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 when over time we get into harder organising projects.

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. At night you will get to bed in a messy, cluttered pile of blankets. 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 washing and messing about with all those layers.

To keep things nice a fresh I keep a fortnightly routine of cleaning the sheets. This gives a nice feel to the place I normally aim to spend 50+ hours a week in.

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 really 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 stuff ready to go or have your clothing rack with current clothes only. This clears up your floor space and feels mentally much better.

On this note, when your pajamas’ 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.

Sharing the bedroom with a significant other

Sharing a bedroom can be tricky and might need to be looked at 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 is a good idea to talk about this with your partner, to state how important this is for you. 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 things when going through some organising. Clearly, you didn’t hear this from me.

Organise 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 were there is a messy bedroom there are multiple issues at play.

Have a look at this video that covered 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, there can be a combination of all three issues.

Let’s have a look at each 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 like 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 go about this. You can start reading up on how to Declutter here.

Organise a messy 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 messy bedroom. Your systems, don’t have to be great straight away.

For starters you:

could begin with getting a box to place your lose 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 a messy bedroom. Or any space for that matter. I suggest you take everything which doesn’t need to be in this room out. Find homes for these items elsewhere.

Bedroom furniture

One of the reasons why you have a messy bedroom. Could be, because there are inadequate furniture or storage solutions in this room.

Bedside tables

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

Even with your main furniture; your bed, you can still be very clever in terms of storage in your bedroom. 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.

Get the book

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: