How to Declutter Your Bedroom in 5 Simple Steps

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Your bedroom should be an oasis. A respite away from the chaos, noise, and busyness of life. Not a dumping ground for random clutter or laundry that has yet to be folded. If yours is currently the latter, then let’s talk about how to declutter your bedroom.

It doesn’t have to be a boutique hotel room, but it should be your own definition of a relaxing and rejuvenating space.

If this is how you envision your bedroom, then let’s make it happen!

Before we dive in, I’d like to let you know that this post is one of many on How to Declutter Your Home.

STEP 1 | Define how the room is to be used.

This seems obvious. But it’s the first step in considering how to declutter your bedroom, since it could be a catch-all room of sorts.

Maybe the bedroom has become a dumping ground for too many things.

Maybe you live in a tiny space and the bedroom also has a desk in it as a make-shift workspace.

Maybe you desperately want to reclaim your bedroom as a place where you ONLY sleep and/or relax in a clutter-free environment.

Define EXACTLY how you want your bedroom to function and draw a line. Proclaim that from here on out, it will ONLY function in that way! Can I get an amen?

But really you want to create a firm boundary. Resolve to only allow your bedroom to fulfill that function and not let other functions encroach on your bedroom’s primary use.

This is how to end the dreaded catch-all that a bedroom can become for some people.

Well, that, and decluttering the rest of your entire house.

I digress. Let’s get back to talking about how to declutter your bedroom.

If you don’t have an idea of what your “dream bedroom” is, then just start by making it your primary sleeping place and nothing else. This will help you to start with a basic definition.

This step may also require that you create a plan or routine around things like folding and putting away laundry or working on miscellaneous projects. We will circle back to these matters in a bit.

STEP 2 | Take out anything that doesn’t belong in the bedroom.

Once you define the purpose of the bedroom and how it will be used, take out anything that doesn’t belong.

This is where many people discover that they have become “clutter blind.” In other words, they have become so used to the clutter that it’s just part of the bedroom to them.

Have you become used to your bedroom being the way that it is?

Or are you not sure where to start in decluttering your bedroom?

Start by taking everything out that doesn’t belong.

Take out whatever doesn’t belong on your bedside table or dresser. Take out piles of other stuff that doesn’t belong.

Tackle the bathroom and closet separately. You can reference these posts for decluttering tips:

How to Declutter Your Closet in 5 Simple Steps

Just focus on the bedroom part of it – not on any other rooms that are inside it.

Take the stuff out that doesn’t belong – you can deal with it later.

But don’t forget to set a deadline on when to finish dealing with that stuff!

STEP 3 | Make the bed.

Once you’ve removed items that don’t belong in the bedroom and you’ve defined how you want the room to function, make the bed next.

After the bed is made, it can immediately make the room look more put together. It will also allow you to pin-point ways in which you could simplify the bed-making process.

Some people have found that minimizing their decorative pillows or getting rid of their flat sheet and using a duvet instead can help reduce the amount of time that it takes to make the bed.

Making your bed daily can reduce the clutter creep.

When considering how to declutter your bedroom, keep in mind that:

A clean, clutter-free area begets a clean, clutter-free area. But a messy area full of clutter just encourages more clutter to accumulate.

Making the bed every day can also help you to feel accomplished even if all you did is make the bed.

At least you did that, amiright?! It’s the little things.

STEP 4 | Address the Bedroom Clutter.

Next, assess any piles of stuff that you removed from the bedroom because it didn’t belong.

You can ask yourself the following questions:

Why does this stuff make its way into the bedroom?
How can I keep such items from ending up in the bedroom?
Where does the stuff tend to pile up?
Do I need to create a home for this stuff somewhere else in the house?

Write down any action items or to-dos accordingly.

Here are a few more practical suggestions to help you further simplify your bedroom.

1| Confront the Laundry Piles

If your bedroom is a dumping ground for piles of laundry, then perhaps you should create a routine for putting away laundry.

Not rocket science, right?

But sometimes we need to reset an existing routine or troubleshoot where it breaks down.

Sometimes we lose momentum, and the laundry sits in a pile forever. Other times we just need a new habit of listening to our favorite podcast or watching our favorite TV show while we fold laundry.

Maybe it’s getting the whole family involved. Or perhaps just not folding it and instead sorting it into baskets for each family member to deal with on their own.

If all else fails, it could ultimately be that there are simply way too many clothes, and the laundry will not be manageable without first reducing the amount. Here are some tips to reduce the laundry load.

Laundry shouldn’t remain a mountain that we can’t tame.

We can take control of the amount of clothes that are in our home and manage them.

2 | Excess Decor & Furniture

Assess the decorations, curtains, knick-knacks, wall hangings, picture frames, throw pillows, and other decorative items.

Are they cohesive? Are there too many of them? Are they competing for attention? Is there one clear focal point in the room? (Hint: it should be the bed, since it’s a bedroom.)

Decide where the focal point will be and work around that.

STEP 5 | Beware of the flat surfaces.

Flat surfaces are usually a culprit for messy clutter building up in any room, but especially the bedroom.

It’s easy to become clutter-blind to an ever-growing stack of books on a nightstand or piles of stuff on the dresser.

Could you limit the number of books on the nightstand?

Do all the items on the top of the dresser really need to be housed there or could their home be in the closet or bathroom?

How could you use the flat surfaces in a way that contributes to how you want your bedroom to look and function? Do you wish the flat surfaces were empty or attractively decorated?

Tackle the Nightstand Clutter

If your nightstand is continually cluttered, might I suggest that you remove your nightstand temporarily.

It can help you to see how little you actually need to keep beside your bed. Maybe all you need is a wall sconce as a light in place of a table lamp and a small wall shelf in place of a nightstand. This can keep the area from filling up with clutter.

If you don’t want to part with your nightstand, then define a use for the surface and the drawer.

For example, “the top of the nightstand is where I keep my water bottle, eyeglasses, and nothing else; while the drawer serves the purpose of being a charging station for my airpods, phone, and ipad.”

By the way, nightstand drawers make a great charging station – all you need is a surge protector!

Rinse and Repeat these 5 Steps on How to Declutter Your Bedroom

Now that you know how to declutter your bedroom, you can simply apply these same five steps over and over again. Each time you apply them, you may discover something new that you’d like to implement.