How to organise your bedroom
Our bedrooms are key spaces for us to relax and unwind from our daily lives. Keeping this space, clean, clear, and organised is important as it impacts your sleep and your emotions. On this page, I’ll teach you how to organise your bedroom.
It is an easy organising project to start with
Gives a lot of return on investment in terms of time and effort
Can show you some strong and weak spots for your organising journey
This is all great learning for when over time we get into harder organising projects.
Organise your bedroom -Make your bed
It takes less than 30 seconds for an adult to make their bed. I understand that you might not feel like making your bed. However, if you don’t the room looks messy, it is such an easy think to will help you organise your bedroom. My home is not yet a 5-star resort, however, my bed is made every day. And getting into a neatly made bed at night is such a great feeling. It is something which we shouldn’t deprive ourselves of.
To make life easier on yourself, keep your bedding simple. No more than 4 pillows, I personally like a doona and no separate sheets or blankets. This saves on washing and the hassle of dealing with all those layers.
To keep things nice and fresh, I keep a fortnightly routine of cleaning the sheets. This gives a nice feel to the place I usually aim to spend 50+ hours a week in.
Organise your bedroom - Get rid of the clothes and clear the floor
As far as bedrooms go, clear the floor, which often includes picking clothes off the floor. Make a rule to only have clothes in your cupboard, in the laundry, or on a clothing rack. If you need to have some clothes in your room. For example, the outfit for tomorrow or for your exercise class tonight. I suggest you hang clothes off a hook at the back of your door. Fold the items ready to go, or have your clothing rack with only the current clothes you are wearing. This clears up your floor space, is a key task in how to organise your bedroom and makes you feel mentally much better.
On this note, when your pyjamas aren’t used. They can go on the back of the door as well. Alternatively, you can place them under your pillow or on a hook in the bathroom.
Organising clothes is a whole topic in and of itself, you can find out how to organise clothes here.
Think about the purpose of the room
The purpose of a bedroom is so simple; it is for rest and relaxation.
Anything which isn’t adding to the purpose of rest and relaxation. Can and should find a place somewhere else in the house.
How to organise your bedroom when you are Sharing with a significant other
Sharing a bedroom can be tricky and may need to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. I know women who created laundry hampers, plastic storage boxes, and the like. All to get their partners to be organised with their clothes and other items in the bedroom. It's a good idea to discuss this with your partner and express how important it is to you to organise your bedroom. Where possible, lead by example, set up "rules you both agree on". Make it a positive experience you as a couple are really adulting now.
Relationship and organising 101
In general, a lot of relationship topics come down to respect for the other persons needs. Be clear about your wishes, as well as boundaries. You decide what you, as a couple together and as individuals, can and can’t live with. In my opinion, a grown person who is not willing to pick their clothes off the floor. When their partner finds this important, is simply not cool.
We digress a little here, but with decluttering in general. It is not unusual for people to declutter more than their things when going through some organising. Clearly, you didn’t hear this from me.
How to organise your bedroom when you have a messy bedroom
Learning how to organise a messy bedroom is a bit trickier than just organising your standard bedroom. And rather than looking at the problem, the state of the room. I suggest you think about what is causing a bedroom or multiple bedrooms in your house to be messy. I find in almost all cases where there is a messy bedroom, there are multiple issues at play.
Have a look at this video that covers clearing up the space around your bed.
Issues causing a messy bedroom
Most issues are linked together as well and include:
Too much clutter
No or little organisation
Storage issues
In most cases where you feel you need to organise your bedroom, there can be a combination of all three issues.
Let’s have a look at each of these bedroom issues separately. This will then make it easier for you to organise your messy bedroom.
Organise a messy bedroom - Declutter
If you have a room with too many items, such as clothes, hobbies, or just unidentified clutter. Your best bet is to learn about decluttering and moving your way through the room. I have written extensively about decluttering and how to approach this process. You can start reading up on how to Declutter here.
Organise your bedroom - Find homes
Some people have shoes, books, paperwork, hangers, receipts and the like in their bedrooms, often even in their bed. If this is the case for you. It is probably an indication that these items are “homeless”. Meaning you need to find a home for each grouping of items. This is one of the main principles of organising as explained here.
Keep in mind that when you start to organise your bedroom. Your systems don’t have to be great straight away.
For starters you:
could begin with getting a box to place your loose paperwork in.
can collect your books
place them in the living room
or on a very neat pile
*Preferably outside your bedroom (unless your books "live there").
All of this will help organise your bedroom.
As a general rule, when you organise your bedroom. Or any space for that matter. I suggest you take everything that doesn’t need to be in this room out. Find homes for these items elsewhere.
furniture is important when you organise your bedroom
One of the reasons why you have a messy bedroom. It could be because there is inadequate furniture or storage solutions in this room.
Bedside tables help organise your bedroom
Where possible, I would always opt for matching bedside tables with at least one drawer. I would have little to no open space in them (as it looks messy and gathers dust).
Having bedside tables means that the little miscellaneous things you might want to keep next to your bed are still organised. It keeps them out of sight whilst making the whole room appear much neater and clearer.
If you have a lot of clothes. Make sure you get sufficient furniture in place to organise and store your clothing. As mentioned on the How to Organise Your Clothes page, you can be creative about this. Add extra storage in your wardrobes or create additional wardrobe space where there was none.
Creating extra storage when you organise your bedroom
Utilise your centre piece, the bed, to be very clever in terms of storage to help you organise your bedroom even more. I highly recommend using some form of under-bed storage. These can be drawers or storage containers. If space allows, you can place a nice bed valance (storage bed/stool) on the end of a bed.
Some would argue that this might disturb some of the energy flows in the bedroom. I think if space is limited, and if you make sure your stored items are neat and tidy, and you dust under your bed regularly. Then this is a very practical solution to help you organise your bedroom.
Get Inspired to Organise your Bedroom and More
In this visual book I’ll take you on a visual journey through each room of the house.
How to organise your bedroom the summary
If you are new to organising. Organising your bedroom is a great place to start, even if this is a messy bedroom. Start by decluttering any items that don’t serve the purpose of this room.
Clean and clear the surfaces, above, next to, around, and under your bed. This in itself, will make you sleep much better.
Lastly:
utilise under-bed storage solutions.
organise your wardrobe
use hooks and nightstands
Then simply organise the few items that will remain in your bedroom. And enjoy the rest and relaxation which will follow.
Over to you
If you feel inspired to organise your bedroom. Make some before and after photos and let me know how you went.