There will be moments where you will look at your bedroom door, while standing in the hallway and think why would you want to go in there. Fold your shoulders and shake your head sadly at your messy bedroom. Well hello!
That used to be me. Two years ago I was angrily marching back and forth in front of what I like to call my “sleeping quarters” (basically roommate talk for bedroom) which was really a pile of laundry meets bargain-bin Barnes and Noble. My room is pretty small, 10 x 8 ft to be exact.
Give or take a foot, I’m exaggerating. We live in a converted Victorian house that was built by man who obviously didn’t think having storage was necessary.
I had shirts hanging over the back of chair (I never sat on that chair) and piles of books that would loom over me threatening to swallow me whole.
Little did I know those piles would actually come crashing down on me at night as I slept, waking me up with a mountain of books on my feet. My nightstand was so cluttered I couldn’t see my phone charger without digging for it. ENOUGH.
I was late for work one Tuesday morning and could not find any clean underwear. There was no clean underwear (lie I had piles of clean underwear) but I couldn’t find any because I had SO MANY clothes and towels and blankets to put EVERYWHERE. They were either stuffed in drawers that were already filled with enough clothes to open my own boutique or they had lost their way in the land of “to sleep on the chair.” Time to fight back.
The first thing I did was emptied the room. Yep. Every.Single.Thing.
It took me 3 days to feel comfortable putting stuff back into my room, but I had to start from scratch. What I discovered shocked me. I had 3 black beanies (what?
How did that happen?). I had 5 pairs of sweat trousers (When did I buy these?!). My purse could’ve stored all the accessories that were hiding under piles on clothes.
The best thing about emptying out your closet is realising you have way more stuff than you thought, but also that you’ll be damned if you’re going to lie about how you live your life. Do you work out? I said I workout because I had a bike that I rode …once.
Maybe twice. Same shit with clothes. I thought I needed all of these clothes because I never knew what I was going to feel like when I woke up.
Traumatized by my piles of clothes, I realised I needed to be honest about how I actually lived. Did I workout at home? Nope.
Did I school/run around the block wear sweats? Hell yeah! I own way too many cute shirts to wear sweat trousers all the time.
Time to toss the bulk of my wardrobe! Now it was time to figure out where to put everything I wasn’t tossing. I had limited space, so I had to think of creative places to store things.
One area that’s often forgotten is UNDER your bed. Ohhhh how much stuff I fit under my bed. Seriously guys, buy these bed risers.
They’re not the cheapest, but they’re not the most expensive either ($15 each at the hardware store) and now I have tons of space to store out of season clothes, extra blankets, pillows and those mystery cables that go to who knows what but you can’t bear to throw them away. Don’t forget about your vertical space either! And when I say vertical, I mean AKA all the empty space above your bed that you never really take advantage of.
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I bought these floating shelves and installed them about 18 inches away from the ceiling. Now I have a ton of space to store books, storage bins and décor and makes my room look twice as big AND less cluttered. Although I utilised the shelves above my bed, I didn’t go crazy and put things up so high that I needed hockey gear to reach it.
Now when I put books on the top shelf I make sure I can grab them without getting off the ground. The same goes for my closet. I didn’t realise how much room I gained by hanging ALL my clothes!
No more piles of shoes and jeans thrown on the floor. I bought these slim velvet hangers and my closet doubled in space. It may seem like common sense, but drawer organizers are life changing.
Again, I didn’t buy any special containers. I simply used shoe boxes and other storage boxes I already had around the house. My sock drawer went from this.
To this. You get the idea. Same thing for underwear, office supplies, jewellery.
You name it. If it was cluttering up my bedside table, I found a new home for it. Speaking of my bedside table.
Say goodbye my dear. You will never look the same again. My bedside table used to be home to 17 different things.
Books, water glass, phone, charger, hand cream, tissues, hair ties, headphones you name it. Now I follow a strict policy of only allowing 3 things on my bedside table at a time. Yes.
Only 3 things. I typically have my current book, phone and water glass. If something else wants to be out, it has to earn its keep or be put away.
One of my favourite tricks is the 5 minute pick-up. Before I go to bed every night, I allow myself 5 minutes to pick up my room. Sounds easy enough, but it helps prevent the clutter from jumping back on me.
Laundry goes in the hamper or closet, books go on shelves, miscellaneous items are dealt with then and there.
The one thing I didn’t expect when I decluttered my bedroom was how refreshed I’d feel when I woke up. Trust me, I used to mock people who talk about making your bedroom a “sanctuary.” Ugh.
Right? Well…I was half right. Kind of.
Creating a decluttered and organised room really does make you realise that this is YOUR place to sleep. It’s not the rental agency’s storage room with a bed in it. Sure it takes effort to keep my room tidy.
I’m human, some days I come home from work and dump my purse on the bed aka THE CHAIR. But once everything is in it’s place I can actually enjoy clutter free weekends in my bedroom. Good luck cleaning!
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