Designing and organizing a small bedroom can be difficult! The Today Show has a recent article with some great tips from a designer and certified professional organizers (CPOs) on how to find that perfect blend of practical, cozy, functional, aesthetically pleasing, and clutter free. The two professional organizers interviewed in this article just happen to be NAPO board members! They are Amy Tokos, CPO of Freshly Organized, and Sharon Lowenheim, CPO of Organizing Goddess, Inc. Here are some great tips for organizing small bedrooms from our friends at NAPO:
Know what you want the space to feel like.
Think through what you want your bedroom to feel like. If you want it to be calm, then you will need to make sure that everything has a home and there is no place for clutter to congregate. This includes the kind of storage you use. Open storage or clear bins with visible contents will make a space feel more cluttered than closed storage or woven baskets-one of our personal favorites.
Be purposeful with vertical space.
Take advantage of vertical space in the room. Instead of a short and wide dresser, go for a tall and thin dresser. Same principles apply when choosing book cases and any other furniture in the room. Stay away from short and wide furniture so that the wall space is being used and the floor space does not get overrun. Also remember to think vertically in closets as well. Stackable drawers are always on our list of recommendations as a great way to utilize vertical space.
Never put exercise equipment in the bedroom.
Exercise equipment is large and bulky and just takes up too much room. Lowenheim advises against ever putting exercise equipment in a bedroom as she has “…never seen a piece of exercise equipment that does not have clothes hanging on it”. Even the most enthusiastic of us will eventually turn exercise equipment into a place to hang clothes. Keep it out of small bedrooms!
Use a nightstand strategically.
Be deliberate in how you use a nightstand. If there is not room for one, invest in a bed headboard with built in cubbies or hang shelves near the bed. You can definitely think outside of the box for this one and really only use a nightstand to provide the additional storage that you need.
You can’t keep everything-let stuff go.
Tokos told TODAY that a small bedroom requires its resident to be somewhat of a minimalist because “…you have to be super intentional about what you put in it. You can’t keep everything”. As you are organizing your space, keep that in mind. Your space will feel calmer and more peaceful with less clutter.
Think outside the box.
In any small space, especially a small bedroom, it is important to use every available space. Under the bed, on shelves, inside the closet door, and so forth. You have to be creative and intentional to keep the space from feeling cluttered and looking messy. Use over-the-door shoe organizers for everything from shoes to scarves, command hooks for purses, jewelry, or towels and check out other products that our friends from NAPO recommend. We personally recommend adding drawer organizers to your drawers so that you can make the most use of every dresser drawer. You do have to be creative when working with a small space, but that can be a lot of fun!
Keep your paperwork organized.
If possible, try to not store paper in the bedroom. Choose another part of the house to keep documents and organize your paper there. As Lowenheim jokes, “Paper just has a tendency – it likes to congregate together. So it’ll make piles no matter what you do with it. In the middle of the night, it’ll creep together into a pile…”. File boxes – here are some specifically recommended by Tokos – and other organizing products are great ways to keep your paper organized regardless of its location.
For more on organizing small bedrooms, read this article here on TODAY. Do you have a small bedroom? Let us know your favorite or most challenging part to organize! Check out our Abundance Declutter Group on Facebook for more.