How to Organize Your Room

Co-authored by Susan Stocker

Last Updated: September 16, 2022 Approved

Organizing your room can help you feel more calm and in control of your life. Going about your day will be much easier if you know exactly where everything is. You'll not have to waste twenty minutes of your day searching for your favorite top or pair of jeans. If you want to know how to organize your room, just follow these steps.

Part 1

Part 1 of 3:

Sorting Through Your Belongings

1
Take all of your belongings out of their current locations. This may seem painful and like you're creating a bigger mess, but if you really want to organize your room, you have to start from scratch. Though you may be overwhelmed by the giant pile of stuff you've created on your floor, desk, or bed, rest assured that you'll find the right place for everything soon enough.^{[1]
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- 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.
2
Organize your belongings. Before you begin to figure out where everything should go, you should get a number of boxes and label them for different purposes. Crates or plastic bins will work just as well, but boxes are best because you can just recycle them when you're done organizing and won't have to deal with more clutter. Label them Keep, Store, Donate, and Trash. ^{[2]
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Research source} Here's how you should label the boxes:
- 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.
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3
Try to get rid of as many items as possible. This is an important step. Though you may want to throw everything in the "Keep" box, or have put every last extra item in the "Store" box, this won't help you get organized. You need to do some searching to figure out what you really need in your room right there where you spend your time. Remember that less really is more. The less things you have, the easier it will be to organize your bedroom.^{[3]
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- 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.
4
Put all the boxes except the "Keep" boxes in the right place. Now that you've organized your room, you can begin to get rid of all the things you don't need. The sooner you get rid of or store the other boxes, the easier it will be to move on with your organization. Here's what to do:
- 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.

Part 2

Part 2 of 3:

Reorganizing Your Belongings

1
Organize your closet. Keeping an organized and neat closet is the key to having a clean bedroom. You should make the most of your closet space and organize your clothes by season. If you have a larger closet, it may be a good place to store your additional items or to keep your shoes and accessories.^{[4]
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Research source} Here's how to organize your closet:
- 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.
2
Organize your dresser. Your dresser is the place where you store your additional clothes or accessories, so it should be as neat as possible to prevent you from turning it upside down every time you search for another piece of clothing. Here's how to organize your dresser:
- 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.
3
Organize your desk. If you have a desk in your room, you should keep it as organized as possible. Come up with a game plan for separating and organizing all of your important items so you avoid a mess in the future. Here's how to do it:
- 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.
4
Organize the rest of your room. Once you've tackled your closet, dresser, and desk, your room should begin to look like a new calm and organized place. However, you're not done quite yet. Before you can truly say your room is organized, there are a few more things you should do:
- 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]
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- Put any remaining items in their place. If you still have some items hanging around, find a place for them.

Part 3

Part 3 of 3:

Cleaning Your Newly-Organized Room

1
Clean your floor. Now that you've put all of your items in their place, you should have a bare floor. Take the time to clean it to give your room that polished feel. You won't feel organized if your room doesn't feel clean.
- 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.
2
Wipe down all of the surfaces in your room. Take a wet cloth and run it over your desk, the top of your dresser, your nightstand, and any additional items in your room. Get rid of all of the dust that you've ignored while your room was too messy.
- Make a goal of wiping the surfaces in your room at least once a week.
3
Make a game plan to stay organized and clean. You don't want all the hard work you put into cleaning and organizing your room to go to waste. If you go back to your messy habits in just one week, you can undo so much of the effort that you've put in. Here's how to make sure you maintain a clean and organized room in the future:
- 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.

Expert Q&A

Question

How can I make my room less cluttered?

Susan Stocker
Green Cleaning Expert
Susan Stocker runs and owns Susan’s Green Cleaning, the #1 Green Cleaning Company in Seattle. She is well known in the region for outstanding customer service protocols — winning the 2017 Better Business Torch Award for Ethics & Integrity —and her energetic support of green cleaning practices.

Susan Stocker

Green Cleaning Expert

Expert Answer

If you want to keep your room clean and organized, you need to have a routine! Make sure everything has a place, then put everything back in its home before the end of each night. Also, always put items like your keys and bags in the same spot.
Question

How do I start getting organized when I have so many things in my room?

Community Answer

Start in one small area at a time. Take breaks. Come back to it often.
Question

How can I organize my room without throwing anything away?

Community Answer

Buy some containers and sort everything out. Things that you don't use frequently can be put in containers under your bed or on a shelf in your closet. Things you use a lot can be kept closer at hand.