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Smiling cleaning professional in yellow gloves wiping a clear white dresser top, neat closet shelves behind her

How to declutter your bedroom in one afternoon

May 30, 2024•4 min read

To declutter your bedroom, set up four boxes (keep, belongs elsewhere, donate, trash) and work one zone at a time: the bed and nightstands, the floor, the dresser, the closet, then under the bed. Touch each item once and decide. Many bedrooms take one afternoon, about three to four hours, and the donate box goes to the car before you stop.

The order matters more than the speed. Start where you'll see a change fast.

What do you need before you start?

Four boxes or bags, marked keep, elsewhere, donate and trash
A laundry basket for anything that needs washing
A timer
A charged phone for music, kept out of reach so you don't scroll

Clear a spot on the bed to sort on. Do not take everything out of every drawer at once. That's how a three-hour job turns into a week of sleeping on the couch.

What order should you declutter a bedroom in?

1. The bed and nightstands (30 minutes)

Make the bed first. A made bed gives you a clean surface to sort on and an instant win.

Then clear the nightstands down to what you use every night: a lamp, a book, a charger, maybe water. Everything else goes in a box. Empty the nightstand drawer onto the bed, throw away the dead pens and old receipts, and put back only what you reach for at bedtime.

2. The floor (20 to 30 minutes)

Pick up everything on the floor and sort it into the four boxes and the laundry basket. Anything that belongs in another room goes in the elsewhere box, and you deliver that box at the end, not one item at a time.

3. The dresser top and drawers (45 minutes)

Clear the top to a few things you use or love. Then do one drawer at a time. Take out anything that doesn't fit, is stretched or stained, or hasn't been worn in a year. Fold what's left so you can see it at a glance.

4. The closet (60 to 90 minutes)

This is the big one. Pull out one category at a time: pants, then shirts, then dresses, then shoes. Keep what fits and what you've worn this past year. Be honest about "someday" clothes.

Turn every hanger backward. When you wear something and hang it back up, turn that hanger the right way. In six months, the backward hangers show you what you don't wear.

5. Under the bed (20 minutes)

Pull everything out. Keep only what fits in one or two lidded bins with a clear purpose, like off-season clothes or spare bedding. Loose things under the bed collect dust and get forgotten.

What do you do about the clothes chair?

Almost every bedroom has one: the chair, the bench or the corner of the bed covered in clothes worn once that aren't ready for the hamper. The fix is to give those clothes an actual home. A row of hooks on the back of the door or a small basket in the closet works. The chair stays clear because the clothes have somewhere to go.

How do you keep a bedroom from getting cluttered again?

One in, one out for clothes and shoes.
A five-minute reset before bed: clothes in the hamper or on the hook, cups to the kitchen, surfaces cleared.
A donate bag that lives in the closet. When it's full, it goes to the car.
A seasonal swap in spring and fall, when you move off-season clothes under the bed.
No new storage until you've decluttered. Bins and organizers help keep a room in order once the extra is gone. Bought first, they just store the clutter.

Should you clean as you declutter?

Declutter first, clean second. Once the surfaces and floor are clear, dust from the top of the room down: the ceiling fan, shelves, the dresser and nightstands, then the window sills. Vacuum last, including under the bed now that it's empty.

Can a house cleaner help after you declutter?

Organizing and decluttering aren't on any of our cleaning checklists, and counters, shelves and tables are wiped where they're clear of clutter. So the more of the room that's clear, the more of it gets wiped.

On Standard House Cleaning, RoutineCare, the floors are vacuumed and mopped, reachable surfaces and furniture are dusted, mirrors and glass surfaces are cleaned, and window sills are wiped.

It can be booked one time, weekly, every other week, every 4 weeks or twice a year. See House Cleaning, or Recurring House Cleaning for cleanings on a schedule.

For more, read 10 bedroom cleaning hacks, and for children's rooms, the kid's bedroom clean-up checklist.

FAQ

Where do you start when decluttering a bedroom? Start with the bed and the nightstands, because clearing them makes the biggest visible change in the least time. Then do the floor, the dresser top, the dresser drawers, the closet and under the bed, in that order.

How long does it take to declutter a bedroom? Many bedrooms take one afternoon, about three to four hours, with the closet the biggest part. A packed closet or years of storage under the bed can stretch it into a second session.

What do you do with the clothes chair? Give clothes that are worn once but not dirty their own home, like a hook on the back of the door or a basket. The chair fills up because those clothes have nowhere else to go.

Will a house cleaner declutter my bedroom? No. Organizing and decluttering aren't on any of our cleaning checklists, and surfaces are wiped where they're clear of clutter. Declutter first, and the cleaning reaches more of the room.