Your bedroom should be a sanctuary of relaxation, a place where you go at the end of each day to unwind, and disorganization is the enemy of relaxation.
Less clutter in the bedroom means more time for reading, relaxing, and sleeping.
Ideally, this is a space where you won’t be working, but if your desk is in a corner of your bedroom or if you like to work on your laptop while in bed, you will have to set firm boundaries. Storing your work items where you can’t see them at night will make you sleep better. This is also not the place to keep your receipts and bills because they’ll make you feel worried.
How to Start
- Pick up everything that is lying on the floor and on top of furniture that doesn’t belong there. Organize your clothes and shoes in your closet.
- Get rid of anything that is below the bed. Those are things that we forget that we own and that type of clutter becomes stagnant energy.
- Declutter the nightstands, because the top drawer is always the junk drawer.
- Take everything out of your nightstands and deep clean. Return only the items that you need. Get rid of the bunch of papers, dried pens, eyeglasses that you no longer use, etc.
- Unless you use the exercise equipment that you have inside your bedroom, having the treadmill using up valuable space and making you feel guilty for not using it, is definitely not good for the calm environment that you’re trying to achieve.
Things to Declutter in Your Bedroom
- Excess books and magazines: keep on top of your nightstand the ones that you’re currently reading and store the rest on a bookshelf outside of your bedroom. Donate those books that you’re no longer going to reread.
- Excess decorative pillows: sleeping pillows that aren’t in peak condition and need to be changed.
- Linens that are damaged.
- Artwork that doesn’t make you happy.
- Inherited things that you’ve kept out of obligation.
- Plastic flowers and potpourri: those are dead energy.
- Throws that you no longer use.
- Out-of-style accessories.
- Old photos: having photos is great but they should be constantly updated.
- Things stored inside the furniture: if you have a dresser or a bench with storage at the end of the bed, take the things out and see which things you can donate.
- Jewelry that you might have in a drawer or inside a cabinet.
- Stained/old pajamas: invest in yourself and wear sleeping clothes that make you feel good. The same goes for your underwear and socks.
How to Design and Organize Your Bedroom
- Put your bed against a wall in which you’ll be able to see who is coming through the door.
- Have symmetry in your room. It doesn’t have to be matchy-matchy, but two nightstands and two lamps will make the room seem balanced and therefore give a sense of calm.
- Having nightstands with drawers or a combination of drawers and cabinet doors is ideal to keep your items organized and out of sight. Using side tables as nightstands may look great on magazines, but they’re not very functional for your storage needs.
- Use a neutral color scheme. Light green and blue are calming colors but they can also feel too cold for a bedroom. Going with more neutral colors in Earth tones will make your room feel calm and cozy. Save the bright colors for other spaces in your home.
- A bedroom needs different types of lighting: ceiling light like a chandelier, a hanging lamp, or some spots. Lamps for the nightstands can be either table lamps or wall sconces. A tall lamp works great if you have a reading chair in your bedroom. Adding a dimmer to these lamps will create a beautiful and cozy mood.
- Be very mindful of the artwork that you hang in your bedroom, it should have uplifting images and colors because it’s the first thing that you see in the morning and the last thing that you see at night and it’s going to influence how you feel.
- Change your photos regularly. Sometimes we leave old photos for decades when we could be switching them for ones with more recent happy times.
- Mirrors are not good in the bedroom if they are reflecting your bed. Mirrors double what they reflect, and if you’re tired, you’ll feel more tired, so have them inside your closet or on top of a dresser in a wall where they’re not reflecting you and clean them regularly.
- Find spaces for extra storage: a trunk at the end of your bed is great for storing linens, a dresser can help you keep folded clothes that don’t fit in your closet, and a tray on top keeps loose items from getting lost. Also, an armoire can help you store things behind doors so that the room looks organized.
- In small bedrooms place furniture with double function: a vanity table can serve for putting on makeup, but also as a desk, or a bench that opens can store things inside.
Maintenance Tips
- Making your bed daily is the best habit that you can have. It gives you a small win at the beginning of each day and it also gives you a tidy place to come home to after a long day's work. Change your sheets weekly.
- Have beautiful and soft bed linens. We spend one third of our lives in bed, therefore this should be a place where we are very comfortable. Investing in a good mattress, a good pillow and beautiful linens will make you enjoy your bedtime more.
- Keep this room decluttered. You want to have space where you go to unwind in the evening after a whole day's work.
- Don’t eat in your bedroom unless you have a small table and chair for that purpose, otherwise, your sheets will end up filled with crumbs.
- Don’t keep shoes or clothes laying on the floor, and when your clothes come from the laundry, store them immediately in the closet.
- You probably have a TV in your bedroom and that’s fine if you enjoy watching your favorite series, just try to disconnect from the news at least one hour before you go to sleep so that your mind has had time to calm down.
Written by
