How to declutter your bedroom

It’s your private space. It can smell how you want, be as hot or cold as you want, be arranged however you want. It’s the one place in the world where you can completely turn off. It should be your sanctuary—you should feel comfortable, peaceful, and surrounded by positive energy.

In contrast, a good way to obstruct that energy flow is to have a bedroom full of things from corner to corner. Obstructed energy flow can stall creativity processes and reduce concentration.

Did you know a cluttered bedroom even makes it harder to sleep? As we know, an assault on your sleep schedule just triggers a myriad of other problems.

A clean and tidy bedroom is vital to our everyday lives. A lot of people are so used to being surrounded by things that they don’t understand the luxury of space.

We need room to stretch, grow, think, tree pose, and create. Creating somewhere serene to decompress, spend our much-needed “Me-time”, and rest is conducive to a healthy, happy, and productive minimalist living. You’ll love the way it feels in your personal kingdom after you declutter your bedroom and remove all the unnecessary parts.

The bedroom is where some of your most sentimental and intimate possessions are so you’ll likely have to make some hard decisions. Don’t rush or push yourself to make a decision immediately.

Just make sure that any sentimental items you decide to keep make you feel happy or motivated. Consider what memories or people these things are connected to. Are they positive ones?

Don’t just keep it because you feel like you should—prioritize protecting the energy in your personal space and setting yourself up to prosper! Part of decluttering your whole home is making your bedroom clutter free first.

And the truth is, decluttering your bedroom is a great first step to minimalism and leading a healthier life. Before you start decluttering, it’s a good idea to do a sweep of your room with a trash bag and throw away all your trash.

Then you don’t have to work around it. Besides obvious trash, here are other things you can get out of the way.

Minimalist Bedroom Trash List

Dead plants
Old notes/Post-It’s
Old makeup
Misshapen hair ties
Cracked belts
Dried-out nail polish
Frayed or uncomfortable undergarments
Expired medications
Expired face products
Expired hygiene products
Knick-knacks
Flat pillows
Unneeded documents/Junk mail
Small, extraneous furniture
Socks/gloves/shoes with no match
Disposable hangers
Broken combs and brushes
Old books (Donate!)

How To: The Best Way to Declutter Your Bedroom

Your bedroom isn’t the biggest room in the house so it doesn’t take very long to declutter if you approach it methodically.

The basic contents of most bedrooms are a closet, a bed, a nightstand, a dresser and any furniture besides your bed like a chair or a desk. The most complicated thing to handle is the closet. Let’s start there and work our way down to the simpler tasks.

Declutter your closet

Firstly, establish a donation basket, a sell basket, and a throw away basket. They don’t have to be baskets—any spacious bag or container will work, or just create piles. Then, sort through your clothes piece by piece.

You’ll really want to physically take every article of clothing out and examine it in order to make an accurate decision about whether you want to keep or discard it. When you’re examining your wardrobe, consider this criteria:

Have you worn it in the last 12 months?
Does it fit?
Do you like it? Does it make you feel confident?
How often do you wear it?
Is it ripped, damaged, or stained?
How many different outfits can it go with?
How did you get it?
Do you need it (for work or other obligations)?
Is it a duplicate?
Does it represent where you want to be in life?

Be honest about how each item performs on your test and place it accordingly. Don’t sell or donate any articles of clothing that are damaged or in poor condition; trash or recycle them (or use them for a DIY project).

Lastly, make sure nothing’s on the floor or back of your closet and stow away your accessories in storage bins. Now that you’ve culled your closet of unnecessary articles and have plenty of new room for storage, let’s turn our attention to the next, and last, big task.

Take out furniture

Furniture you should remove from your bedroom includes your T.V. (put one in the living room instead), foot rests, clothes hampers, chairs, vanities, shoe racks, and desks (working close to your bed can be distracting and trigger fatigue; move your work to another area, if possible).

Take out everything other than your bed, nightstand, lamp, and dresser—unless you find you don’t need your dresser after decluttering your closet. Now that the number of surfaces in your bedroom has been reduced, there will be less of them to clean.

Clear off all surfaces

Go through what’s on top of your nightstand, dresser, and any other surfaces you have. Throw away anything that you don’t need or use on a regular basis. Refer to the trash list above if you need ideas.

Go through all cabinets and drawers

Take everything out of your nightstand, dresser, shelves, other drawers, and compartments in your bedroom. Remove books, medications, papers, cords, snacks, devices, and stray items. Pull everything from under your bed as well.

Comb through thoroughly and toss away anything you don’t need or use. Once you’re done, place your stuff back in an organized manner.

Fix your bed

We’re rounding the bend! Make sure your bed is not crowded with an excessive amount of pillows or blankets. Stick to two pillows, a sheet, and a comforter. Remove any stuffed animals or toys from your bed as well.

If you must keep one, keep only one on the bed and put the rest for them away. If there are bedders that are damaged or that you don’t use, donate or repurpose then.

Clean the floor

Last but not least, the floor. The entire time you’ve been cleaning your floor has been collecting dust, dirt and crumbs. Sweep, then mop/vacuum and make sure the floor is completely clear. Remember to clean underneath rugs or mats.

Be sure to consider any unique circumstances.

Your room is spacious, light, and feels good. Now is the time to put anything you need for health and safety reasons back into your room.

This includes but is not limited to medical equipment (sleep apnea machines, asthma machines, blood pressure machines, diabetes equipment, etc.), things you need for work, the baby’s bassinet, etc. Do not declutter your medical equipment under any circumstances.

How To Keep Your Bedroom Clean

Now that your room is in perfect condition, it’ll be even easier to keep it that way from now on. How often do we clean a big mess or room just for it to revert back to its messy state in what seems like less than 24 hours?

By remaining conscious of your habits, you can refrain from doing things that would introduce new clutter into your room. Keep a healthy atmosphere in your private space, and make sure you’re getting proper rest and relaxation by keeping it uncluttered.

Don’t eat in your bedroom. Eating in your room introduces stains, crumbs, persistent food smells, and wrappers. Plus, it promotes bad eating habits and nighttime snacking . If you can, make it a habit to eat somewhere other than your room.
Don’t toss your clothes around. At the end of the day, we all want to kick off our shoes and cannonball into our bed. Take two minutes before you do that to dispose of your clothes appropriately—don’t throw them on the floor or on a chair. Put them in your laundry hamper which should be outside the room.
Keep your laundry hamper out of your room. It’s hard to wind down and relax with a mounting pile of dirty laundry siting in the corner. It can be annoying or exhausting to look at, and it affects the room energetically. It’s not about being out of sight and out of mind (please don’t forget to do your laundry), it’s about optimizing the cleanliness of your personal sanctuary for the best rest and rejuvenation. In addition, having your hamper outside of your bedroom discourages you from leaving laundry on the floor outside the basket or letting it pile up too high. We let it pile up in the privacy of our rooms because nobody can see it but us. When the hamper is within sight of the rest of the house, you’re more likely to tend to the laundry more often.
No trash cans in the room. This is for much the same reason as the laundry hamper. And this one stinks! Keep trash cans outside the bedroom and you’ll be less tempted to do messy things in there.
Keep surfaces clear. If you set something down when you enter the room, pick it back up and take it with you when you leave. Don’t let any debris re-accumulate on your surfaces. If you see something where it shouldn’t be, take a second to remove it or make sure to grab it the next time you leave your room. When it comes to decor, narrow it down to one or two pieces that coordinate well with your color palette or theme.
Make up your bed every morning. It’s a good habit to have anyway, and a made bed has the potential to instantly transform the air in a room. Keep your bed linens clean (consider using linen spray) and your bed will be all the more inviting at bed time.
Only use the bedroom to relax. The main feature of the bedroom is the “bed”. In other words, it’s a room meant for you to relax and rest. Try to keep activities that are outside of peace and calm,outside of the bedroom. You don’t need all that busy energy in your cozy nest—studying, working, exercising, doing yoga, and doing art can be done in the living room instead.

Final Notes

The state of your bedroom is an integral element of your day. It’s where you wake up and where you go to sleep (your most vulnerable state), it’s where you recharge, it’s where you let go. If nowhere else, your room is your peaceful place away from everything else.

Hence, the amount of attention you give to the energy in here is especially important. A cluttered bedroom is physically and mentally taxing and alludes to greater mental or emotional issues. .

Minimalists use their bedroom practically, as they do with everything else. Everything in a minimalist’s life has a purpose and they take care of it so that it can perform its function. In order to keep your bedroom in the best position to perform its function, establish a bi-yearly decluttering day and closet sweep.

You’re constantly shifting and changing; another thing you can do to make your bedroom the best reflection of you as possible (hence, the most comfortable for you) is rearranging your bedroom furniture, playing with lighting, and tweaking the color palette.

Changing your bedroom around and cleaning up is also a fun way to bide time when you’re pining for a little change—and you’ll sleep so much better for it!