Room-By-Room Organizing Challenge | Month 10: The Master Bedroom

The master bedroom is a wonderful space to organize, because the return on your investment can be so life-changing.

What do you get from organizing your bedroom properly? Here’s what. Better sleep. More relaxation. Less stress. Better sex (I had to say it, sorry).

The #1 question that we ask OVER AND OVER again when working with clients in their master bedrooms is this: how’s your zen? In other words, does your bedroom relax you or rattle you? Satisfy you or stress you? Also, what does your bedroom give you? What do you need from it?

What We Need From Our Master Bedrooms

I base my judgement of an organized bedroom on the following four categories. Does it give you:

• Sleep
• Relaxation
• Intimacy
• Self-Care

What We Don’t Need from Our Master Bedrooms

The first thing I always look out for in a non-zen bedroom is a desk. A work environment in a bedroom can be a total mood killer. If you have a desk in your bedroom, you may not even be aware of this.

But think about it. A bedroom represents sleep, relaxation, intimacy and self-care. A desk represents work. It’s not hard to see how the symbolism of a workspace manifests itself subconsciously into the energy of the room and affects you. This goes for similar items such as filing cabinets, piles of paper, kid’s toys, things to mend or fix or take care of. These items all produce the same effect.

There are some exceptions to this. Here they are: If you have a studio apartment, you are renting a single bedroom in a home or if you are a college student.

But short of those scenarios, there is really no reason to have a desk in your bedroom. I would personally even discourage desks in teenager’s bedrooms. If you absolutely must have one, choose one with built in storage so that you can keep paper tidied away.

So now you know my stance on THAT topic. You may disagree, but I’ll bet you’re thinking twice about what items can be removed from your master bedroom that aren’t supporting your sleep, relaxation, intimacy and self-care.

Declutter, declutter, declutter

Getting organized in the bedroom is largely about decluttering. Once you have addressed the primary offenders, continue to remove items that don’t promote your zen. You should be left with very little apart from clothing, books and small personal items. If your master bedroom absolutely has to have another purpose aside from sleep, relaxation, intimacy or self-care, establish where that will be and create an organized zone to keep it contained.

If screens are a challenge for you, remove your TV from the bedroom. Create space for books and other relaxation-promoting items. Having a clean, clutter free environment is critical for healthy sleep.

Organizing in the Master Bedroom

Of course, all master bedrooms contain our clothes. For organizing tips on the master closet, check out month nine of the Room-By-Room Organizing challenge, the Master Closet. Make sure you have enough available drawer space for your clothing, and hooks in convenient places so that your “worn once” clothing is easy to wear again without going onto the floor. Place laundry baskets in convenient spots – we recommend one in the bathroom and closet – where clothing piles tend to accumulate.

Once you have removed unwanted items from the bedroom, you should be left with a few categories that need permanent housing. Electronics cords and chargers, memorabilia, personal care, jewelry and accessories are the most common.

We recommend a small bin with a lid for electronics, placed in a closet or under the bed. Memorabilia should go to an established location where other similar items are housed.

Jewelry and accessories are ideally best organized using vertical storage on the wall. Command hooks are great for necklaces, and can be placed on the back of a closet door or wall to keep hidden away. We also love these hanging jewelry organizers from The Container Store. For more ideas, here are five handy ways to organize your jewelry. Bins or hooks for hats, scarves and other accessories are also a great way to organize them.

By now, you should be rounding the finish line! Keep in mind that your goal is to only have items that support sleep, relaxation, intimacy and self-care. Keep editing until you get there – we promise it’s worth it.

Happy Organizing!