Damp in ottoman

[wholeeverything]

We bought an ottoman bed about six months ago. We haven't used it much yet for storage, but I have some shoes in it, and a duvet which is stored in a zipped plastic bag (not vacuum packed or sealed beyond a standard zip).

I opened it to take out the spare duvet yesterday and found the duvet was very damp and the inside of the storage bag was clammy and steamed up. Some of the shoes has mould on them.

The bed frame / inside box itself was bone dry everywhere else.

Our house is prone to damp, especially in that bedroom, and I knew this was a risk. We take good care to open almost all windows daily for half an hour and we use a dehumidifier in the room we dry clothes in.

Is there anything I can do to keep this space usable? Feel like it was a bad buy we will never end up using 🙄.

Perhaps two options. Drill large ventilation holes in ottoman, or put a couple of bags of silica gel granules in ottoman.
You can buy big reusable bags, 400 or 500 grams each. Every few weeks remove them and dry on a radiator or microwave them, there are a few methods.
Maybe also you can leave the lid open on the ottoman when the bed isn’t in use.

More importantly, why is that room damp and what are you going to do about it?

Thanks. I had thought of these two things and glad it sounds like I'm on the right track.

Yes the damp is a bigger concern. We had a leak in our heating system which we thought might be increasing moisture in the house but that has now been fixed. We also had heating problems which probably resulted in cold patches around the house last winter. Again, fixed now. Attic insulation needs to be improved.

So to be honest I'm hoping the situation will improve. We have lots of condensation inside windows on that (north facing) side of the house every morning no matter how often the windows are open or I run a dehumidifier in the room. I don't know would old windows contribute to damp.

All advice welcome! It's a thirty year old (new to us) bungalow which probably wasn't built to the highest spec originally and we are trying to make improvements gradually.

If they are old, even if they are uPVC, consider changing at least that one in the bedroom.
Maybe rent a proper dehumidifier for a while and run it?