How To Declutter Your Bedroom

When it comes to decluttering, your bedroom is the most important place in your home. Decluttering this room will have the biggest impact! This is the place where you begin and end your days. So knowing how to declutter your bedroom matters!

While it may seem like decluttering your bedroom should be fairly simple to figure out how to do, the truth is when faced with clutter, clothes piled up, overstuffed closets and dressers, and all the things you don’t know what else to do with piled in there, it feels chaotic and stressful.

What you want to do is create a bedroom that feels calm, relaxing, and peaceful. Your environment has a big impact on how you feel so let’s start and end your days in a place that you love.

Before You Begin Decluttering Your Bedroom

The first step to decluttering your bedroom begins before you remove anything. It starts with creating a vision for your bedroom.

I want you to take a few minutes to think through what you want from this space. Consider how you use your bedroom. Is it solely a space to sleep or do you use it for other purposes? Do you read in there or watch TV? Do you have an office space in there?

How do you envision that space feeling when you walk in. This will help you know what to declutter and what to keep.

Takes some time to really think through how you want your bedroom to look and feel.

The next thing you’re going to do before you start actually decluttering is to take a photo of the room right now. This will help you notice things you don’t usually notice when you just walk into the room.

When you look at that picture what are the things you notice right away? This might include things you like about the room as well as things you know need to change. Make note of those things.

Once you have a vision for how you want your bedroom to look and feel and have a clear picture of what you like and don’t like, you’re ready to begin the actual work of decluttering your bedroom.

This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission if you purchase something mentioned in this post. See more details here.

One thing I know is that if you’re reading this, it’s because you want to finally have a bedroom you love, one that’s clutter-free.

Trust me I get it, a messy and cluttered, bedroom makes it difficult to relax. In fact, it even affects your ability to fall asleep.

But you deserve to have a bedroom that is your own personal sanctuary, one you can go to and relax at the end of a long day. And a bedroom in which you will wake up feeling ready to tackle the world.

That’s why we’re going to look at 9 tips you can get started on right now to declutter your bedroom. If you follow these tips by the end of the week you’ll have the clutter-free bedroom that you’re dreaming of.

Make the bed

Start decluttering your bedroom by making your bed.

This serves two purposes — first, it makes an immediate impact on how your room feels. Your room will instantly feel tidier and less cluttered. Making your bed is an easy way to get a quick win and motivate you to keep going, as things get a little harder.

The second purpose for making your bed is that it will act as a decluttering workspace. Having your bed available as a work surface will decluttering other items in your room easier and quicker.

Get rid of the trash

We’re going to go for another quick win. All you have to do is grab a trash bag and start getting rid of everything that is out on the surfaces that are clearly trash.

That’s it, I’m sure your room is already looking better.

Remove things that belong in another room

I don’t know about you but I have a bad tendency to put things in my bedroom that I’m not sure what else to do with. Or if I need to do a really quick clean up I’ll just stash things in the bedroom to get them out of the way. This is a really bad habit that I’ve had to work to break.

If you find yourself doing something similar you may have a lot of things that really don’t belong in your bedroom.

The best thing to do here is to grab a basket or box and start filling it with all those things that don’t belong in your bedroom. You don’t have to worry about putting them away right now, you just want to get them out of your room.

Declutter your nightstands

The order in how you declutter your bedroom is not that important. However, I do like to start with smaller spaces because they give you quick wins and motivate you to keep going.

So I suggest decluttering your nightstands next. It’s a small space you can get through quickly.

Simply pull everything out of your nightstand drawers and start going through the items. Remember your nightstand is not a junk drawer, it should only have the things you truly need in there. Your phone charger, a book, reading glasses if you use them, and maybe some lotion or things that help you sleep.

Declutter everything else!

Through away the trash, and either donate or find a proper home for everything else.

When it comes to the top of your nightstand it can easily become a magnet for all sorts of clutter. But the less you keep on it, the more calm and peaceful your bedroom will feel.

This means you want to declutter everything off of this surface except for what is really needed. Limit yourself to a small lamp if needed, the current book you are reading, and a single decor item.

Declutter the dresser

If you cannot fit the items you own into your dresser drawers or have problems closing the drawers, then you have too much and need to start paring down.

It’s time to take EVERYTHING out of the drawers and lay it on your bed. Go through the items and toss anything that is ripped or stained. Start a donation pile for anything that does not fit. There is no reason to hang on to things that don’t fit.

Try to only keep those items that you truly love and feel great in.

If you have random items in your dresser drawers, and you most likely do, either declutter them or find a new home for them. Only the clothing that you regularly wear should be in your dresser.

When it comes to the top of the dresser, much like the nightstand, it’s easy for this space to become cluttered with random miscellaneous items. You want to remove all of those items and limit yourself to one or two simple decor pieces.

If you need to use the top of your dresser for storage, invest in a couple of cute baskets or storage bins to keep things organized and out of sight.

Declutter your bedroom decor

Hopefully, you’ve already started decluttering some of your bedroom decor when you cleared off your nightstand and dresser. However, you most likely have other decor items, hanging on the walls or other flat surfaces.

Because your bedroom is a smaller space, less really is more, which includes wall decor. Often removing a few hanging items can really open up the space. Try removing a few extra decor items and see how the space feels.

Declutter everything under the bed

I live in a pretty small home so I do use the area under my bed for storage. However, if you use this area for extra storage it’s important to know what is under there and keep the items stored there organized.

Because this area is out-of-sight it’s easy to accumulate clutter when you store things under your bed. So today you are going to take everything out from under the bed. If you don’t need that space for storage the goal is to keep nothing under there.

Go ahead and vacuum or sweep while you have everything out.

Now if you need to use the space under your bed for storage use a storage container(s) to keep things organized that must be stored there.

If you find items you haven’t used in the last six months or you don’t absolutely need, declutter them now. Put back only what you must.

A word of warning, it’s easy to keep things you don’t really need here because they are visually out of the way, but remember, clutter attracts clutter!

Decluttering your closet

We’ve saved the biggest job for last.

Hopefully, by now your bedroom is feeling much calmer and peaceful because of all the decluttering work you’ve done so far. Use that to motivate you to push through this last big task

I do have some good news, we are not going to declutter clothing right now, you can read some tips on decluttering your clothing here.

For now, we are going to focus on all the things in your closet that don’t belong there. You are going to start by pulling EVERYTHING out from your closet floor and shelves.

As you are going through the items keep in mind that as a general rule of thumb, things that get trapped in closets eventually make their way back out into the room.

Plus, as we discussed when decluttering under the bed, clutter attracts clutter. If you have a lot of clutter and piles forming in the closet, you will naturally add more clutter to those piles.

In order to eliminate the clutter from your bedroom, you need to be ruthless in eliminating clutter from your closet! I promise, if you do, you will really feel the benefits of that.

All the same rules for decluttering apply here. If you don’t need it, use it, or love it, get rid of it. Ideally, the only things that should be on your closet floor are shoes.

Find a proper home for anything you decide to keep that doesn’t belong in your bedroom closet. Neatly put back those items you’re keeping back in your closet.

Miscellaneous areas to declutter

We’ve looked at how to declutter the main areas of your bedroom, but there may be a few miscellaneous spots that are easy to overlook.

These include any hooks or storage compartments on the back of the door, shelves that have decor and other items, a storage bench, or that chair that clothing always ends upon. If you have these areas in your bedroom make sure to go through and declutter them.

Just follow the same principles we discussed above. Declutter anything you don’t need, love, or use. Hang up or put in a drawer any clothing that is out, and limit decor pieces as much as possible.

Maintaining a Clutter-Free Bedroom

Now that you know how to declutter your bedroom, you want to maintain it and keep it clutter-free.

Here is a universal truth when it comes to maintaining a clutter-free bedroom: If you love something you will take better care of it. This principle applies to your bedroom.

So no matter how much you declutter your bedroom, if you don’t love it, it will be harder to keep it clutter-free and organized.

You started this process of decluttering your bedroom by creating a vision of how you want your bedroom to look and feel. Now is the time to bring that vision to life.

If your budget allows, update your bedding, buy a new rug or try out some new paint on the walls or furniture. Focus on neutrals and calming relaxing colors.

If you are on a tighter budget, no worries, I promise little inexpensive touches can go a long way. Add a favorite scented candle, some fresh flowers, or a plant. Even simply rearranging the furniture can make the space feel new.

Creating a bedroom you love is the key to keeping your bedroom clutter-free. Make this space a priority and commit to stop using it as a catch-all room.

You deserve a bedroom you love!