Responsive CSS floats to align vertically without any white space on top

Question

I am creating an responsive web page. I have two articles floated left and two asides floated right. I would like the two asides to align vertically at the top with the first article. Originally the asides aligned perfectly with the articles as in the HTML I put the asides in between the two articles.

But when making the page responsive, I found that when I tried to collapse the asides to the bottom of the page, beneath the articles, they showed up in the middle of the two articles when I wanted the asides to show up underneath the two articles. So I moved the asides to the bottom of the page in my HTML, and thus my problem was created.

I have tried to clear the floats and to display both the articles and asides with inline-block but I wasn't able to make it work.

EDIT: A person suggested (and then deleted their response?) absolute positioning the asides. I have tried to do this, but I feel like it messes up the responsive design so I would like to avoid it if possible.

Here is the JSfiddle.

@charset"utf-8";

/* CSS Document */

/* http://meyerweb.com/eric/tools/css/reset/ 
   v2.0 | 20110126
   License: none (public domain)
*/
 html, body, div, span, applet, object, iframe, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, p, blockquote, pre, a, abbr, acronym, address, big, cite, code, del, dfn, em, img, ins, kbd, q, s, samp, small, strike, strong, sub, sup, tt, var, b, u, i, center, dl, dt, dd, ol, ul, li, fieldset, form, label, legend, table, caption, tbody, tfoot, thead, tr, th, td, article, aside, canvas, details, embed, figure, figcaption, footer, header, hgroup, menu, nav, output, ruby, section, summary, time, mark, audio, video {
    margin: 0;
    padding: 0;
    border: 0;
    font-size: 100%;
    font: inherit;
    vertical-align: baseline;
}
/* HTML5 display-role reset for older browsers */
 article, aside, details, figcaption, figure, footer, header, hgroup, menu, nav, section {
    display: block;
}
body {
    line-height: 1;
}
ol, ul {
    list-style: none;
}
blockquote, q {
    quotes: none;
}
blockquote:before, blockquote:after, q:before, q:after {
    content:'';
    content: none;
}
table {
    border-collapse: collapse;
    border-spacing: 0;
}
/* End of CSS reset */

/* apply a natural box layout model to all elements, but allowing components to change */
 html {
    box-sizing: border-box;
}
*, *:before, *:after {
    box-sizing: inherit;
}
/* General styles */

/* Background pattern from Subtle Patterns, by Atle Mo: http://subtlepatterns.com/green-cup/ */
 body {
    line-height: 1.4;
    background-image: url(../images/green_cup.png);
}
.wrapper {
    width: 960px;
    /* 960px; */
    margin: 0 auto;
}
/* Header styles */
 header {
    font-family:'Playfair Display', serif;
    font-size: 23px;
}
.header-text {
    margin: 0 auto;
    width: 800px;
    font-family:'Playfair Display', serif;
    text-align: center;
    color: #1d464f;
    font-size: 2.1em;
    /* 50px; */
}
.header-text-below {
    margin: 0 auto;
    width: 800px;
    text-align: center;
    font-family:'Merriweather', serif;
    font-size: 1.1em;
    /* 25px; */
    color: #256139;
    padding-bottom: 10px;
}
/* End Header styles */

/* Nav */
 nav {
    width: 100%;
    background-color: white;
    border-bottom: 4px solid #78605C;
    height: 60px;
}
nav ul {
    padding-top: 7px;
    margin-left: 19%;
}
nav li {
    float: left;
    display: block;
    text-align: center;
    list-style-type: none;
    width: 19%;
}
nav a {
    display: block;
    font-family:'Playfair Display', serif;
    color: #2A879C;
    text-decoration: none;
    font-size: 30px;
}
nav a:hover, nav a:focus, nav a:active {
    color: #78605C;
}
/* Typography */
 h1 {
    color: #1d464f;
}
.article-header {
    color: #1d464f;
    padding-top: 4px;
    font-size: 35px;
}
p {
    font-family:'Merriweather', serif;
    line-height: 1.4em;
    font-size: 1em;
}
.date-circle {
    font-family:'Merriweather', serif;
    border-radius: 50%;
    background-color: #78605C;
    color: white;
    height: 60px;
    width: 60px;
    float: left;
    font-size: 14px;
    text-align: center;
    padding-top: 20px;
    margin-right: 10px;
    margin-bottom: 5px;
    clear: both;
}
.read-more a {
    color: #78605C;
    font-family:'Merriweather', serif;
    text-decoration: none;
    font-weight: bold;
}
.featured {
    color: #256139;
    font-family:'Merriweather', serif;
    font-weight: bold;
    font-size: 20px;
}
/* End Typography */
 img {
    max-width: 100%;
    height: auto;
}
/* Articles */
 article {
    float: left;
    display: inline-block;
    width: 67.39%;
    /* 620px / 960px = 67.39%, target / context = result */
    padding: 10px;
    padding-top: 10px;
    background-color: white;
}
article:nth-of-type(2) {
    margin-bottom: 20px;
}
.clear {
    clear: left;
}
/* Borders of articles and asides */
 article:nth-of-type(1) {
    border-top-style: solid;
    border-right-style: solid;
    border-bottom-style: none;
    border-left-style: solid;
    border-color: #DED8AA;
    border-width: 4px;
}
article:nth-of-type(2) {
    border-top-style: none;
    border-right-style: solid;
    border-bottom-style: solid;
    border-left-style: solid;
    border-color: #DED8AA;
    border-width: 4px;
}
aside:nth-of-type(1) {
    border-top-style: solid;
    border-right-style: solid;
    border-bottom-style: none;
    border-left-style: solid;
    border-color: #DED8AA;
    border-width: 4px;
}
aside:nth-of-type(2) {
    border-top-style: none;
    border-right-style: solid;
    border-bottom-style: solid;
    border-left-style: solid;
    border-color: #DED8AA;
    border-width: 4px;
}
/* End borders */

/* Aside, right side div */
 aside {
    float: right;
    width: 31.25%;
    /* 300px / 960px = 31.25%, target / context = result */
    padding: 10px;
    padding-top: 10px;
    background-color: white;
}
/* Font awesome styling, social media icons from: http://fortawesome.github.io/Font-Awesome/ */
 .iconContact {
    width: 235px;
    margin: 0 auto;
}
.iconContact a {
    color: #2A879C;
    transition: color 0.3s ease;
    text-align: center;
    float: left;
    display: inline-block;
    padding: 10px;
}
.iconContact a:hover {
    color: #78605C;
}
/* Media queries 


Your blog web page should be usable at the following sizes at a minimum: 
i. Smartphone – portrait (320px wide) 
ii. Smartphone – landscape (480px wide) 
iii. Tablet – portrait (768px wide) 
iv. Tablet – landscape(1024px wide) 
v. Desktop – widths wider than 1024px 



*/
 @media only screen and (max-width: 1080px) {
    main {
        width: 90%;
        margin: 0 auto;
    }
    .article-header {
        padding-top: 8px;
        font-size: 1.2em;
        /* 35px; */
    }
    @media only screen and (max-width: 980px) {
        .wrapper {
            width: 80%;
            /* 960px; */
            margin: 0 auto;
        }
        nav ul {
            padding-top: 7px;
            margin-left: 0;
        }
        nav li {
            float: left;
            display: block;
            text-align: center;
            list-style-type: none;
            width: 25%;
        }
        .header-text {
            margin: 0 auto;
            width: 80%;
            /* 800px; */
            font-family:'Playfair Display', serif;
            text-align: center;
            color: #1d464f;
            font-size: 2.1em;
            /* 50px; */
        }
        .header-text-below {
            margin: 0 auto;
            width: 80%;
            /* 800px; */
            text-align: center;
            font-family:'Merriweather', serif;
            font-size: 1.1em;
            /* 25px; */
            color: #256139;
            padding-bottom: 10px;
        }
        main {
            width: 100%;
            margin: 0 auto;
        }
        .article-header {
            padding-top: 8px;
            font-size: 1.2em;
            /* 35px; */
        }
        .iconContact a {
            padding: 6px;
        }
    }
    @media only screen and (max-width: 920px) {
        .iconContact a {
            padding: 4px;
        }
    }
    @media only screen and (max-width: 890px) {
        .header-text-below {
            font-size: 1em;
            /* 25px; */
        }
    }
    @media only screen and (max-width: 860px) {
        .iconContact a {
            padding: 3px;
        }
        @media only screen and (max-width: 830px) {
            .iconContact a {
                padding: 2px;
            }
        }
        @media only screen and (max-width: 800px) {
            .header-text-below {
                font-size: 0.9em;
                /* 25px; */
            }
            .iconContact a {
                padding: 1px;
            }
            @media only screen and (max-width: 890px) {
                .header-text-below {
                    font-size: 1em;
                    /* 25px; */
                }
            }
            @media only screen and (max-width: 768px) {
                aside {
                    float: none;
                    width: 100%;
                }
                article {
                    width: 100%;
                }
            }

<!doctype html>
<html>
    
    <head>
        <meta charset="utf-8">
        <title>A Healthy Zest; A food blog begins</title>
        <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="styles/styles.css">
        <link rel="stylesheet" href="http://maxcdn.bootstrapcdn.com/font-awesome/4.3.0/css/font-awesome.min.css">
        <link href='http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Playfair+Display:400,700' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'>
        <link href='http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Merriweather' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'>
        <!-- Responsive media queries -->
        <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" />
        <!--[if lt IE 9]>
            <script src="http://html5shiv.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/html5.js"></script>
        <![endif]-->
    </head>
    
    <body>
        <nav>
            <ul>
                <li><a href="#">Home</a>

                </li>
                <li><a href="#">About</a>

                </li>
                <li><a href="#">Recipes</a>

                </li>
                <li><a href="#">Contact</a>

                </li>
            </ul>
        </nav>
        <div class="wrapper">
            <header>
                
<h1 class="header-text"> A Healthy Zest </h1>

                
<h2 class="header-text-below"> Carefully curated recipes for those on the go </h2>

            </header>
            <main>
                <!-- Articles, left hand side -->
                <article>
                    <header>
                        <div class="date-circle">May 02</div>
                         <h1 class="article-header">Organic Italian pizza</h1>

                    </header>
                    <!--- Image in blog post, figure -->
                    <figure>
                        <img src="images/pizza-600.jpg" alt="Delicious Italian Cheese and Tomato Pizza" width="600" height="400">
                    </figure>
                    <p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Praesent volutpat lectus quis tellus venenatis pellentesque. Vestibulum et aliquam ipsum. Suspendisse dapibus nibh arcu. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae; Sed posuere urna ut tortor vulputate porttitor. Maecenas eget ultrices felis, at luctus justo. Etiam blandit placerat lacus vel tristique. Suspendisse ultrices iaculis eros sed molestie. Nulla eget ante eleifend, vulputate nunc in, congue orci. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos. Proin id tellus dolor. Aenean maximus eros porttitor erat consequat, vel iaculis dui faucibus. Vestibulum aliquet lorem at mi pretium ultricies. Suspendisse tempor pulvinar rutrum. Morbi consequat eget nunc id lobortis. Pellentesque ut tincidunt lectus. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Duis gravida neque sit amet nunc vestibulum, non interdum ante dictum. Fusce semper pharetra lectus nec auctor. Sed dignissim cursus leo, et porttitor sem porta quis. Etiam facilisis volutpat neque, vitae rutrum purus fermentum vitae. Donec sed nunc dolor. Sed sed rutrum mi. Sed malesuada lobortis aliquet. Praesent vel nisl in massa dictum varius. Nullam nec magna arcu. Vivamus at dolor id neque iaculis rhoncus. Suspendisse aliquet libero felis, vitae tincidunt lectus placerat a. Duis a dictum lacus. Donec ut libero diam. Phasellus scelerisque mattis felis, ut malesuada neque pellentesque et. In arcu sem, convallis ac fermentum sed, consequat et tellus. Donec eu orci quis sapien aliquet porttitor sit amet eu metus. Etiam non sodales risus. Suspendisse placerat sem eu dolor porta tempor.</p>
                    <p class="read-more"> <a href="#"> Read more...</a> 
                    </p>
                </article>
                <article>
                    <header>
                        <div class="date-circle">April 08</div>
                         <h1 class="article-header">Healthy whole-grain sandwich</h1>

                    </header>
                    <!--- Image in blog post, figure -->
                    <figure>
                        <img src="images/sandwich-600.jpg" alt="Healthy sandwich with lettuce, egg and cream cheese" width="600" height="400">
                    </figure>
                    <p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Praesent volutpat lectus quis tellus venenatis pellentesque. Vestibulum et aliquam ipsum. Suspendisse dapibus nibh arcu. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae; Sed posuere urna ut tortor vulputate porttitor. Maecenas eget ultrices felis, at luctus justo. Etiam blandit placerat lacus vel tristique. Suspendisse ultrices iaculis eros sed molestie. Nulla eget ante eleifend, vulputate nunc in, congue orci. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos himenaeos. Proin id tellus dolor. Aenean maximus eros porttitor erat consequat, vel iaculis dui faucibus. Vestibulum aliquet lorem at mi pretium ultricies. Suspendisse tempor pulvinar rutrum. Morbi consequat eget nunc id lobortis. Pellentesque ut tincidunt lectus. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Duis gravida neque sit amet nunc vestibulum, non interdum ante dictum. Fusce semper pharetra lectus nec auctor. Sed dignissim cursus leo, et porttitor sem porta quis. Etiam facilisis volutpat neque, vitae rutrum purus fermentum vitae. Donec sed nunc dolor. Sed sed rutrum mi. Sed malesuada lobortis aliquet. Praesent vel nisl in massa dictum varius. Nullam nec magna arcu. Vivamus at dolor id neque iaculis rhoncus. Suspendisse aliquet libero felis, vitae tincidunt lectus placerat a. Duis a dictum lacus. Donec ut libero diam. Phasellus scelerisque mattis felis, ut malesuada neque pellentesque et. In arcu sem, convallis ac fermentum sed, consequat et tellus. Donec eu orci quis sapien aliquet porttitor sit amet eu metus. Etiam non sodales risus. Suspendisse placerat sem eu dolor porta tempor.</p>
                    <p class="read-more">
<a href="#">Read more...</a> 
                    </p>
                </article>
                <!-- Aside, right sidebar, author bio-->
                <aside>
                    <!-- Social media icons -->
                    <div class="iconContact">
<a href="#"> 
<i class="fa fa-facebook fa-3x"></i> 
</a>

                    </div>
                    <div class="iconContact">
<a href="#"> 
<i class="fa fa-twitter fa-3x"></i> 
</a>

                    </div>
                    <div class="iconContact">
<a href="#"> 
<i class="fa fa-instagram fa-3x"></i> 
</a>

                    </div>
                    <div class="iconContact">
<a href="#"> 
<i class="fa fa-pinterest fa-3x"></i> 
</a>

                    </div>
                    <!-- Social media icons end -->
                    <figure>
                        <img src="images/author-300.png" alt="Picture of the author of the food blog" width="300" height="294">
                    </figure>
                    <p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Praesent volutpat lectus quis tellus venenatis pellentesque. Vestibulum et aliquam ipsum. Suspendisse dapibus nibh arcu. Vestibulum ante ipsum primis in faucibus orci luctus et ultrices posuere cubilia Curae; Sed posuere urna ut tortor vulputate porttitor. Maecenas eget ultrices felis, at luctus justo. Etiam blandit placerat lacus vel tristique.</p>
                </aside>
                <!-- Aside, right sidebar, featured posts -->
                <aside>
                    
<h1 class="featured">Featured Posts</h1>

<a href="#"> 
<figure>
  <img src="images/smoothie-300.jpg" alt="Delicious Green Smoothie with bananas and strawberries on the side" width="300" height="200">
</figure>
</a>

<a href="#"> 
<figure>
  <img src="images/oatmeal-300.jpg" alt="Healthy oatmeal with bananas and nuts sprinkled on top" width="300" height="200">
</figure>
</a>

                </aside>
                <div class="clear"></div>
        </div>
        <!-- end wrapper -->
        </main>
        <footer class="clear"></footer>
    </body>

</html>

Answer 1

I suggest using the flexible box model to accomplish what you want.

Remove all floats.

Turn your containing element <main> into a flexbox container:

main {
    display: flex;
}

Put all of your left side content into a <div id="left"> and all of your right side content into <div id="right">.

Now lets remove the grow and shrink properties from these divs:

#left, #right {
    flex-grow: 0;
    flex-shrink: 0;
}

Now when you want to use a mobile layout, you can have your media queries set flex-direction: column; and flex-grow: 1; and your right side content will drop down underneath your left side content.

You will probably need to move some of your attributes that you gave to each article and aside into their respective left/right column tag.

Here is a jsfiddle

This is a great reference for flexboxes.