How to Start Decluttering Your Room

How to start decluttering your room and instantly make it look more tidy. Easy ways to declutter your bedroom and get rid of clutter.

How to Start Decluttering Your Room

No matter what your living situation looks like, decluttering a bedroom can be a daunting task.

We spend a lot of time in our bedrooms, but usually we're asleep and we feel like keeping our bedrooms tidy isn't a top priority.

But once you've decluttered your room, you'll feel great, and maybe even sleep more soundly.

This article will take you step-by-step through the process of starting to declutter your room so you can enjoy it more.

How to Declutter Your Room Fast

The key to decluttering your room quickly is to stay focused.

As you're working, remember that you're decluttering. Not cleaning, not organizing, not decorating.

Stay focused on decluttering, and the whole process will be much faster for you.

Where to Start Decluttering

The easiest way to start making progress on a trashed bedroom is to grab a garbage bag, and remove any trash you can find.

Start at one point in your room, and work around the room, top to bottom, left to right.

Throw away old wrappers, boxes you no longer need, clothes with holes, old papers, etc.

Be ruthless and throw out as much as possible.

This will help you remove that first layer of clutter in your room.

Once you've circled around your whole room and you've found as much trash as you can, throw out the garbage bag, and grab another one to use as you continue to declutter your room.

As you're working, if you find more trash, throw it away immediately.

Gather Dirty Clothes

Now that the first layer of clutter is gone, it's time to gather up any dirty clothes laying around the room.

Again, start at one point in the room and circle around the room, picking up dirty clothes as you go.

Put them in a hamper or laundry basket.

If you can, put the laundry right outside of your bedroom door to give yourself some more space.

Clear off Bed & Make It!

Now that the laundry is gone, take a look at your bed.

If it has any items on it, put them away.

Then make your bed.

Now you have a clear surface you can use for sorting if needed.

Plus, making the bed instantly make the room less cluttered!

Read: Making Your Bed Makes the Day Brighter

Put Things Away

The next step is to look for items that belong somewhere else.

For example, if you find dirty dishes on a bedside table, bring them to the kitchen.

If you have books piled on the floor, put them on your bookshelf.

Start at one point in the room, and circle your entire room, looking for things to put away.

If you have items that you no longer want, but don't want to throw away, make a “donate” bag, and use it to corral items you don't want to keep.

Declutter Surfaces

Now that you've done several decluttering steps, it's time to declutter the surfaces in your room.

Start with the biggest surface in your room – the floor.

Pick up items and decide whether they need to be put away, trashed, donated, or put into the dirty laundry.

If you have any clean clothes on your floor, put them away instead of putting them in a dirty laundry basket.

For items you're unsure about, put them on your bed. As you put items on your bed, try to place similar items next to each other.

After you've decluttered your floor, move onto other surfaces in your bedroom:

Bedside tables
Dressers
Chairs
Tops of fridges, microwaves, TVs, gaming systems
Shelves
Desks
Tables
Window sills

Sort Items

Once you've decluttered the surfaces of your room, take a look at everything you've placed on your bed.

Are these items you truly want to keep? If not, put them in your donation bag.

If you don't have a place to put these items, put them into a box or boxes to work on later.

After you've completely decluttered your room, you can do specific organizing projects to find homes for those items.

Final Sweep

Now that you've decluttered surfaces, sorted, and put things away, do a final scan of your room. Do you see any visible clutter?

Take care of any additional items that are cluttering up your room.

Getting Rid of Clutter

Congratulations! You've successfully decluttered your bedroom.

Before you finish the project, do the following:

Take the garbage bags to a trashcan
Put donation items in your car to drop off at a local charity
Find a place to store the items you set aside for a future organizing project. Schedule time on your calendar to work on those projects so they're not forgotten.

Level Up Your Decluttering

If you're enjoying the clutter-free look of your room, you can level up your decluttering by doing additional projects to make your bedroom function better.

For this project, we mostly focused on the outward appearance of your room.

You can take your decluttering a step further by doing these types of projects:

Declutter your closet
Declutter your nightstand
Declutter your bookshelves
Declutter your desk

Take a moment to write down any additional areas in your room you want to declutter in the future, and schedule a time to work on those projects.

Enjoy your clutter-free bedroom!

More Decluttering Help

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How to Start Decluttering Your Room