Bedroom Organization Hacks that Will Boost Your Marriage
Whole House Organization Challenge: Week 11
Let’s face it, waking up and retiring for bed in the mist of total mayhem is not the best way to start and end the day. Why the mere presence of disorder of can trigger an argument.
Him: Hun, have you seen my keys and wallet?
Her: Nope
Him: I put them right here last night. Someone moved them.
Her: Uh huh, and that “someone” is you, Dear
Him: I need my keys and wallet
Her: (Searching through the papers on the dresser) Oh, here’s that bill I was looking for last week. Hey, I found my earrings!
Him: The ones you accused me of tossing last week?
Her: Oops. My bad, babe.
Glaring at her and forming his mouth to say something he will surely regret, he flops down on a chair covered with the outfit he wore yesterday. Suddenly there’s a soft clink from underneath. He lifts the clothing to reveal the two missing items.
{Silence}
Him: (embarrassed) Sorry babe.
Her: (annoyed) Whatever dude.
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On the surface, bedroom disorder might seem like a little thing. But a study conducted by a scientific journal using self-guided home tours and analysis software revealed that women with uncluttered homes experienced a decrease of depressed moods.
Another study by the Sleep Foundation reported that 66% of people felt that a clean bedroom was important for a good night’s rest. In that same study, a clean bedroom ranked 3rd, after a comfortable mattress and sheets (see page 31), as an important element to creating a romantic bedroom environment.
And Indiana University, analyzed the lives of 998 African Americans and found that those with tidier homes were more fit and thus in a better position to combat the risks associated with cardiovascular disease. A health problem that disproportionally affects that race.
Now that I’ve given you the reasons for having a clean room, let’s see how you can make it happen.
Our main bedroom is, hands down, one of the easiest rooms in my home to keep clean. It wasn't always this way though. Believe it or not, that opening scenario used to play out in my bedroom more often than I’d like to admit. Having grown tired of the situation, the husband and I made some tough choices and worked as a team to get control of this area of our home.
We stopped eating in our bedroom (Confession: we do munch on chips every once in a while)
We removed the television, which helped us sleep better
Some might say our decision was extreme. But the tips I'm sharing are simply ones that work best for my household. In our case, making those two adjustments dramatically improved the sleeping comfort and organization of our bedroom.
Creating Zones to Organize Your Bedroom
If you live in, or have ever visited a townhome, you know that there are lots, and lots of stairs. I for one have no desire to tread all the way to the basement to iron a shirt, locate a sewing kit, or put laundry in a hamper. Nor do I want to leave the room to search for bed sheets and blankets. To make this room serve all of those needs, we established zones.
Ironing/Sewing
Laundry & Clothing Storage
Linen Storage
Personal Items
Ironing/Sewing
The cabinet shown above and below, is where we store our sewing kits, extra buttons, ironing equipment and solutions, and my ever growing collection of camera equipment. The basket with the the towels is what we present to guests when they come to visit. It's just here temporarily while I organize the guest room.
The husband can't get a good nights rest without a bit of white noise. So we keep a fan stationed on top of the cabinet.
Organizing the ironing supplies inside of a tray makes it much easier to pass it on to any overnight guests who might stay with us. We keep it stocked with a modest supply of water, starch, wrinkle release spray and of course, an iron.
The decorative pieces are from other projects. My intent was not to decorate the inside of this cabinet. It only seems intentional. Kinda cool with things like that happen unexpectedly.
Laundry and Clothing Storage
f you don't want a big mess of clothes all over your room, I highly recommend getting a hamper. What I like about the one we use is that it's small enough to be unseen when the door is open. But each of it's compartments is deep enough to hold at least 3 loads of clothing each.
Detailed pictures tend to explain things in a way that words cannot. So I labeled the dresser below with the items contained inside to show you how we organize the drawers. The bank of drawers to the left contain my things. Those to the right belong to the husband.
In spite of how organized I appear to be, no one is perfect. For many years, getting dressed in the mornings resulted our room looking like a tornado hit it. I simply could not, or did not have the time to put things back where I found them. I learned that the reason for my problem had a lot to do with the way I was organizing my drawers.
I was raised to organize my drawers in neatly folded stacks. When the item you want is on the bottom, however, what usually happens to the ones on the top when you pull it? You got it. They get yanked out of place.
ome years ago, I stumbled across a video which suggested that filing your clothes was a good way to organize your drawers. I tried it, and that has made all the difference. Now, when I pull one item out, the rest stay in place. Genius!
Bonus Tip: The trick to making the "filing" system work is to fold garments in the same way. If you have trouble keeping them exact, but want to attempt this, try purchasing a t-shirt folding board.
Several weeks back when I showed how I organize my linen closet, a reader asked: "How do you recommend storing the bed linens?” It was such a great question.
Most people expect to store bed linens in the linen closet. Since the only available shelf in my linen closet was more than 6 feet high, that idea simply did not work for me. Every time I'd reach for one sheet or pillow case, there would be an avalanche of linens falling all over my face. My solution to bed linen storage is a simple one. I store bed linens in the rooms where they will be used.
Bonus Tip: Use duvet covers to save on space.
In the beginning I had so many sets of sheets it was difficult to count them. This got me thinking. If I change my bed sheets every 14 days and I have 2 sets of sheets, that means that each set of sheets will be washed about 12 times a year. Not bad. If I increase that stash to 3 sets of bed sheets, they will each be washed about 8 times per year. Better. I have clothes that are washed way more often. The key here is to invest in higher quality sheets.
Bonus Tip: If you have trouble folding fitted sheets, check out this video from one of my favorite stores, West Elm
The drawer above slides into the bottom of my platform bed. I have one of these on each side of the bed. This is where the linens for this room only are stored.
Personal Spaces
I try to think of areas in my bedroom as: 1) his space, 2) my space and 3) common space. Setting aside a small area of the room for each person to have a personal space is imperative. Since the common spaces affect others, we try to keep them as neat as we can. Personal spaces however, are not usually in the open. So if one of us wants to ball up and store our clothes in our own drawer, so be it. This way, the space feels like it's all yours, even though you're still sharing it with someone else.
Side tables are the perfect spot to house each ones' personal interests, be they books, magazines, photos, oils, etc. If you use trays to hold your items, even a pile of loose change and receipts will look somewhat attractive.
Indeed, every need has been thought about and addressed. Later in the week, I'll be sure to share other comforts that you can introduce into your master bedroom to improve its function.
I know this was an unusually long post from me, but I think it was merited. I certainly hope you found it helpful. Please tell me in the comments below:
What tips did you take away from this post?
Can you recommend any hacks that I may have missed?
One more favor may I ask of you?
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Merci Beaucoup!