It doesn’t matter whether you are young or more experienced, bedroom organization never seems to get easier for some people. With these 11 simple tip for bedroom organization, you might find that organizing your bedroom becomes your favorite project. SORT and Succeed is the basic process to organize any space.
11 Simple Tips for Bedroom Organization
- It’s easy to get overwhelmed by an entire bedroom organizing project. Start at the door, and work your way around the room, picking up misplaced items and putting them where they should probably go. Most often, the biggest culprit of bedroom clutter is clothes. Put the dirty clothes in the hamper (or laundry basket, if you don’t have a proper hamper). Don’t spend too much time trying to figure out if they are really dirty or not. Toss them in the dirty clothes. For bonus points, start a load of laundry while you move on to other parts of the bedroom organizing project.
2. Locate your trash bin, and keep it handy. It’s odd how many clothing tags and labels, dried out pens, drink bottles and tissues all gang up to (I swear) multiply the actual clutter in the room.
3. Put like items together throughout the room, still working clockwise from the door. You’ll have categories that end up in piles like these:
- electronics
- books
- jewelry
- photos
- extra linens
- shoes
- purses and wallets
- luggage
- craft supplies
- papers
4. Back to those clothes, as you locate the clean ones, put like items together. Hang or fold everything that doesn’t need to be laundered.
5. Once all the clothes are hanging up, take a quick purge through your closet, from left to right (the same direction we read in western cultures, so it helps some people stay focused). Don’t try to make the gut wrenching decisions about what size you were/are/will be. Just look for clothes that are torn, missing buttons, stained, or otherwise past their prime. If you can even remove a handful of clothes that no longer serve you, you’re making progress. Some items will be tossed. Please recycle textiles if that’s an option in your area.
6. Create a permanent space in your closet for garments that you no longer want, but could be donated. Ideally, it will be something easy to get to, but stable enough to prevent other items from mixing in. I’m a big fan of storage benches or cubes like these. Just toss in items throughout the year, and bag them up for donation drop off once or twice a year. You may feel like you don’t have enough room to store a donation bin, but I guarantee that you do. How do I know? Those clothes are already taking up space in your closet.
7. Here’s where you decide if you need more hangers. If you can’t put everything on hangers after removing the obvious losers from your wardrobe, it’s probably time to invest in a set of 50 slim hangers like these. Remember, hangers can hold more than just clothes. You can hang things like purses, tote bags, gift wrap ribbon, necklaces, and even flip flops on them, too! Use rod dividers to keep outfits grouped.
8. Once you start to get some breathing room back, take a look at your bedding. Can you simplify it? One way to make a bed easier to manage is by just getting rid of the top sheet, and using a duvet over an all-season comforter. Making the bed is a snap when there is only one layer to pull up. Does it need an upgrade? Wash or replace your pillows. Get rid of pillows you don’t like. Find a storage shelf for extra blankets, so they don’t end up in a pile on the floor.
9. Tame the electronics. Many of us just keep adding cords to the bedroom without really thinking about it. Are your gadgets getting in the way of good sleep? Can you relocate your overnight charger to the bathroom? At the very least, can you cinch up all the cords, neatly wrapping them and placing them out of the line of sight? Remove cords to old devices you no longer own, and recycle cords that are damaged. They can be a serious fire risk.
10. Lastly, tame the space under the bed. Either keep things neatly binned and labeled, or clear out under the bed and keep it empty. Either way, the goal is to evict the dust bunnies, so you don’t provide a home for nasty allergens that will impact your health.
11. Don’t go for perfect. Perfect isn’t happening. Instead, go for organized and cozy. It’s OK to leave a book out on the nightstand. It’s ok to leave your favorite pair of shoes on the floor. It’s OK to have some things out, if you are using them on a regular basis.
Depending on how disorganized your bedroom is, it can take between 3-6 hours to really get it organized, so don’t lose hope when you are a few hours into it and need to take a break. That’s going to happen. Take a nap if you have to. But keep at it, use the SORT and SUCCEED steps and these 11 tips to get to the finish line.
