How to Declutter Your Room Step-by-Step (The Easy Way That Actually Works)
Need help decluttering your room? Here is the tested and approved foolproof method on how to declutter your room – and keep it that way.
Decluttering your room is one of those things that seems super overwhelming, so we put it off. But it really doesn’t have to turn into a big deal. And once you do an initial declutter, it’s a lot easier to maintain a tidy room.
And if you don’t even know where to start when it comes to decluttering your room, you’re in the right place!
This post is going to take all of the guesswork out of decluttering your room, and make it as easy and stress-free as possible.
You’re going to learn exactly how to declutter your room, how to completely declutter your room, how to declutter and organize your room, tips on how to declutter your room, and more.
Trust me, the hardest part is just starting. Once you get going, you’ll wonder why you put it off for so long.
By the time you’re done with this post, you won’t even be able to recognize your room – it’s a foolproof decluttering guide!
I recommend reading through the post once, then going back a second time to actually apply the steps. I also created a room declutter checklist, which you can download below, to help you through the process and make sure you stay on track.
This post is all about how to declutter your room without feeling totally overwhelmed.
Step by Step How to Declutter Your Room:
1. Bring out Donate, Trash, and Keep Boxes
Before you get started actually going through your room and decluttering, you’re going to want to grab three boxes or bags and label them “keep” “donate” and “trash.”
Trust me, this will make the process of decluttering your room go a lot smother if you can easily sort your items instead of just throwing everything in one big pile that you have to deal with later.
If you’re not sure what items should go in each category, here’s a little break-down to help you get started:
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Used in last 12 months → usually Keep (exceptions: gifts you don’t like, clothes that don’t fit)
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Broken beyond easy repair → Trash/Recycle
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Duplicates → keep the best, donate the rest
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Sentimental → allow a small, dedicated space (put in the Keep bin for now); otherwise photograph and donate if you can’t store it
A good rule of thumb for when you’re still not sure what to do with an item is to ask yourself: “Does this serve me or make my life better?” If no, it goes.
And be honest with yourself! I know it can be hard to let some things go, but if you know you’re not going to use something, just don’t keep it – there’s a better home out there for it!
Once you start getting items out of your room that you no longer need or use, it will be a lot easier to keep everything tidy on a regular basis.
2. Pick Up Everything off of the Floor
First things first, if there is anything on the floor, pick it up. You’re going to want your floor space to work with and you’re going to need a good walkway when you’re pulling stuff out and reorganizing.
For now, just put everything (that was on the floor) back where it goes and don’t worry about sorting these items (yet).
3. Create a Pile for Items that Don’t Belong In Your Bedroom
There are always those items that you meant to put back where they belong, but never did, so they’ve been living in your room for the meantime.
You’ll probably find a couple of items that don’t actually belong in your bedroom when you’re cleaning everything out, so just make a pile that you can add to throughout the process.
And when you’re completely done with the whole decluttering process, you can return all of these items to their rightful homes.
4. Declutter Bedroom Closet
For a lot of people, their closet is the area of their room they dread cleaning out the most. But it’s also the most rewarding!
Once you declutter your closet, decluttering the rest of your room won’t seem so bad.
Everyone has different ways of going about cleaning out their closet, but my personal favorite is just to take everything out. Yes, EVERYTHING.
For every item in your closet, you should ask the question “Do I keep, donate, or trash it?” And in order for that item to make it back into your closet, it has to be a “keep”.
If there are any “maybe” items that you’re not sure about just yet, just leave them out and come back to them.
All of the “Keep” items can go back into your closet, and the rest goes into the “Donate” and “Trash” boxes.
Pro tip: you might want to have a separate “Donate” bag dedicated to just clothes. They’re also easier to donate by themselves instead of packed into a bag with a bunch of other items.
To make it easier, so your room is not drowning in clothes and accessories, you can do this part in sections (clothes on hangers first, then folded clothes, shoes, purses, etc.)
5. Rotate Seasonal Clothing
A lot of people just don’t have the room to keep every single piece of clothing they own in their closet at all times. So rotating your seasonal clothes in and out of your closet will make sure that everything you need for the current season, you have easy access to.
For the items in your closet that are not currently in-season – these would be good things to store under your bed or in a coat closet if you have one.
For storing clothes under your bed, I like to use these rolling baskets. They make your life so much easier when it comes time to pull stuff out, and they’re surprisingly roomy so you can fit a lot of clothes in them, even if they’re bulky.
6. Color Code Your Closet
Color coding your closet is one of those things that’s not absolutely necessary, but it does look super visually appealing and makes your closet look 10x more organized – almost instantly.
You can do this for folded clothes, but it doesn’t make a huge difference for clothes that are tucked away, so I would stick to using this method solely for hanging clothes.
And color coding really isn’t hard to maintain. It actually kind of makes your life easier when it comes to keeping your clothes organized because it’s super obvious where everything goes.
7. Remove Everything from Under the Bed
Now, it’s time for everyone’s favorite part (not really, but I promise it’s not that bad), tackling the space under your bed!
This is going to look different for everyone, but a lot of us use this space to tuck things away that we just don’t want to deal with. But, if used efficiently, the space under your bed is actually a gold mine of storage!
So in order to make it usable, first take everything out from under your bed! Just like your closet, it’s easier if we start with a completely clear space.
And just like the rest of your room, go through sorting everything into the same “keep” “donate” “trash” bags we’ve been using.
Chances are, you will end up finding a lot of things you didn’t know you had. Which means, unless they’re sentimental, they’re not important enough to keep.
8. Utilize Under Bed Space
Now that the space under your bed is cleared out, let’s talk about how to use this space!
Some people have a lot of space under their bed since it’s higher off of the ground. Others don’t have a lot of room to work with since their bed is closer to the ground. Either way, you can still fit some extra storage in there.
Depending on what you’re using this extra space for, depends on the kind of organizer you’ll want to use.
I highly, highly recommend you use some sort of baskets, bins, or have a system going to keep everything contained instead of letting everything loosely float around in the abyss haha.
This is one of the best ways to make sure your clothes stay organized, but also in good condition under your bed! It’s also easier to store puffier or thicker clothes when there is a zipper top, so you can really push items down as flat as they can go and put a couple more items in there. It just keeps things a little more compact.
This is another option – but it has wheels, so it’s a little bit easier to move in and out from under your bed. Do keep in mind that the wheels add a little bit of extra height to this storage, so if you’re super limited on space, this might be cutting it too close.
Remember, always measure!
9. Create a Clothing Solution (Hamper and Hanging Up Clothes)
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been there before – when I’m leaving the house in a rush and I just don’t have time to nicely fold and hang up my clothes.
But that means as soon as I get home, before I do anything else, I make sure that my clothes go back in their home.
There are going to be times where the last thing you want to do is fold and put away your clothes. But if you make it into a habit, and don’t let yourself get away with letting clothes pile up, you will…
- Thank yourself later – taking a couple of extra minutes everyday to pick up your clothes is a lot less tedious than tackling a huge pile that your let build up
- Be able to actually maintain a clean and organized room
Keep yourself accountable! Trust me, this is how you’re going to maintain a clean and decluttered room long term. Just ask yourself “Would an organized person fold this pile of clothes?” Spoiler alert, the answer is yes. 😂
10. Declutter your Dresser Drawers
I don’t know about you, but my dresser drawers are one of those things that starts super organized, but can quickly turn into a chaotic mess. The effort is there, but without a good system, it’s hard to actually keep it consistently organized.
The first thing you can do to make sure your clothes stay nice and folded, is rethink your folding technique.
Turning your clothes into a filing system is easily one of the best ways to make sure you have access to every piece of clothing in your drawer – without having to dig around.
You don’t really need an organizer for this technique, but drawer dividers can help to make sure that your rows stay separated and look super clean.
The second folding technique is rolling your clothes. Just like you might roll your clothes to make sure everything fits into your suitcase, doing this with the clothes in your dresser will help you fit more.
Rolling will also help your clothes stay together more – and not fall apart easily like they do when they’re folded.
Now, for your underwear and bra drawer, if you have inserts or small baskets to keep them organized, that will do the trick. This honeycomb organizer is what I use to keep my underwear drawer as organized and functional as possible. It also works super well for socks, scarves, really any smaller clothing items or garments.
11. Declutter Surfaces
The truth is, if you don’t declutter your surfaces, your room will never feel super organized.
The easiest way to make sure your surfaces don’t get cluttered is to limit your furniture to 3-5 pieces, depending on how big it is.
And if you’re wondering how you’re going to fit decor and storage on places like your nightstand and dresser, your best bet is going to be to use multi-purpose items.
Things like a marble tray that’s cute and decorative, but also holds your jewelry or perfume will help you make the most of your surface spaces without overcrowding them. Having clean and minimal surfaces doesn’t have to mean they’re boring.
And if you’re struggling with styling your surfaces, Pinterest will give you all of the inspo you need!
12. Declutter Nightstand
Sometimes the inside of our nightstands can turn into a junk drawer situation where we toss a bunch of items that we use regularly but don’t actually know where to put.
If this sounds familiar, we’re going to take care of that problem! Start by sorting – you should be familiar with the process by now. 🙂
Then, unless they’re actually items that you know you’ll reach for when you’re sitting in bed, find a different home for them. You don’t need five different books or lip balms in our nightstand, it just ends up being too much.
Here are the essentials that belong in your nightstand (everything else is extra):
- Hand lotion
- Sleep mask
- One lip balm (yes you read that right, only one!)
- A single book (that you’re currently reading)
- Journal
- A couple of hair ties
- Glasses
13. Create a Charging Station That Works
The simple truth is, we need a lot of different chargers and cords for all of our electronics. And even though they can be annoying and make a mess, it’s a hard thing to get around.
But, if you have a charging station that downsizes the amount of cords you need to plug in, you won’t have to worry about having an unnecessary amount of cables crowding the outlets and floor of your room.
They’re a lot more efficient – and practical when it comes to charging all of your devices at once.
This is the one that I keep on my desk and turned into my main charging hub for all of my devices. I will say, it’s a lot easier to keep all of your devices charged when you can juice them up at the same time.
14. Organize Cords
Speaking of cords – they’re easily one of the most chaotic things in your room. Even if you try to keep them organized, it’s hard to keep them that way.
Instead of just settling for a pile of disorganized cords scattered under your desk, there are a few things you can do:
- Get a cable box – these will instantly solve the problem of having a bunch of ugly cords under your desk. Sometimes it’s best to just hide the ugly things. And let me tell you, this is one of those cases!
- Use cord organizers – for the longer cords and bigger chargers (like your laptop charger), try using cord organizers. They take up no extra space and will help real in those longer cords so they’re not taking up more space than they need to.
- Use cord storage boxes for extras – for the cords that you don’t need on a daily basis, it’s important to have a good storage system to keep them dialed in.
15. Use Cable Clips
Cable clips are one of those small changes that makes a big difference! They’ll make sure your cords actually stay accessible and don’t end up scattered on the bottom of your desk floor.
They’re also adhesive, so you don’t have to worry about ruining any furniture. Just stick a couple to the side of your desk or nightstand and you’ll be able to manage your cords a lot better.
And they’re inexpensive. We all love a good affordable organization find!
16. Maximize your Vertical Space
Vertical space is something a lot of people forget they have, so they don’t take advantage of it. But it’s actually a game-changer! When you run out of floor space, you can always go up with your storage.
Think shelves, taller book cases, hooks, even over-the-door organizers can be super helpful when it comes to making the most of your limited space.
17. Get Rid of Bulkier Items
Any bulky items that don’t serve a purpose in your room – it’s time to get rid of them! Bulky items not only take up valuable space, but just make your room feel unnecessarily crowded and claustrophobic.
There are a couple of big furniture pieces that are considered “necessities” in every room. But try to limit the amount of extra furniture pieces you have.
18. Maintenance
Now that you’ve gone to all of the effort of decluttering your room, keep it that way!
I know, it’s a lot easier said than done. Especially when it comes to falling back into old habits. But remember how good it feels to have such a deeply cleaned and organized room, and use that motivation to keep up with the little things (like putting away your clothes right after you take them off).
Yes, you’ll probably want to do a big seasonal room clean-out and declutter every once in a while, but if you take small steps every day to keep everything in your room fairly organized and in order, you’ll make it a lot easier on future you.
This post was all about how to declutter your room without feeling totally overwhelmed.
Other Posts You May Like:
18 Next-Level Nightstand Organization Ideas That Will Make Your Bedroom Feel Like a Luxury Hotel
19 Brilliant Closet Storage Ideas That Professional Organizers Swear By
