Bedroom Organization Project Because Sleeping is Cozy

I’m working on a whole house organization/declutter type of project.  This is not something I am good at.  I’m good at throwing things away, but the organizing what’s left over is hard for me.  I’m not a person who likes a lot of stuff.  I do live with three people who like a lot of stuff, though and I am not good at keeping their stuff organized.  **This post contains affiliate links. If you click one and make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no additional cost to you.***

But I’ve reached the point of realizing that I need to get things under control and I need some help to do it.

I have a plan to tackle the whole house with several different organizing ideas from organizing pros.  My goal is to find the best ideas from each of them and figure out what parts of each work best for me.

I’m starting with bedroom organization.  I’m starting here for a couple of reasons.  It’s become a catch all room and needs a really good declutter.  I want it to be a quiet place away from my work that I can sit under a blanket and read a book for a few minutes.  Because I work at home, the rest of the house is my “office”.

Like, the whole house.

I want the bedroom to be separate from that (ps, I’m typing this on my little chromebook, in my bed.  oops).

Bedroom Organization Project

(updated 2/25/2019 – the course I took with Brianna is no longer available.  She’s expanding on it and the latest iteration will be available soon!  The course she recommends for home organization right now is Mastering the #MomLife Jungle.)

To get the bedroom tamed, I’m going to be following the home organizing course from Brianna of Spiked Parenting.

Brianna is a non-nonsense professional organizer and time management/productivity expert.  She does not screw around with organizing fluff.  Her course is straightforward and action-oriented.

Exactly what I need.

The course is digital, so you can watch and listen to the whole thing on-line, but there’s also a workbook that prepares you for how to start, what obstacles you can expect and then gives you a plan of action.

This is important for me.  When I see a disorganized mess, I get overwhelmed and put my blinders on and tend to ignore it.

And then things pile up.  And get even more overwhelming.

Piles and disorganization make every part of my life more difficult.  It’s difficult to get ready in the morning when clothes are piled on the couch instead of folded in drawers.

It’s difficult to relax at night when there’s a pile of God knows what in the corner waiting to find it’s forever home.

Step 1 in the Bedroom Organization Project

The first thing I did with this bedroom organization project was sit down and make myself go through the course. I watched the videos and then I did the workbook.

Generally, I’m more of a jump in and start doing type of person, but I want to actually get this right, so I’m sticking to the plan.

The first part of Brianna’s course helped me get my head around what my goals are for this project, what’s contributing to the mess and what obstacles I might face.  I realize that this is important so that I don’t end up right back where I started in 3 months from now.

 

The goals became important as I moved into the second and third phases of the organizing plan.  The first phase was easy.  A clean sweep of whatever you KNOW you don’t want in the room.

I vastly underestimated how long this would take, but I got it done in a few hours and had this to show for it:

 

That’s three bags of stuff to be tossed and a big old pile of stuff that needs to be redistributed.

The next step I had a harder time with.  I had to sort through everything that was staying and make a home for it.

For some strange, inexplicable reason, this step froze me.  I couldn’t get it started.  I had planned to have this project done in 5 days.

After the initial sweep, I didn’t do a single thing in the room for the enirety of those five days.

This is where doing the course and actually filling out the workbook came in handy.

I went back and read WHY I wanted to do this and WHAT I intended to do with this space.  Reminding myself of all of that got me back on track.  I dove back in.

I went back to my room and I looked at everything that was left in the room and thought about whether or not it had anything to do with the activities I had designated this space for.  Those included:

  • Sleeping
  • Relaxing
  • Reading
  • Getting Dressed

That’s it.  That’s all I put on the list of things I should do in the bedroom.

After I had purged, there was barely anything left in the room, so I didn’t even have a lot to go through.  It was mostly just small things that had ended up on my night stand.  So I grabbed a tray and went through everything and separated it.

As an example, the nightstand got to keep a couple of pictures that make me smile, my phone that I read with and a little brass planter that is holding things like glasses and eye wrinkle stuff, because eye wrinkle stuff helps me sleep at night.

Below the nightstand, on the tray, are all of the things that needed to leave the room.  I don’t need my $50 Petco gift card on my nightstand.  There’s gotta be a better place for that, right?

Doing this step made me start to see the categories of things that I do not have “homes” for throughout the house which is why they end up randomly in my bedroom.

Loose pictures, no designated spot.  Random electronic things, same.  Nail polish, ditto. 

My head started to pull together what I was going to need to do with the other GIANT pile of things (from the picture above) that I was going to have to re-home.

Decluttering is easy.  Figuring out what to get rid of, what to throw away and what to donate.  That’s not the hard part for me.  Figuring out what to do with the stuff that needs to be rehomed elsewhere is where I need help.

That’s what was invaluable about Brianna’s course.  I figured out what it was that was paralyzing me from getting organized. That, the figuring out what to do with things, was the culprit. How I solved that problem is a post for another day, but for now, I feel relieved knowing that I’ve figured at least that much out.

Once that had clicked into place for me, I quickly found homes for the little bits that were left over on that tray.

That pile of jewelry got put back into the jewelry organizer I forgot I owned.

Alright confession time.  I just put that picture in here and I realized.  I don’t wear any of that jewelry. I wear the same pair of earrings and my wedding rings every day and they never come off of me.  I should take the entire filled organizer to the thrift store and be done with it.

JUST WHEN I THOUGHT I HAD IT ALL FIGURED OUT!

I really don’t think I would have gotten through this project if I hadn’t forced myself to sit down and make it through Brianna’s course.  Having something to reference really was what helped me to refocus when I needed to.

And.  I think it’s important to think again about why all of this is important to me.  Why do I care if my house is clean, tidy and cozy?

Because I’m living my life here.  My kids are growing up here.  It will be the background to all of our best family memories.  This house that we live in.

What’s Next?

You may be thinking to yourself, ummm, what about your clothes? Don’t you have a closet in your bedroom where all of your clothes are?

I do.  And if I had even considered doing the bedroom project at the same time as the Great Clothing Project of 2019, I would have just probably crawled into a hole and given it all up for good.

You’ll see what I mean when I post the clothing project.  It’s what’s up next.

 

PS If space is an issue, check out this post on small bedroom organization.

If You Loved This I’d Love It If You Pinned It!

Bedroom Organization is important. You sleep there. It's easier to sleep when things are tidy. You get ready there. It's easier to get ready when things are tidy. Let's get it together.

 

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