Keep a Bedroom Tidy
A messy room is often the hallmark of a typical child or teenager (and, surprisingly, even some adults). A clean bedroom leads to a peaceful mind. Even though you may not care how your room looks like, it still affects you. These steps will show you how to keep your room looking, if not perfect, at least presentable.
Contents
Steps
Finding the Motivation
- Have an incentive to motivate you. Is a friend coming round? Are you moving/going on vacation anywhere? Are you having difficulty finding your possessions beneath the knee-high pile of clutter covering your floor? Or maybe you don't have an incentive, you just want to make your bedroom a peaceful place you can escape to after an exhausting day at school or work? Whatever reason you have for cleaning your room, just follow the steps below to have a fun and functional room.
- Savor tidiness. Do you like the feeling of your room being clean? Do you like that feeling that everything is fine, and you can relax? That's not so strange, since the state of your bedroom does affect your state of mind.[citation needed] This is just another incentive to fix any messes and keep it tidy.
- Use an upcoming occasion to inspire you. If you like your room being tidy then when events come up like birthdays, Christmas etc., try to get rid of your old stuff. You can donate them to charities, hospitals, etc.
- Remind yourself that when your room is clean, you can have friends over more often!
Sorting Your Stuff
- Decide what is essential, preferable, and unnecessary for your room. This will help you to prioritize what you want sitting out, and what you can afford to stash away most of the time! Throw away some stuff that you think is not essential to you.
- Find storage space. Dresser/desk drawers, closets, space under the bed, attics/basements, spare rooms. Whatever works, put your extra stuff there. Create a system for storing clothes, both clean and dirty. Try buying a pencil holder for pens and pencils.
Tidying Your Room
- Make your bed. The main thing in your room is usually your bed. Thus, when the main thing is tidy, it will make the rest seem better. So just pull the covers over your bed and make sure the cases are on the pillows. Also its great if you can take everything off your bed but not necessary.
- Make it every morning. A small amount of time goes a long way to making the room feel tidy and encouraging a good night's sleep at the end of each day.
- Pick up your stuff. Start with large items first, then move on to papers, etc.
- Get all the clutter from around your room and put it all away neatly. Follow the simple rule of "taking something out and then putting it right back". Sing the cleanup song, if you must! Putting on music can help this process go a lot faster.
- Keep the room clean by vacuuming, scrubbing, washing, dusting, or whatever else you need to do to keep it presentable. If your stuff starts accumulating again, just take a few minutes each day to put everything where it belongs. Take a few minutes every night before you go to bed and make sure everything is in its place or neatly put away. You should also make it a habit to make up your bed every morning before you leave the house.
- Make sure all your drawers are shut, such as your dresser, night table, or desk. This can make a huge difference to how you feel, as you can't see yawning gaps of more stuff.
- Try not make things look spread out, it makes it look like your room isn't as big as it is. Clean it at least once a week to keep it from getting too messy.
- Find storage spaces and when you do, put your things in there, but have a system. It can be that all your papers about hobbies can go in a green folder and the green folder goes into the white binder and goes on the first shelf. Whatever works best for you, do it.
- Check as you go. As you complete a task, stop and look to see if it is correct. You don't want to not have done something correctly and start something else. So when the task is complete go on and finish cleaning. For example, your dresser is disorganized, you cleaned it all up, then check to make sure everything is in its correct spot.
- Clear from under the bed. Is under your bed dirty? This is what you should do. Slide and remove everything from under your bed and put it in the middle of the floor. Go through the things you'll need. If you really love something, keep it but put it in an organized place. Do not keep everything like a slob, force yourself to throw it out because you won't have anymore junk. If there is food under your bed, then immediately remove it before pests come and take over.
- Clear your desk area. If your desk is cluttered with pots and cups and brushes, pencils, paints, homework, papers anything like that, just neatly put them to one side stack and papers and move them to somewhere they would seem neat, like the side of your desk or in drawers. Like the bed, when the desk is tidy, a lot of the space will seem better.
- Take breaks. This will help you to cope. However, don't make them too long, as you may find it difficult to go back to cleaning.
- Shine some light on things. After cleaning your room, get some lights. String lights look the best and hang them up and turn them on. Soft lighting brings a comforting place that's easy to focus in. Don't make your room too bright it makes it harder to focus, and harder to keep clean.
Staying Organized
- Plan one or two days a week that you pick-up, dust, vacuum, and re-organize your items. Or each night before bed, examine your room to make sure everything is in its correct place. If you have a carpet, vacuum it or if you have a laminate floor sweep and mop it.
- Everyone goes about tasks differently. Some people prefer cleaning a bit everyday; others like to attack everything in one sitting. Find out what works best for you.
- Ask for rewards. Try to make a deal with your parents concerning your getting a reward every week for keeping your room clean, neat and organized; even if it is just a small treat, it's still worth it!
- Reward yourself in some way every time you clean your room. This might be anything from having a cookie to seeing your favorite program on TV. Rewards don't always have to be big. They are simply something you can enjoy that you wouldn't normally.
Tips
- There's a difference between clean, neat/tidy, organized, and keeping everything clean. For a bedroom to truly function well, all four of these qualities must be met.
- Clean: not dirty. This is when you wipe the dust off the bookshelf, vacuum the carpet, scrub the floors.
- Neat/Tidy: Looking presentable. Straighten the books on the shelf, keeping all your pencils the right way up. Sometimes, even the little things can make a big difference.
- Organized: Ah, the most misunderstood term of all. Organized means that you are/will be able to find anything in the room. You have a 'home' for all of your belongings. Now, not only can you impress yourself by looking good, you will impress others!
- Keeping everything clean: If you have different shelves that are organized well, don't put something where it doesn't go: it makes you disorganized and might mess up a clean room. If you throw your T-shirt where your homework or tax papers are, it messes everything up.
- Clean the windowsills as well. Dust and remove objects from them.
- Have a snack to keep up your cleaning energy.
- An easy tip to help keep your room tidy is whenever you go into your room make a deal with your to pick up at least three things and then go on to do whatever you were going to do, it will only take a few seconds! Although this may lead to not going into your room very often... Not going into your room leads not much mess just remember before you dump your clothes on the floor just put them away.
- Make rules for yourself. Don't eat food in your bedroom or don't drink anything other than water in your bedroom.
- Don't rush to tidy your room but if you are in a rush set a timer and don't get annoyed at yourself if you don't get it done in the right amount of time.
Related Articles
- Decorate a Bedroom
- Have a Perfect Bedroom (Teen Girls)
- Clean Your Room
- Arrange Your Bedroom Mirrors
- Clean Your Room in 10 Minutes
- Tidy Up Your Bedroom
- Keep a Child's Room Tidy
- Make Your Own Weekly Scheduler
