Your bedroom should be a sanctuary.
It should be a place that’s calm, quiet, and clean. And it’s not just us saying that — science actually says you’ll sleep better in a clean bedroom. If that’s not a reason for some bedroom organization, we don’t know what is.
But many people neglect their bedroom. It’s a more private part of the house, which means company doesn’t see it as often, and it’s easy to put off cleaning and organizing. If you’ve been putting off cleaning this part of your home, don’t worry! Our tips and tricks will make bedroom organization a breeze, and have you on your way to the tranquil, calm environment you deserve in no time.
Table of contents:
Bedroom Organization Step 1: Decluttering
Bedroom Organization Step 2: Arranging
Bedroom Organization Step 3: Furnishing
Bedroom Organization Step 4: Decorating
Other Bedroom Organization Tips and Tricks
Bedroom Organization Step 1: Decluttering
If bedroom organization has a natural enemy, it’s clutter. That’s why the first step to organizing this part of your home should be a good, deep cleaning and decluttering session. Here’s how to get started.
1. Follow Our Decluttering Checklist
Here are the steps you should take to declutter a bedroom:
- Make your bed.
- Check the room for trash and throw any away.
- Put away anything that’s on the floor and shouldn’t be.
- Clear off all surfaces and put away items that don’t belong there.
- Clean out nightstand drawers.
- Put away anything that doesn’t belong in the bedroom.
- Go through dresser drawers. Neatly fold things you’re keeping. Donate, recycle, or throw away things you’re not.
- Use storage bins under your bed for anything that needs a “home” and doesn’t fit in drawers or on shelves.
2. Make Sure Everything Has a Home
Once you’ve removed all the clutter from your bedroom, make sure everything that’s staying in the room has a specific place that it belongs. That’ll make it easier to keep the room clean over time — whenever something isn’t in its “home,” you can put it away.
3. Rethink What Belongs in the Bedroom
As you declutter the bedroom and decide on homes for all the items in there, it’s a good time to rethink what actually needs to be in that space. Maybe you have a bookshelf or a desk taking up valuable bedroom real estate, when they could be elsewhere in your home. Think about what furniture you actually use in your bedroom, and if there’s anything there that doesn’t get a lot of use, think about finding a new place for it.
4. Create a Drop Zone Outside the Bedroom
Especially for those of us who get home from work and head straight for the bedroom to change into comfortable clothes, this room can get cluttered up fast with things that don’t belong. Instead of dropping bags, keys, and shoes in the bedroom, create a specific “drop zone” somewhere else (say, right inside the door), and then clean it up regularly so it doesn’t become a clutter pile.
Bedroom Organization Step 2: Arranging
Once you’ve eliminated bedroom clutter, it’s time to move onto the next steps toward bedroom organization: Arranging the room in ways that will keep it clean and tidy.
5. Arrange Furniture According to How You Use It
The bed tends to be the central, focal point of a bedroom. But how you arrange the rest of your furniture matters, too. Put nightstands in easy reach of the bed. Put a dresser and mirror near the closet, or in whatever area you tend to use to get dressed. Put a vanity somewhere well lit.
6. Go Minimalist
One of the best ways to keep your bedroom clean and organized is to go as minimalist as possible. Think about it — furniture allows you to accrue more stuff, so what if you just had one night stand instead of two? What if you got rid of your dresser altogether?
7. Organize Cords
For any electronics you keep in the bedroom, organize and wrap all their cords. This keeps it easy to tell what cord goes with what device, and saves you from having to look at a messy jumble of cords.
8. Have a Designated Hamper
It’s all too easy to let laundry fall to the bedroom floor. To prevent this, have a hamper in the bedroom to catch all those dirty clothes. Bonus points if it’s a decorative hamper that helps the room look nice.
9. Have a Waste Basket, Too
The same goes for trash: Unless it has a designated place to go, it’s likely to end up on a night stand surface, or on the floor. Make sure your bedroom has a small waste basket to help prevent this.
10. Utilize Under-Bed Storage Space
Under your bed is a great storage area for anything you want out of sight, so make sure to use it. You can also increase this space as needed, by using bed risers.
11. Use a Bedside Pocket Organizer
If there’s not enough space for a night stand, or if you’re trying to eliminate that extra piece of furniture, consider a bedside pocket organizer! It will hold all the essentials you need, while being covered up and invisible when your bed is made.
12. Cover Radiators with Shelving
Those who have radiators in their bedrooms know they’re not the most attractive home feature — and they waste a lot of space. Combat this by building shelving over your radiator. Be careful to use heat-resistant materials so this doesn’t create a fire risk if the radiator is used to heat the space.
Bedroom Organization Step 3: Furnishing
Once you have the room’s arrangement nailed down, there are some creative ways you can furnish a bedroom to help promote organization and create more storage space. Here are some of our top tips.
13. Look for Dual-Purpose Furniture
Those with small spaces already know how important it is to maximize efficiency and space in your home. That’s how dual-purpose furniture can really help keep a bedroom organized. Look for pieces like storage ottomans, benches that can have shelving built into their base, decorative trunks that can hide away stored items, and other creative ways to use furniture as places to store things, too.
14. Install a Fold-Down Desk
If you need a work space in your bedroom, but you don’t have the floor space for a desk, consider installing one that can fold up against a wall when it’s not in use. You’ll get the desk you need, but without having to sacrifice bedroom space to a permanent piece of furniture.
15. Keep a Coat Rack by the Door
A coat rack is a great piece of furniture to invest in for a bedroom, because it’ll give you a place to store coats, hats, bags, and other items that you often need to have handy to grab on your way out. If your closet is packed, this is also a great way to cleanly store clothing outside of the closet.
16. Invest in a Storage Mirror
If you need a full-length mirror in your bedroom, invest in one that has built-in storage. There are many options available for mirrors that contain jewelry and accessory storage, like the full-length versions of your bathroom’s medicine cabinet.
17. Buy or Build a Platform Bed with Built-In Storage
Under-bed storage is great, but if you want to hide the things you’re storing under your bed in a way that looks great with your bedroom decor, a platform bed with built-in storage can be a great way to go. Some beds have built-in shelving, while others have cabinets or drawers that let you completely hide away anything you want to store under the bed.
18. Make Sure Night Stands Have Storage
To maximize your space, stay away from night stands that are just small tables. Instead, look for some that have built-in storage, whether that’s a shelf or two, or some drawers.
19. Get Creative with Bedside Storage
Who said your night stand needs to be an actual night stand? Many people get creative with this piece of furniture by using taller vertical shelving or even bookshelves as their bedside storage. This gives you the storage area you need next to your bed, but also takes advantage of your bedroom’s vertical space to provide even more storage.
Bedroom Organization Step 4: Decorating
Now for the fun part: Decorating. Many people don’t realize the role that decorating can play in bedroom organization, but it’s true — you can use your decor to create more storage and keep things looking neat and tidy. Here’s how.
20. Build a Decorative Storage Wall
There are a lot of different ways you can use your walls as a decorative type of storage, further taking advantage of vertical space for bedroom organization. Some common ways are by mounting large cork boards or peg boards, or by building a slat wall that you can use to display art or support shelves.
21. Collect Containers that Look Nice
While storing things in boxes is the most efficient way to use whatever storage space you have available in your bedroom, cardboard boxes or plastic bins won’t necessarily be the most aesthetically pleasing option. So instead, opt for storage solutions that look nice and fit in with your decor. Decorative wood boxes are a great option, as are pretty glass jars for storing smaller items.
22. Don’t Neglect Over-the-Door Space
One area of space that often gets wasted is the backs of doors, where hanging organizers can provide storage for all kinds of items. You can easily find an over-the-door shoe rack or jewelry organizer. Over-the-door hooks for hanging coats, bags, and hats are also a popular option. Don’t be afraid to get creative with this type of solution — an over-the-door shoe rack might actually be the perfect way to organize your scarf collection, for example.
23. Get Creative with Shelving
We don’t typically think about shelving as decor, but it certainly can be! Arranging shelves into cool patterns, using floating shelves to add decor to walls, and customizing shelving units with paint, contact paper, wood stain, or other finishes can take shelving from a boring piece of utility to furniture to a decorative piece that also provides a ton of storage in your bedroom.
24. Put Artwork on the Walls, Not Surfaces
It can be tempted to cover up your dresser and table tops with framed photos, artwork, and other decorative items. But for a clean, clutter-free bedroom, you’ll want to try to keep surfaces clear as much as possible. This is another area where you can utilize your vertical space and turn to the walls, instead. If a photo or piece or art can go in a frame, it should be on a wall, not a surface.
25. Use Accessories as Wall Decor
There’s a trend that’s been popping up on instagram and home decor blogs that we love. Instead of hiding away accessories like hats and shoes in your closet, store them out in the open as decor.
Some people with impressive shoe collections store them on open shelves where they’re in plain sight. Those who have a lot of hats can hang them on a wall for easy, practical bedroom wall decor. And it’s just an added bonus that that keeps all these items in their proper place and organized.
26. Use Storage Baskets — and Get Creative With Them
Baskets are a very trendy way to create storage that also looks great with just about any decor. It’s common for people to use baskets as part of their bedroom organization plans by storing pillows or blankets in them, and that’s one good strategy. But you can also get creative with baskets. Try mounting them on a wall as creative shelves, if you don’t have the floor space to keep them on the ground.
27. Or Create a Blanket Ladder
Another trend we love is using ladders to store blankets. Just paint or refinish a flat, wooden ladder (not the foldable kind) to match your decor, and then lean it against the wall and store folded blankets on its rungs. It’s just one more way to take advantage of your bedroom’s vertical space, while also displaying nicely folded blankets.
28. Use Your Headboard or Footboard as Storage
Some headboards and footboards come with built-in storage, and we love those. But if you don’t happen to have that kind of bed, you can still create the same effect. A bookshelf, a trunk, or a storage bench at the foot of the bed can create extra storage. And slipping a bookshelf behind your headboard — or replacing your headboard altogether with a bookshelf — creates storage at that end of the bed that could even replace night stands.
Other Bedroom Organization Tips and Tricks
Did you think we were done with our tips already? Not even close. We still have some other tips and tricks that didn’t fit neatly into any of the other categories, but will still help you achieve your bedroom organization goals.
29. Go Vertical
We’ve mentioned one thing over and over in this article: Vertical space. That’s because so many people waste it, when it has a ton of storage and organization potential. Whether it’s mounting shelves all the way up a wall, adding hooks to a wall or the ceiling, using tension rods to create hanging storage, or some other clever trick, make sure you look up for opportunities to use vertical space that often goes wasted (above the door, anyone?).
30. Look Under Shelves, Too
Another area that often gets ignored (but also has huge potential for storage solutions) is the space underneath shelves. This is a great place to use velcro, hooks, hangers, or rods to store things that hang, like bags, scarves, or jewelry. An added bonus is that hanging pretty jewelry on hooks under a shelf can double as another decor element in your bedroom.
31. Any Flat Items? Store Them Under Your Mattress
You definitely don’t want to use this hack to store anything that isn’t perfectly flat, because we don’t want a Princess and the Pea situation disrupting your sleep. But the space underneath your mattress can be used as storage for some things. For example, you can tuck extra sheets and pillow cases under there to free up space in your linen closet.
32. Use the Corners
Just like vertical space, corners are often extremely underutilized when it comes to their potential for unique storage solutions. There are a ton of shelving units on the market that are specifically made to fit into corners, turning that empty space into elegant storage. Corners are also a great spot for mounting hooks on the walls and storing anything you can hang up.
33. Look for Stackable Storage Solutions
While decorative storage containers are preferable if they’re going to be visible, for spaces under your bed, in the closet, or inside cabinets, maximize the space you have by looking for stackable storage containers.
34. Label All Your Boxes and Bins
As you’re organizing your bedroom items in different types of boxes and bins, make sure you label everything you can’t see into, so you know where to find items when you need them later. Don’t just rely on remembering where you put everything — that’s a recipe for frustration down the line when you can’t find what you need. You might also consider making a master storage list that says where everything is being kept, in case even with labels, you have trouble tracking something down.
35. Get Unneeded Items Out of the Bedroom Altogether
When it comes to seasonal items, or other belongings you don’t want to get rid of but don’t need to have access to all the time, off-site storage can be a good option. And don’t feel like you have to rent out a traditional storage unit. Especially if you just have a few things that need storage, there might be someone in your community who has the space to rent out.
Bedroom organization can take a lot of work — especially if you’re starting from scratch with a cluttered, disorganized space. But the payoff is worth it once you have a tidy, well-organized bedroom that promotes the kind of relaxation you deserve.
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