How to Achieve a Clutter Free Bedroom

Last week, I shared how to declutter your clothing once and for all. I believe clothing is the best starting point when decluttering your home, as the constant struggle of having too many clothes, but nothing to wear is a common theme amongst us. When you have so many it’s difficult to get organised and there is no space for anything else in your room. Once done with your clothing, you should have some extra space and will finally be able to achieve a clutter free bedroom!

Why declutter?

Spending time at home should be a nice experience, not a stressful one so I’ve made decluttering easy for even the worst hoarders (aka past me!).

The bedroom should be a sanctuary and your place to unwind at the end of the day. The place where you spend your first and last moments of the day should be a relaxing space. It is proven that clutter and mess can affect stress, so the bedroom should be the first room to tackle when decluttering. Then, when you move on to other rooms, you can escape to your cosy room afterwards.

The bedroom should be a sanctuary and your place to unwind at the end of the day.

This is where I disagree with the Marie Kondo Konmari Method, as Marie believes you should work by item type rather than room. If I had done that in my home, with two people’s clothing and miscellaneous items all over the home, I would have ended up in a mess (which I did many times before cracking this!).

The method below can be done room by room, so you don’t have to take your whole house apart at once!

If you didn’t start with clothing, I would suggest going back and doing that first. If you want to start on the whole bedroom, don’t do clothes until afterwards – decluttering both together will be difficult and overwhelming, meaning you’re more likely to give up.

This isn’t easy, but the feeling you’ll get once done will be worth it!

How to create a clutter free bedroom

Throw rubbish & remove items that don’t belong.

This might sound silly to some, but I know there are people who end up with packets, full bins, screwed up paper and more in their bedrooms.

Remove all obvious rubbish from the room and keep the bag ready to fill!

Take any mugs and glasses out of the room and anything else that obviously doesn’t belong there.

Empty everything onto the floor.

As with the clothing declutter, it’s time to empty that storage! Anything sitting on surfaces, in drawers or in storage boxes should be placed on the bed or the floor if there’s space. I know it’s daunting, especially if you have a lot, but it really is the best way I have found to ensure I actually get rid of everything needed. Having odd boxes still full under the bed will mean you have to revisit it all again and nobody wants that!

Leave any paperwork or files for now, and jewellery, makeup and toiletries, but keep each item type in a box if possible. We’ll be tacking all of these soon!

Sort items into groups

Sort everything you have on the floor into categories. These may be paperwork, candles, ornaments, knick-knacks, picture frames. Sort it as much as you can and have a pile for each one.

Put your paperwork in a box for now and keep out of the way because that’s a whole other task.

This might seem a dramatic way to do this, and you will likely hate life a bit if there’s a lot to go through. Even if you’re totally sure you love an item, it should join the pile.

If you find things that belong elsewhere, put them in their own pile too and sort them later.

Play Snog, Marry…no wait…

Play throw, donate/sell, or keep. Go through each and every item. Do it pile by pile.

This is where Marie Kondo’s method really comes into play. Does the item spark joy? It sounds a bit mad at first, but once you play along, you get used to it. Anything that gives you a great feeling and you immediately want to keep, put aside to keep.

Can’t decide?

If you’re struggling with some items, think about the following questions:

• Do you have a colour scheme? Does the item match? If you don’t it might be easier to choose a few choice colours or a theme for the room.
• Does it have a purpose? If so, has it been used for that purpose in the last two months?
• Could it be easily replaced if you needed it again?
• Does it make you feel instantly good – spark joy?
• Could somebody else love it more or make better use of it?
• And the big one that massively helped me…If you moved into your dream house, would you choose this item for it?

Still unsure? Have a maybe box if you really need to that you can go back to soon when the bedroom is cleared. It might be that the item is too sentimental, but doesn’t have a place, or that you love it, but it doesn’t fit the room at the moment.

Sorting and storing items

As above, for now, keep your makeup, toiletries and paperwork in their categories together. I left mine in one box for each type of item while sorting my own bedrooms so that I could revisit them when I had space and time.

Quite often, we manage to hide away our clutter in drawers and storage boxes, but despite the bedroom looking tidy, there can be masses of things to wade through should you need a particular item. That’s what we’re trying to prevent.

You should have some empty storage and shelves now. While I don’t advocate buying loads more because they’ll end up being filled, it might be worth investing in some.

What can be useful is dual purpose storage, such as an ottoman you can sit on while getting dressed that you can store bedding in too.

Clean all surfaces

Wipe down every surface before you place items on them again. It’s the perfect opportunity to clean and everything will feel fresh when reorganised.

Create zones

Do you use your bedroom just for sleeping, or for reading, as an office or as a baby room, for example, too?

Create zones so that there is less crossover and therefore less items travelling across the bedroom. These could be a bedside table with items such as alarm, lamp and books. Or a vanity corner with a mirror, makeup, and hair styling tools.

Any photo frames, candles or ornaments that you have decided to keep should fit into these spaces easily. They can be bunched together, or spread amongst the zones.

Less is more

I used to love organised chaos and would have a desk full of pretty things, but less is more when decluttering. You don’t have to go full minimalist, but make sure you don’t become overwhelmed with stuff again.

The bedside table, for example, should have the essentials needed for sleeping and waking up, and the odd decorative piece if you prefer.

Boxing up items

As much as I think underbed boxes are useful, they should be reserved for lack of space only, and each box should have only one item category that will be used often. Craft supplies, seasonal items, electrical accessories and wires, for example do not need to be displayed.

If you box up mixed miscellaneous items, chances are you won’t see them until next time you decide to declutter.

Use the walls

It is possible to make a room look overcrowded by filling the walls too much, but you should make use of that lovely space! Put up a couple of shelves for your precious knick knacks or plants to show them off. Add some of your favourite photos and frames to the wall. Anything that usually sits on a surface leaning can be put up out of the way. Obviously, styling wise, sometimes it’s nice to have a leaning picture, but they’re not needed all around the room.

Have you started decluttering your home this year? Would you like to?