How to hide elements without having them take space on the page?

To use display:none is a good option just to removing an element BUT it will be also removed for screenreaders. There are also discussions if it effects SEO. There's a good, short article on that topic on A List Apart

If you really just want hide and not remove an element, better use:

div {
  position: absolute; 
  left: -999em;
}

Like this it can be also read by screen readers.

The only disadvantage of this method is, that this DIV is actually rendered and it might effect the performance, especially on mobile phones.

Look, instead of using visibility: hidden; use display: none;. The first option will hide but still takes space and the second option will hide and doesn't take any space.

use style instead like

<div style="display:none;"></div>

Try setting display:none to hide and set display:block to show.