Organizing Your Home: The Master Bedroom (Part Two)

In part one, we began the task of cleaning up the master bedroom. Here, in part two, we will finish the job!

Today we will be getting at the closet and dresser areas. Two words of caution before starting: Baby steps! Remember, it didn’t get this disorganized overnight and it will most likely take a herculean effort to get it done! Okay, ready? Let’s get going then!

Begin by carefully opening your closet doors. Whether you have a walk-in style closet or the more basic type, it is most likely you have extras in there! The main reason can be as simple as not wanting to turn loose of all those nice clothes or you waiting to be able to get back into that dress or those pants that used to fit! Whichever it may be, it is time to down-size your clothing collection.

If you have “fat clothes” and “skinny clothes,” now is the time to be realistic and get rid of anything that you cannot wear RIGHT NOW. It obviously hasn’t done you any good to hope for a different size two months from now so far (and, be honest: that has been way longer than two months, right?!). It is time to pick out the best of what you have right now and will wear right now and keep only that.

If you’re retired or staying at home and no longer a part of the working world, now would be a good time to get rid of your work clothes. You can either donate them to a men or women’s shelter or even sell them online. It is imperative you do whatever you can to minimize the number of outfits in your closet. One of the benefits of doing this is that, when you keep only what you love, you’re likely to take better care of them.

Phew! Now that you’ve purged your closet of things unworn and out of style, take a good look at what’s left. It is time to organize what’s left by style of clothes. In other words, put blouses with blouses, skirts with skirts, shirts with shirts and pants with pants. Make it easy on yourself to find clothes in the morning! You can even organize the blouses or shirts into long sleeve and short sleeve locations.

Okay, you have done well Grasshopper! But, it is not time for you to go just yet! Take a deep breath and turn to your dressers. We are going to employ the same procedure as your closet; we are going to go through and get rid of that which you don’t wear often and don’t love. By doing this, you’ll be better able to close your drawers and keep what you have from looking rumpled! Pitch, donate, or sell—it’s your choice.

Now you only have one area left to address: your bedding and window treatments. Are you still okay with your decorations, or does your room still contain those big orange flowers of the 1970s? In addition, when was the last time you washed your bedspread and curtains? You might find that employing a quick trip through the washer and dryer can renew even the dingiest of bedding!

Strip everything off, take it to the laundry room, place it in the washing machine and apply lots of hot water and bleach (make sure your bedding is made to withstand the normal amount of bleach so as to not lose its coloration). Take it from the washer, place it in the dryer and once it’s dry, take it all back to your room. While you are making the bed and re-hanging the curtains, take a look around. If you still don’t love it, make plans to replace it. Remember: your room is to be a haven for you and a place you love to unwind and spend time in.

Congratulations—your master bedroom is done! You have a special, organized sanctuary in which to retreat from the stresses of life. Also, keep in mind that all of the steps you used to organize the Master Bedroom are easy to repeat in other bedrooms, too—let’s not neglect those!