How to declutter your room

Let’s face it: most of us don’t have the time to declutter our own rooms. Everyone has one of those chairs, that becomes the ‘only worn once or twice’ pile of clothing, and let’s not even get started on some of our bedside tables! If you can relate to anything you just read, this article is for you. Below we’re looking at what exactly ‘clutter’ is, why having a cluttered room could be bad for your health, and three tips to declutter your room this weekend:

What is clutter?

A distinction must be made between clutter, litter, and mess. If you have empty Chinese food containers laying about your bedroom, you’re sleeping with litter. If there are also smears of tomato paste and the odd pepperoni slice, that’s mess.

Clutter, as the more civilised of the lot, is a disorderly confusion of stuff lying around. We’re talking about stuff shoved under the bed, closets that seem to be oozing wrinkled clothing, and bedside table that only just have enough space to support your cup of morning coffee. aka an accumulation of items without purpose or function.

Should your room be cluttered?

There is a sliding scale to clutter, and some rooms really aren’t cluttered at all. However, some people sleep among mountains of things – often avalanching onto the bed itself. A study by New York’s St. Lawrence University showed that people sleeping in cluttered rooms are more likely to have a bad night’s sleep and – gasp – suffer from anxiety.

The study revealed that you are likely to take longer to fall asleep in a cluttered room compared to one that’s neat and tidy. It goes on to stress that, “if hoarders have cluttered or unusable bedrooms, and less comfortable, functional beds, any existing risk for cognitive dysfunction, depression and stress may increase as sleep quality worsens.” However, you don’t have to be a hoarder to get trapped into this cycle of sleep deprivation. This can happen to anyone not keeping an eye on their clutter.

3 tips for decluttering your room:

Alright then, we now know that clutter in one’s bedroom is not conducive to a good night’s sleep. If your bedroom is cluttered, and you’d like to sleep like a baby every night, here are three pointers to finally tackling the clutter in your bedroom:

●         Curtail the Clothing.

Firstly, lets create some space to sort your clothes so start by making your bed. Before gathering all items of clothing from all areas in your bedroom, I An insightful article from housebeautiful.com suggests putting your clothes in three separate piles. Pile one the ‘keep’ pile, and the second is ‘donate’. The third pile is for clothing and accessories that can go into storage, to be donned at a later point in time or may need to be tried on before donating or may need repairing. Next, put all the clothes you intend on donating in a black bag, and make a note to drop it off at your nearest Salvation Army or charity shop.

●         Free the Furniture.

Got an occasional chair in your room? Are the occasions that anyone sits in it few and far between? Put it back in its natural habitat: the living room or study. Any unnecessary bedroom furniture is nothing more than a surface to pile clutter onto, so move them out and clear some floor space. This will immediately make the room feel bigger and more spacious.

●         Manage the Miscellaneous.

We’ve dealt with our clothing, and made some more space by getting rid of the “laundry” chair, so what now? Well, clothes and linen aren’t the only things we have in our rooms. Everything from throw pillows and fluffy teddy bears, to broken surround sound systems and exercise equipment. Your bed may not need 9 throw pillows added to the one or two that you use to sleep on, and dumbbells or yoga mats are just tripping hazards for when you visit the loo at night.

Need a professional home organiser in Kent?

Kent’s Sevenoaks is where Sharné and The Productive Lifestyle Co. are based, and Sharné is we’re ridiculously good at decluttering, organising, and tidying homes just like yours. She has We’ve seen everything under the sun and makes it her our mission to improve people’s lives, by bringing some organisation to their cluttered living environments. Get in touch with Sharné to start a conversation about decluttering and organising your home.