Remove everything from your closet. Your clothes, shoes, and anything you keep in your closet can go in a pile on the floor in front of the closet. Remove everything from your desk. You can place the papers and anything else you find on the desk’s surface. Remove everything from your dresser. If you’re creating too much of a mess, remove one drawer at a time. Take any other items that are laying around and place them on your bed and on the floor. If taking everything out of its place at once is overwhelming and is taking up too much space, you can tackle your room by taking apart one area at a time.
Keep. The items that you keep will be items that you use on a regular basis. If you’ve used the item in the last two or three months, you should keep it. Store. These are things that you can’t bear to throw away, such as something with sentimental value, but which you rarely use. You can also store away a large portion of your clothes that you won’t wear until the next season or two. If it’s the middle of the summer, you can store your winter sweaters, and if it’s the dead of winter, you can store your summer dresses. Donate. These are items that may benefit someone or could be sold, but which you don’t need any more. You may have a nice sweater that you don’t fit into anymore that you can donate, or an old textbook that you can sell. Trash. These are items that no one needs – including you. If you have to spend time wondering what something is, or when the last time you even saw it was, or even if you forgot you ever owned something, it’s time to toss it.
Try the twenty second rule. If you have to spend more than twenty seconds looking at an item and asking yourself if you’ll ever use it again, the answer is no. If you have something you know you don’t need but don’t want to part with it, try giving it to a friend or family member so you feel better about it being in someone else’s hands.
The first part is easy. Just throw out everything in the “Throw Out” box. Find a local church, Goodwill, or another organization that is taking donations, and bring all of your donated items there. Be prepared for the place to tell you that they won’t accept some of your items. You can either try to donate them somewhere else, or just throw them out. Start selling your “Sell” items. Have a garage sale or put them on Craigslist. Store your storage boxes. If you have a storage unit or another place outside of your room to place them, great. If not, store them in a part of your room you won’t be using very often, such as under your bed or in the back of your closet. Remember to label them carefully so you know where your things are when the time comes to use them or donate them.
The first thing you should do after you’ve sorted your clothes into the “Keep”, “Store”, and “Donate” piles is to take one more hard look at your clothes. If you haven’t worn a certain item in over a year, it’s time for it to go. The only exception for this rule is if you have a very formal gown or suit that you haven’t had a chance to wear and that still fits you. Organize your clothes by season. Keep the summer, spring, winter, and fall clothes on the same part of the closet. If you have room for storage in the closet, store those off-season clothes in a bin in the back of your closet. Hang up as many of the clothes as you can while still maintaining space between your garments to create order. Try organizing them by the type of garment they are. For example, when you hang up your summer clothes, keep tank tops, t-shirts, and dresses separated. Make use of the space below your clothes. If you’ve hung up your clothes, you should still have a few feet of space below them, so don’t waste it. Use the space for a storage bin or for a shoe rack. If you have a door that opens instead of a sliding door, invest in a shoe rack or jewelry holder that hangs over your door. This is a great use of space. If you don’t have a door there, you can consider hanging one of these over your bedroom door. If you have room in your closet for a dresser, this is the perfect place for it.
Organize the top of your dresser. Take all the clutter from the top of your dresser and put it in a plastic bin at the corner of the dresser. If there’s a better place for the clutter, like your bathroom, desk, or top drawer, put it there. If you find stuff that’s better off in someone else’s hands, donate it or sell it. Find a good use for your top dresser drawer. Don’t just use the top drawer to throw in everything that doesn’t have a good place. Decide what this use will be and stick to it. Organize the rest of your drawers. Create a drawer for your underwear, a drawer for your pajamas, a drawer for your athletic gear if you work out a lot, and then one or two drawers for the tops and bottoms you wear every day. Keep your tops and bottoms separate so you know where to find everything.
Designate a place for your scissors, staplers, and other office supplies. This could be an area on the corner of your desk or your top drawer. It should be easily accessible since you’ll use these items often. Remind yourself to keep all of the desk things on the desk. If you use the stapler, return it to the desk, or it may get lost among the other clutter in the rest of your house. Designate a place for your writing utensils. Have a cup or small case for keeping your writing utensils so you no longer have to spend fifteen minutes looking for a pen. As you do this, go through your utensils to make sure that all of them work. Toss out the ones that can barely write a simple sentence. Create a filing system for organizing your papers. Create folders or drawers designated for different tasks. One drawer could be used for important papers that you don’t use often. Another drawer or folder could be designated for papers for a certain subject or aspect of your life. Don’t mix the papers up, or you’ll have a hard time finding things. Minimize the clutter on the surface of your desk. Try to keep the photos and mementos on your desk at a minimum to give yourself more room to work, keep your computer, or other things.
Make your bed. Part of having an organized room is putting things in their place, and your bedspread and pillows should go where they belong. If your bed is cluttered with so many pillows or stuffed animals that you can barely sleep in it, then it may be time to store, donate or throw out of some of the items. Clean out the space under your bed. A made bed does not look nice if the space under your bed is filled with clutter and junk! Get rid of the clutter on your walls. Some eye-catching posters and paintings are nice and a whiteboard or calendar can also help you get organized. However, get rid of old posters that don’t pique your interest, old, torn photos, and other wall clutter. Those things can go into storage or donation, but only donate things that are in good condition. Organize any other remaining pieces of furniture. If you have a night stand, a filing cabinet, or a bookshelf, make sure that they are as neat, tidy, and as logically organized as the rest of the items in your room. [5] X Research source Put any remaining items in their place. If you still have some items hanging around, find a place for them.
Put on some music or invite a friend over to help you clean to make the process more enjoyable. If you have a hardwood floor, wash or sweep it. If you have a carpeted floor, it’s time to vacuum.
Make a goal of wiping the surfaces in your room at least once a week.
Be determined to spend at least 5 to 10 minutes every night organizing your room before you go to bed. Now that you’ve organized the last of your things, you should vow to keep them in their places. Be determined to clean your room for at least 5 to 10 minutes every day. This includes taking out the trash, getting rid of any food, and removing any old papers, ticket stubs, or random things that have accumulated in your space.
