Organizing

I live in a small New York City apartment with roommates. I also love to meal prep and freeze leftovers for later, so those two facts mean that my freezer is often overcrowded and disorganized. On top of that, I also don’t have great freezer storage options. My freezer-safe food containers are awkwardly shaped, and small ice cube trays without a lid have made freezing things like soups and stocks a challenge.

As the place where you start and end your day, your bedroom should feel peaceful and tidy so you can rest and recharge with ease. But if it’s currently a mess, that can directly affect both of those things. That’s why it’s so important to declutter and organize your bedroom. Here’s how to declutter your bedroom, including where and what to look for.

It’s so simple!

When you think about the items cluttering your home, you might immediately think of the mail pile by the entryway, the “clothes chair” in your bedroom, or even hidden messes, like the ones behind drawers, cabinets, or closet doors. But there’s another type of clutter that’s just as important to address, even if it doesn’t feel as visible or physical as the rest.

I don’t know about you, but bread boxes aren’t exactly a part of my life. In fact, I don’t know if I’ve ever lived somewhere that had one — even when I was a young kid. The concept of a box just for bread never struck me as necessary, but I’ve since learned that there’s so much more you can do with a bread box, which makes this rustic-yet-elegant new find from IKEA all the more exciting — because it’s secretly a storage superhero.

When I lived in a studio apartment, anything I brought into my home had to have a really good reason to be there — whether it was a shoe rack that doubled as an entryway table, a storage bed that allowed me to store luggage underneath it or extra bedding in the two drawers it had, or even something as simple as vacuum bags that allowed me to minimize the amount of space off-season items took so I could free up more room for other things.

Clutter can sneak up on you if you’re not regularly decluttering your home and implementing organizational systems that actually work for you. One minute you’ll be tossing just one shirt onto your dedicated “clothes chair,” and the next there’s an entire wardrobe sitting there. Clutter can be even harder to tame when it’s hiding in a spot you’re not checking often.

It doubles as a colorful work of art.

They serve as functional decor.

Paper clutter is often one of the hardest types of clutter to sift through because it’s a blend of practical items you hold onto “just in case” (like receipts, bills, and bank statements) and sentimental things that you might feel slightly guilty about getting rid of (such as birthday cards, photos, and ticket stubs). Plus, it’s often spread out in piles across your home (think: a junk drawer, the entryway, or a closet).

It instantly elevated the space.

When it comes to closet organization, decluttering your clothes is essential. Whether it’s taking stock of items you no longer love, that don’t suit you, or that are beyond repair, it’s important to regularly declutter one of the main spots where you store your wardrobe. Here’s how to declutter your clothes like a pro organizer to give your closet the refresh it deserves.Before you start decluttering, think about why your closet gets so cluttered in the first place.