For a space largely devoted to sleeping, getting dressed and an activity which often involves no clothing, bedrooms sure can get messy. Our series of room by room spring cleaning guides looks at how to tackle bedroom tidying.
Picture by Ben Babcock
Unlike the other rooms we’ve covered so far in this series — home offices, kitchens and lounge rooms — we’ve never run a detailed bedroom-tidying post on Lifehacker. So rather than pointing to existing guides, I’ll highlight some simple strategies for attacking particular areas of the bedroom. As ever, the SPACE method is a great way to sort through your own particular collection of bedroom clutter and find a way to keep it tidy.
The bed itself When you’re rushing to get going in the morning, getting the bed made can seem like a low priority, but making an effort really will make the room look more pleasant when you return home. Check our guides to making your bed in under a minute and how to produce hospital corners. With that said, if you go for the dooner-only option — an easy choice in an Australian summer — then the easiest way to make your bed may be to pull up the quilt as you actually get up.
A related point is under-bed storage. If you have a bed with drawers in it, consider storing your linen there rather than in a closet; that way, it’s easily accessible where it actually gets used. Even if your bed has space under it, you can use the same trick with vacuum bags or specialised under-bed storage units.
Your wardrobe More than most areas of the house, wardrobes benefit from frequent checking and revision. Using precious hanging and storage space for clothes that you never wear is a pathway to inefficiency. Whether you choose to store less-often worn clothes in another area is up to you, but don’t hang onto damaged clothes simply for sentimental value.
Organise your wardrobe in terms of what you actually wear. I keep my T-shirts on hangers rather than stacked; because I wear T-shirts a lot, that makes it easier to pick a particular shirt without disrupting others.
Chest of drawers The rule about junk drawers applies here: don’t store things in a bedside chest that you don’t actually need access to from the bed. Nightwear, reading material and tissues are all possible candidates. Single people, make sure the condoms are in easy reach.
Dirty laundry Nothing makes a room look messy like dirty clothes on the floor. Investing in a laundry hamper isn’t expensive — IKEA has plenty of cheap basic options, and even a laundry basket filled with dirty clothes is better than just stacking them on the floor. It’s also much easier to handle laundry itself when you know all the dirty clothes are in one place.
Other items Whether your bedroom contains other furniture — a bookshelf, a desk, a dressing table — will often be a function of the size of your house. If you have sleep issues, not using your bedroom for other functions can help, but that’s not always possible. If you are using your bedroom as an office as well, check our home office tips.
Keep charged We know that the majority of Lifehacker readers grab their phone the second they wake up. If your phone is sleeping beside you, it makes sense to use that opportunity to charge it. Either use a bedside dock or just a simple charging cable.
Got additional bedroom spring cleaning hints? We’re curled up and waiting to hear in the comments. A final thought: if you can’t make it from your bedroom to the bathroom in the dark because of junk, you have a mess problem.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.