Organize a Teen Room and Make It Your Own

Does your room feel messy? Do you find clothes from when you were six? Do you always have to search for ages to find something, such as a permission slip for that field trip you are just DYING to go to? Let's sum it up like this: Your room...is messy. *crowd gasps* Yup, it's true. Here's how to make the crowd smile.

Steps

  1. Starting from the door to the far wall and from the floor up, get everything off the floor, and perhaps shove it outside your room for the time being.
  2. Once everything is off of the floor, sort it into five piles (or boxes/containers); donate, trash, recycle, belongs elsewhere, and keep.
  3. If you have a lot of loose, unorganized papers in your room, then also make a pile just for paper, throw it in a wastebasket, or put it in a box to sort later.
  4. Put any dirty clothes in the wash.
  5. Make sure to clean out your closet and under your bed- use a trash bag to throw away outright garbage hiding before you vacuum.
  6. Eliminate the dust in your room. Vacuum the floor and your mattress, and with a cloth dampened with water or cleaning agent, dust your desk, the blinds, your bookcase, and anything else you can possibly dust. You may want to ask your parents (or whoever usually does the cleaning) what can be vacuumed/dusted and what cannot.
  7. Review your basic organization system and make improvements so it will be easier to keep your room tidy in the future.
  8. Put everything that you want to keep back in your room.
  9. Paint the walls an interesting color/pattern, but keep in mind that as a teenager, you may not like the colour/pattern in a year's time.
  10. Put up art, posters, or some cool prints that you like. To order posters online, try going to http://www.allposters.com/.
  11. Get new bed linens that fit your personality.
  12. Make collages with pictures of you and your friends, ticket stubs, notes you passed.
  13. Make sure that you like the way your room looks. Ta-da! You're done! Read the tips for more ideas.

Tips

  • Keep your room as nice as you can for as long as you can. That way you won't have to clean as often.
  • It is crucial not to become distracted or side-tracked when cleaning and organizing a room; some things will have to be left for later, like sorting through papers
  • If you haven't used it in the last 6-8 months it can probably be chucked in the trash.
  • Do not return things to other parts of the house until you have completed all of your basic sorting, then you can deliver things to other parts of the house, take the trash and recycling out
  • Experiment with drawer/desk organizers, they really work.
  • Get rid of anything and everything no longer in use, and use the room to purchase new items.
  • At first,try grouping like things together i.e.: stationary, books, CDs
  • Try buying coloured poster board and getting it laminated. Then using a dry-erase (EXPO) pen, you can draw on it and get your friends to leave messages.
  • Try getting a very good friend to help (you never know what you might come across in your room...it could be embarrassing) and once your room is done help them with theirs.
  • Follow the one in, one out rule. (When purchasing a new _______, throw out an old _________.)
  • You can use a dry-erase pen on your mirror--for example, to write "to do" items
  • Keep your bedroom stuff in the bedroom, your bathroom stuff in the bathroom...etc.
  • Try vacuuming and changing your bed sheets once a week.
  • Try arranging books by genre/author/frequency read/size.
  • When donating goods, make sure they are clean.

Warnings

  • Ask your parents' permission if you're doing anything permanent, including putting thumb tacks in walls. Also posters, Blu Tack can ruin the paint on your walls!

Things You'll Need

  • Loads of time and willingness to complete this task
  • Boxes, baskets, large paper grocery bags, etc., for organizing
  • Cleaning agents
  • Rags
  • Vacuum
  • Posters/Prints/Decorations
  • Photo frames
  • Money to buy bed linens
  • Trash bag

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