How to Organize Your Bedroom

Do you come home from school and throw your backpack anywhere there’s room for it?  Are your clothes spread all over your room? Do you need to clear a space on your desk to study? These are all signs of an unorganized room.

When your room isn’t organized, simple things like getting dressed and climbing into bed at night can be a hassle. With some simple steps, you can organize your bedroom to make it clean and functional.

Make a Bigger Mess

The first thing you have to do to get organized is grab all of your stuff off your floor, desk, and chair. Look inside the closet, behind your bookcase, and under the bed. Throw everything that’s out of place on your bed.

Grab Some Boxes

Grab several boxes to put your stuff in as you go through everything to keep things in order. You’ll empty the boxes later once you have organized everything. Label the boxes with “desk,” "bookcase," “dresser,” “closet,” “giveaway,” and “garbage.”

Sift Through Your Stuff

Once you have everything on your bed, start going through it, piece by piece. Decide if it’s something you want to keep. If it is, decide where you’re going to keep it, and place it in the appropriate box. If you’re getting rid of it, determine if it’s garbage or if you can donate it, and place it in the appropriate box. Bring your dirty clothes to the laundry room. When you’re done, store the boxes out in the hall.

Move Your Furniture

Now that everything is out of your room, look around at your floor plan. Are you happy with what you have? If not, start moving your furniture around until your bedroom is set up how you like it. If you need to remove items from bookshelves or drawers, be sure to place them in the appropriate box.

Start Cleaning

Take the dirty sheets off your bed and throw them in the wash. Place a clean set of sheets on your bed, along with your pillows and blankets. You’re going to have a very decent place to sleep tonight!

Grab a dust remover, glass cleaner, and cloths. Dust your bookshelves, desk, chair, and other furniture. Use glass cleaner on your windows and mirrors. Vacuum your room before you bring the boxes back in.

Unpack Your Boxes

Pull the boxes back in your room, and start unpacking them, one at a time.

Sit at your desk chair as you unload your desk supplies. Place your notepads, pens, pencils, and extra supplies in a drawer, and your papers in the file cabinet. Keep your desktop clear except for your computer, lamp, and pencil case. You can use stackable shelves to keep papers organized and handy, or stackable storage units, such as the one below, for pens, notepads, and files you need to keep on your desk.

Sit by your dresser and unload your clean clothes, placing them in the appropriate drawers. Keep shirts, shorts, pants, sweaters, socks, and undergarments organized so you can get dressed easily in the mornings. Keep a nice storage box or jewelry box on top of your dresser to store your accessories. Set up a few picture frames or knickknacks to decorate your room a little, but keep most of the dresser clear. It will look more organized and less cluttered.

Stack your books neatly on the bookshelves. You may want to organize them by author, subject, size, or other means. It’s your system, so you choose what will work best for you. If you have empty space, consider using book ends. Place a few personal items on some of the shelves, but not too much. Again, you don’t want things to look cluttered.

Hang up your clothes in the closet. Organize them by item and color. Keep winter items separate from summer, and keep the current season’s clothes towards the front of the closet, where you can easily reach them.

If your closet has shelves, determine what clothes would work best there rather than on hangers. Fold those clothes neatly, and stack them in small piles. Larger piles tend to fall off the shelf, leaving you with a mess on the floor. Here's one idea that won't take up too much room.

Use a shoe rack, such as the one below, or over-the-door storage bag to organize your shoes. This will help prevent you from looking for a mate for the shoe you plan to wear when getting dressed.

Assess Your Space

Now that you’re done cleaning and organizing everything, take a good look around your room. Is everything where you want it to be? If not, decide what to change and reorganize. The more you like the look of your room, the more likely you are to keep it neat.

Send Out Your Leftover Items

When you’re finished with your project, you should still have two boxes left: Trash and giveaway. Take the trash out to the garage or other appropriate place so it will get picked up with the rest of the household garbage. Pack the giveaway box neatly and determine where the best place to donate the items is. You can look up different organizations online for contact numbers. Or, divide the items among your friends and family.

Keep Your Room Clean

To avoid another day of overhauling your room, keep your space neat and organized. You have a space for everything, so make sure each item goes in its designated spot when you’re done using it. Put your laundry away after you wash it. Dust and vacuum your room on a weekly basis. Make your bed every day. Simple steps will keep you from spending countless hours hunting for a lost shoe or your homework.

Organizing your bedroom doesn’t have to be a huge inconvenience. Look at it as a way to refresh your year, no matter what season it is. You can even invite friends over to help and turn it into a party. Just be sure the cleaning and organizing get done between the eating and gossiping.  By spending this one day redoing your room, you’ll have hundreds to enjoy hanging out.