nook/platform it's so big. I'm really struggling with how to manage/organise this space as things just get dumped and piled up.

Any ideas or help would be great! Pinterest and Google just keep showing me lovely normal sized cupboards. No bloody use!

Drawers you can pull out in order to get at the stuff? Hanging rail on a pulley? Install one of those Sheila maids in it? (Spelling?!)

Any space at floor level to make little steps up in to it so you can stand in it and have the shelves around the walls - then you can see where everything is.
Not sure this would pass health and safety rules (narrow stairs) but you wouldn't need planning permission I shouldn't think.

Yes - a decent carpenter would be able to fit something similar to under stairs drawers or alternatively you could use big baskets or laundry bags so that you can get things in and out more easily.

Not an area cupboard but we had an incredibly deep alcove in a previous house. In the end the best way we found to make it useable was to put in a false back and have just a bit deeper than normal shelving. Although there was no door so aesthetics were important.

But you could perhaps use some form of box storage at the back of the cupboard for summer clothes in winter and winter clothes in summer, old children's clothes or basically anything you need to keep but don't need regular access to.

Then at the front maybe have baskets with bedding sorted by room, towels by person and so on.

If you split it in half and used the front half as a shallower cupboard, could you get side access to the back half? I wonder if you could get a pullout unit like those larder cupboards? Or individual pullout drawers. Fitted kitchen companies might be worth a look for the cupboard storage gizmos - corner cupboard fittings etc. Even if they aren't quite the roght size, you could use them for inspiration.

www.slidewardrobesdirect.co.uk/pull-down-wardrobe-hanging-rail-2174-p.as
pull down hanging rails?