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11 Ways to Declutter Your Bedroom and Why It Matters

11 Ways to Declutter Your Bedroom and Why It Matters

11 WAYS TO DECLUTTER YOUR BEDROOM AND WHY IT MATTERS

Your bedroom is an important room in the home but it’s also a common dumping ground for clutter. Make your bedroom your own special space where you can feel relaxed at night for better sleep and rejuvenated in the morning ready for your day! Here are 11 ways to declutter your bedroom and why it matters.

YOUR BEDROOM AS A SANCTUARY

Out of all the rooms in your home, particularly if you have kids, your bedroom is probably the one and only place that you can really call your own. The rest of your home is likely to be for family, friends and the general busy-ness of daily life.

The bedroom is your own personal space. We all use our bedroom in different ways, not just for sleeping! It could also be where you study, read, watch TV, meditate. It depends on your household set-up and lifestyle.

Whichever way you use your bedroom, it’s helpful to keep it as calm, relaxing and peaceful as possible. It’s the setting for the start of your morning routine and the close of your evening routine.

More than that, getting a good night’s sleep not only depends on what you do to wind down and prepare your body and mind for sleep but also your bedroom environment.

MY BEDROOM

When I have a house full of children, I retreat to my bedroom as it’s my own personal space.

I don’t let my kids play in there, they’re not allowed to jump on my bed, or play ‘the floor is lava’ with my pillows!

My bedroom has my bed, a couple of bedside tables, my wardrobe and a small desk in the corner and a TV (my guilty pleasure is snuggling in bed watching TV with a cup of tea!). I have a couple of pictures on my walls and photographs on the shelf but that’s about it.

It’s not bare but it’s certainly not cluttered and everything I choose to keep around me, means something special to me, serves a purpose or I think is beautiful to look at.

The room has everything I need to keep me happy at night or when I’m needing some peace and calm during the day.

There’s nothing I don’t need in my bedroom so nothing to distract my eyes or my mind when I’m wanting to fall asleep at night.

My bedside table has a light, my current book (I try to read every day but sometimes it’s only a page a day!). I have a notebook and pen in case anything comes to mind that I can jot down to remember in the morning.

I use my phone as my clock but I’ve learnt over the years to avoid checking emails or the news right before bedtime. I do this as part of my morning routine when I’m more able to take in the information and do something about it if I need to.

My bedroom is quite clear, pretty but not busy. It’s just how I like it to be for when I’m needing it most.

HOW DOES YOUR BEDROOM FEEL TO YOU?

Does your bedroom feel like the inviting, calming space you’d like it to be or is it cluttered with stuff that you’re not sure where else to find a home for?

We spend a lot of time, care and energy decluttering the rest of our home but often put the unwanted or random items in our bedroom.

We use the excuse that we’ve run out of time, or we need to ‘think about where to put it’. The main bedroom is usually not seen by anyone else but us, so we think no one will notice if we fill it full of stuff or things we haven’t got around to sorting yet!

I’ve done it too, so you’re not alone! But, I also know that being greeted by piles of laundry to sort or things that need to be tidied up and put away when I have time, isn’t the way I want to end my day and head off to sleep.

As I’ve been on the go during the day, all I usually want to do is just flop into bed and relax!

In actual fact, your bedroom is probably the worst place to dump your clutter. Who wants to be reminded of yet more clutter and things to do when you’re ready to crash at the end of a busy day?

If your bedroom looks like the local recycling centre or dry cleaners, take a moment to think about how you use the room and what you need it to do and be for you.

How to declutter your bedroom

WHAT DO YOU USE THE SPACE FOR?

Obviously, for most people, the bedroom is mostly used at night for sleeping and other stuff!

But, do you use your room for anything else?

  • Maybe you have a desk in there where you work from as it’s the only quiet place in the house?
  • Perhaps you do your yoga workout or meditation in there where it’s a bit more peaceful?
  • Do you enjoy reading in bed so you’d like to have all your books near you?
  • Do you watch TV in bed at night?
  • If it’s just to sleep, then you’ll need your bed and a bedside table or two, and maybe not much more.

Thinking about how you use your bedroom will help you work out what you need to keep in that room.

11 WAYS TO DECLUTTER YOUR BEDROOM

Many of us already know that clutter raises stress levels and makes our brains busy. This isn’t what we want at the end of the day when it can already be difficult to switch off from our To Do lists.

Here are some simple steps on how to declutter your bedroom:

1. Make your bed

Aim to make your bed every morning. A tidy bed instantly makes the room look more organised and gives the impression that you’re completely in control of your home (even if you’re not)! Simple daily habits, such as making your bed, are a great way to keep your home and life ticking over with minimal effort and stress.

A made bed will not only make your bed look neater and the room generally tidier, but you won’t have throws and cushions strewn across the floor. This makes it easier to see how cluttered your bedroom really is. And, if you do have lots of decor and accessories on the bed, you might like to take this opportunity to think about where you store them when you’re in bed and not using them!

2. Remove clutter from the floor

The next step is to remove clutter from your bedroom floor. This could be piles of books, laundry, clothes that you’ve worn yesterday, a wet towel from your bathroom. Your floor is not a storage facility, it’s designed to help you access your room easily and safely! Gather everything up from your bedroom floor and put the items away.

3. Clear the flat surfaces 

Remove the obvious clutter from all the flat surfaces – shelves, table tops, dressing table etc. Re-home anything that doesn’t belong in that room, get rid of it or recycle/donate.

Flat surfaces are notorious clutter hotspots and clutter attracts clutter. Try to keep your flat surfaces clutter-free so that you can easily spot random bits of clutter when you do see them and can deal with them right away.

Your bedroom should be a calm space so anything that could disrupt and distract your eye and mind will detract from that calming environment you’re trying to create. The last thing you should be reminded of as you drift off to sleep is today’s undone ironing or tomorrow’s paperwork waiting to be organised.

4. Declutter your nightstand

On your bedside table you should only have what you need for the night and first thing in the morning, for example, a light, an alarm clock/your phone, a book, notepad and pen.

If you like to keep things near you that you might need for the evening or night but don’t want them cluttering up your bedside table surface, choose a nightstand with a drawer or two. Not so you can collect junk in them but just to keep your book, medicine etc out of sight but easily accessible.

5. Clothes

Go through your wardrobe, declutter your clothes and make it easier, quicker and more enjoyable to choose what you’re wearing each morning.

Pull everything out of your wardrobe and drawers, get rid of the pieces you don’t wear and only put back the items that you wear regularly and actually enjoy wearing.

Store out-of-season clothes and big, bulky items elsewhere.

Perhaps utilise under-the-bed storage or, if you have a guest room with a wardrobe, then make use of this space for items you don’t wear regularly but still want to keep.

Try these simple questions to help you decide which clothes to keep.

Make the most of your closet space by ensuring all the clothes you keep are clothes you actually wear. It’s not a secret storage space for items you don’t know where else to keep!

Review your clothes regularly, perhaps at the start of every season to make sure they still fit your body and your style – both may change over time!

11 ways to declutter your bedroom

6. Maximise on storage

There are many brilliant storage and organisation options for wardrobes, cupboards and drawers. Use them to make the most of storage space so that you don’t get clutter piling up outside of cupboards, closets and drawers.

If space is limited you might like to choose furniture that doubles up for another use. An example could be using chests of drawers beside your bed instead of the smaller, more traditional nightstands.

Do remember to declutter before you organise otherwise you could just be organising your clutter! As you go round your bedroom assessing your storage and furniture, take the time to empty everything out. Clutter kept out of sight might well be hidden clutter but it is still clutter. Ask yourself some decluttering questions to help you decide whether you need to keep this stuff or not.

7. Consider your decor

A calm room tends to have muted colours and patterns that don’t conflict. In the bedroom you want your body and brain to wind down for sleep and feel calm and relaxed. Here are some tips on how to create a calm home for some more tips on this.

That being said, how you decorate your bedroom is entirely personal choice. You might decide that, as it’s a room that not many people will see, you’d like to try bright, bold colours or something a little wacky and far out!

We all have different tastes and I’m definitely not saying that a minimalist, decluttered and simplified home should be bland, white and empty but it may be worth considering the effect of colour, pattern and texture on your emotions and feelings.

8. Avoid distractions

Everything in your bedroom should be designed to help you get a good night’s sleep. Try not to allow anything into it that will distract you from a calming bedtime to help you wind down from the day.

Some examples might be a pile of paperwork that needs sorting and actioning, a TV that tempts you to stay up way too late, study books on your desk which remind you of those impending exams, exercise equipment that reminds you that you didn’t use it today and your mobile phone which pings, beeps and shouts out for your attention way beyond bedtime.

Depending on the space you have available and your lifestyle, it may be that you don’t have any alternative for some or all of these things to be in your bedroom. However, I think it’s helpful to be mindful of what might distract us from a calm evening and bedtime.

9. Identify and deal with pain points

One of my niggles is not knowing what to do with clothes when I take them off. There’s an in-between stage when they’re not dirty enough to go in the laundry but not clean enough to go back in the wardrobe.

Instead of piling them on a chair or chucking them on the floor, I have a little box in my wardrobe that I throw them into instead. My husband has one too and it works brilliantly to keep that ugly clutter out of sight but easy to reach when I need it!

10. Reset your bedroom daily

Every morning after you’ve got up and in the evening before you go to bed, give your bedroom a quick once-over. Put away any clothes and laundry, clear your nightstand and return items to their proper home.

A regular reset is a little like wiping the slate clean. Your bedroom is meant to be used, so I’m not suggesting it won’t get untidy or be busy but if it’s clutter-free then it’s definitely easier and quicker to keep clear and tidy with a regular reset.

Here are some more tips for resetting your home more generally which you might find helpful.

11. Declutter regularly

Decluttering isn’t a once-and-you’re-done kind of project. Staying clutter-free and calm requires a little bit of maintenance.

Make decluttering a regular routine, something that you do every week or month. As well as putting in place some daily habits to stay clutter-free, a regular declutter will really help stop any clutter building up so it’s not so overwhelming or time-consuming to tackle.

How to declutter your bedroom

IF YOU WANT TO CARRY ON DECLUTTERING…

I hope you found this article helpful. Your bedroom is an important room in your home but it’s one that’s easily used as a dumping ground for clutter, right where you need it least!

If you’d like to carry on decluttering the rest of your home following some very simple tips and checklists, then you might like to explore Simplify Your Home.

Simplify Your Home is my complete declutter guide with workbook and handy checklists to help you clear clutter and keep it away.

Everything is all laid out for you, so all you need to do is to follow my instructions and get on with decluttering!

Click here to read more about Simplify Your Home.

RESOURCES ON DECLUTTERING YOUR HOME

Here are some articles and resources to help you declutter your home:

DON’T MISS OUT!

I’m Antonia and on this blog I share practical inspiration to simplify your home, time and life. Follow me on InstagramFacebook and Pinterest! You can also subscribe to Balance Through Simplicity and receive regular simplicity tips straight to your inbox for free. Make sure you never miss an article plus you’ll get a copy of my free Declutter Starter Kit as a welcome gift!