Clean Your Bedroom in 20 Minutes With This Checklist

Apartment Therapy’s September Sweep is a free 15-day decluttering program, guaranteed to leave you with a lighter, leaner home by the end of the month. Sign up here so you never miss a lesson, or go here to view all of the assignments so far.

If you share a home with family or roommates, your bedroom might be the only space that’s exclusively “yours”—and it does a lot of work being a living/dining/sleeping/storage space all at once. Or maybe you have an entire home to yourself, so your bedroom is really only for sleeping—but also living and storage, and sometimes dining, too.

The point is, we all do a lot of living in our bedrooms. And because they’re one of the most private spaces at home, they probably get the least attention when you’re tidying up for guests.

Today, take 20 minutes to clear a few things out of your bedroom and make it a more peaceful place to be tonight.

Do a 20-minute decluttering sweep of the bedroom.

We’ve done this a few times now, so you know what to do: Set a 20-minute timer and do as much as you can to get errant effects out of the bedroom before the clock runs out. It’s like your own little game show, and the prize is a less-cluttered bedroom.

• side tables and nightstands
• nightstand drawers
• the dresser top and other surfaces
• consoles and armoires
• closets and drawers where you keep linens or other non-clothing
• hooks and storage racks
• vanity tables
• open shelves
• under the bed
• on and inside a storage ottoman or bench
• the purgatory clothes chair

1. Books and magazines
2. Drinking glasses and mugs
3. Remote controls
4. Electronics
5. Phone chargers and cords that aren’t being used
6. Random objects and decor
7. Dingy or very old sheets and linens
8. Clothing tags and other trash
9. Hangers or sleeves to take back to the dry cleaners
10. Safety pins and bobby pins
11. Out-of-place grooming supplies or makeup
12. Jewelry out of its place
13. Clothes piled and draped where they shouldn’t be
14. Socks—so many socks
15. Shoes, handbags and accessories where they don’t belong

When time is up, stop decluttering. Everything you picked up during your 20-minute sweep should be taken out of the room and either returned to where it belongs, or sorted out of the house (into the trash or into your “sell” and “donate” boxes).

Clear three things from your monster zone.

All month long, we invite you to share your progress here in the comments and on Instagram with the #septembersweep hashtag. Or join our Apartment Therapists Facebook group to start your own conversation.

Just joining us? It’s not too late to sign up!