Taking control of your bed is not a simple task especially if you are particular in having all the stuff you mostly need beside you on a bedside shelf. When you think about it, the best way to procrastinate is to lay down doing nothing and where else to better do that than on your bed rolling under the covers. And with your phone, remote, and other necessities in tow, thanks to your bedside shelf, your lazy afternoon reading social media posts and watching the television.
This leaves a problem however, as most people like to have all their things out the way they are. And it tends to become way too complicated if you want things at arm’s reach. No matter how big your bedroom is, it will not matter a bit if you refuse to get up and pick something up from a few steps away from the room.
In this article we will try to declutter your bed, and put your bedside shelf to better use so you can retain that lazy lifestyle without all the hassle of having to look at a heap of mess each time you take a gander around the room.
Take control of your bedside shelf
A simple appendage to your bed, the bedside shelf actually has a big role to play in your journey to sleep in a clutter bedroom. There are a few things that stand out in a cluttered space, one are the things that you regularly fiddle with your hands and that is the tv remote, the phone, and some books and magazines. While the rest will less likely be interacted with and should be put in places where it will not add to the clutter. The first group, meanwhile can be kept as close to you as possible. This makes it easier to get, and most importantly, easier to put back.
The bedside shelf has limited space so you should definitely only put in the items that are absolutely necessary.
Group your items into three piles
When decluttering, a good way is to use the three-box method to help you decide what items to keep, get rid of or put into storage. The way it works is that for any items in the keep box, work out where you are going to put them. Then these items should be kept neatly in a drawer or container away from the bed.
You might also find it useful for storage to categorise and label all containers as you fill them. This way, you can then neatly place them in your storage area away from causing a disturbance in your bedroom.
There are instances wherein you are trying to get rid of your items to clear up space or to simply keep your bedroom as neat as possible. You can start doing this by sorting through the box and work out what you can donate, sell or throw away to the junk collectors. You can even decide to do a garage sale to earn a sum for all your troubles.
Take the opportunity to declutter wardrobes and drawers
One of the most notorious places for clutter are the drawers and closets. It is so easy to just close them up and forget that the pile of rubble mounting does not really exist. This comes to bite you soon enough though as most attempts of cleaning can attest to. It is better to keep them organized not only so you won’t have a horror show every time you open them up but so you always have enough storage when you are looking for one.
You can decide to go through your clothes and be ruthless about what you don’t wear. This way you can be sure that nothing escapes your site – not the clothes you promise you will be fit enough to wear nor the shoes you swore you would find the pair of jeans that would suit it. While a few people wear some 20% of their clothes, and 80% the rest of the time, too much clothes clutter can result in decision fatigue every time you open the wardrobe. This means that more time will be spent deciding on what to wear which could have been spent better by doing your makeup or simply by going to the place you were going to in the first place.
Make a point to ensure that any clothes that no longer fit or have not been worn in the past year can go and that means that you have to sell it, donate it, or any way necessary to get them out of your room. This can greatly help you free up more space in the bedroom until you start feeling a little bit better about having less choices in what to wear. When you do donate to charity, make sure that the clothes are still in good condition, otherwise, you should just throw them away so as not to disappoint someone else.
Organize organize organize
It might not be as easy or as exciting for everyone to start organizing their things but rest assured, it can be a fun and most importantly, satisfying activity. Organization is not always a straightforward task especially if you own way too many things. There are things you have to consider such as how you will be organizing the items, if you have enough space to do the organizing and if you have a way keep tabs on your items to make sure that nothing of value is lost in all the shuffle.
The benefits of having an organized wardrobe is tremendous which includes the simple way of lessening the stress you would feel upon opening the closet door up to actually saving you time and allowing yourself to be punctual everytime you go to work.
Clean the surfaces
One of the reason why the room might look cluttered more than it actually is could be because of some stains that sticked through the furniture and other spots. While this may seem purely cosmetic in the grand scheme of clearing out the clutter in your room, rest assured that the effect to one’s view can completely be changed.
You should start by keeping the top of you desks and tables spot-free then you can more on to the walls and the floor. This way you can have a consistent effort in cleaning each spot without having to go back doing it again and again. And finally, make sure you do not do permanent damage to the surfaces by using chemicals that may destroy their structural integrity.
Rearrange the room
One way you can declutter the room is figure out how exactly the foot traffic works inside. When you do not know that yet, try to be wary about which way you will go whenever you try to reach for stuff. For instance, by going to the bathroom, which path are you likely to take, are you avoiding huge furniture so you can get there, or do you have to walk around the bed to you don’t trip over the lamp on the other side. Knowing this small details can help you decide on how you should rearrange the room. This way, there would be less chance for you to run over some stuff that could cause a mess and you would not have to put items on temporary places simply because the place you usually put them in are a bit too far away.
When you rearrange the room, carefully plan out how to go about with it. Not all furniture inside the bedroom can be freely moved from place to place. Take the bed for instance – usually this is the largest furniture in the room and might be impossible to put it anywhere else than where it is currently situated. Use these limitations to simplify your choice and work the smaller items like the drawers and mobile closets to get the effect you want.
Separate your work desk
The work desk might be the most clutter inducing space in the bedroom. And the worst part of this is that most people actually have no choice but to keep it that way. As they say, there is a pattern to all the chaos and this is simply how most people’s brain work especially when doing their craft.
It is not without any remedy however as there are ways to declutter the work desk. Or at the very least, not letting the work desk declutter your room. The first option, albeit a bit defeatist, is to move the work desk outside the bedroom. If you have enough room in the house, there is no real reason to keep your work stuff near the bedside as you would want to be falling asleep looking at that work pile anyway. Another possible option is to put a divider in the room to hide the work space whenever you are not using it.
