Hi Patrick,
You won't find a road map here on this. Each must find his own way as to what works best for them. So reading through this forum, including the feedback you are getting here, you will gain some valuable insight and like some have said, you'll start out one way and refine it over time.
Some observations I have made by seeing hundreds of RVers storage is that they fall into maybe 3 categories:
1. Unorganized - everything just tossed in wherever
2. Organized chaos - it looks cluttered to me, but they know where everything is
3. Tidy Organized - A place for everything and everything in its place
Most people use Rubbermaid and other brands of large containers to store items. Myself and others use those clear keeps with the blue flip-top lids. You can "sort of" see into them and they stack very well.
A small percentage use sliding trays. Mostly commercial (Kwikee, Lippert, Slidemaster etc.) and a few homebrew. I have found 3 camps on sliding trays.
1. Some love them and believe in them
2. Some want them but are not in a financial position to obtain them
3. Some loathe them and feel they are space wasters
I am in camp 1. When you can organize your stuff in such a way that it is all accessible and you use the entire "cubic" volume of a sliding tray, then you have really achieved something. In my opinion.
I've put my storage trays to one side, closest to the front of the coach. This way, I have left a good amount of open floor storage between the sliding tray and the rearward bulkhead. In that open space, I store a cooler and various other items that I may want to access more readily. I also have a flat screen TV mounted flat against the bulkhead on an articulating arm that allows it to swing out of the storage bay.
All this said about sliding trays, certainly, excellent organization can and is obtained by a good many by using containers, labeling them, stacking them and in some cases, possibly even strapping them down. I think stacking the right size containers is one of the keys to efficient use of the space. There's a lot of cubic volume down there. If one only uses the square footage of the floor due to no way to stack items/containers, then there's a lot of space left on the table
With regard to your compressor - I most often see these up front, in the generator compartment between the front landing gear legs. The cooler would be able to be stored there as well as lawn chairs. Maybe even a gas grill. I tend to put things there that I don't have to access as often as it's not as pleasant to get the stuff out of that area as it is through the side baggage doors.
Have fun Patrick,
Jim
