Think about your bedroom. Close your eyes, and picture your bedroom as it is right now. Is it how you want it to be? Is it quiet and clean and organized? Does it help you get off to a great start everyday? Or is it the staging area for morning panic, a clusterfu*k of chaos, where you hop around on one boot while rummaging the depths of a crammed closet looking for another that's at least the same colour because the DAMN TRAIN IS LEAVING IN FIVE MINUTES.
This is NOT a post about the zen feeling you can hope to achieve by making your bed everyday and burning lavender and sage in a bowl made from unicorn bone. I don't make my bed everyday; I just fold the duvet cover down to let my broken dreams air out. Instead, what I look for in a bedroom is just some freaking space to keep my silver bangles and an easier way to find one of my 34 white tank tops in a jiffy. If you've been following my Get Your Sh*t Together series, you know that I am not about perfection (first, it's unattainable; and secondly, the people I meet who are closest to perfection bore the shit out of me, quite frankly). It's interesting to be imperfect, but if your bedroom is tidy and well put together, then you have more time to be interesting. It's simple personality math, folks.
My house is small - like, shoebox, post-war bungalow small - and I don't have an ensuite. That means most of my morning routine is done in my bedroom because bathroom time is at a premium with teens in the house. Adapt or die they say, and so I have learned to organize my bedroom to perform double duty. Some great tricks to making the most of a tight space come from necessity, and unless I dry my hair int he garage (lolz; don't have one of THOSE, either...) I needed to find ways to make my tiny dollhouse bedroom work. Here are some of my tricks:
I keep my favourite jewelry on a small dessert tray. It was $5 at Winners and holds 87% of my jewelry needs: It's on a long shelf I hung under my mirror, a few feet above my long dresser, because that wall space is wasted anyway and a shelf doubles my storage area.
Rather than have my hairdryer and hair tools taking up space in my dresser drawer or cluttering up the top of my dresser, I plugged them in with an extension cord so I have plenty of movement room and hung them on the hidden side of my dresser closest to the wall. They're there when I need them, but no one has to see them. Get the good hooks - the dollar store stuff isn't going to cut it here.
My closet is small to start with (more on that below) and I can't dedicate any shelf space to purses. A few "drunken Octopus" hooks and a cordless screwdriver to the rescue, and the back of my bedroom door hangs all my bags and purses where I can see and choose them easily.
Pool noodles in boots has probably saved me a few hundred dollars in replacing footwear before its time. They stand up perfectly, let air circulate throughout the whole foot, and prevent cracks in boots that may flop and be forgotten for a season or two. Plus, if you can't see it, you're not going to wear it. Cut the noodles down to size with a serrated bread knife and you can even write on the side with a Sharpie if you want to remember which set belong with which pair of boots.
The same "out of sight, out of mind" premise goes for your necklaces. Hang them where you can see them, but where they won't be in the way! I attached Octopus hooks to the back wall of my closet and hang my necklaces in groups according to colour and length so they are easy to locate. Any loose necklace pendants and brooches are safe in a snap-close plastic box, attached to the wall with adhesive velcro so I can take it down to look through when needed.
Here's a quick formula to determine how many tank tops you need: Your age + 105. That's it. That's how many you need.
But they're finicky and too small to fold easily and they don't really deserve a place on a hanger or your closet will be jammed. Slip them on a lanyard - if you have TONS of them you can group according to colour - and hang lanyard on hook.
HOOKS. I F*CKING LOVE HOOKS.
This scarf loop hanger is from Ikea (All hail The Mothership.) It also hangs at the back of my closet, so I can easily push the clothes aside to pick one and it doesn't use up any hanging bar real estate.
I haven't been to your house, but I'm willing to bet you have over 200 spare hangers. They're taking up too much space on your rod. Put the extras (a reasonable amount - no one wants to be a hanger hoarder) in a bin on the floor of your closet where you can grab one easily when you're hanging laundry. You ARE hanging your laundry, yes?
Keep a small basket next to your bed - one that can slide underneath the bed if possible. Use it for your hair bands, hand lotion, charging cords, TV remotes, Kleenex, book lights, "party toys," whatever. But keep that stuff off your nightstand if possible. Leave your table free to hold items that make you happy, like books and snacks!
And keep a pair of slippers or light shoes next to your bed at all times. If there's ever a middle-of-the-night emergency and you need to GET OUT of the house, you'll be glad you had something for your feet. It's a good habit to get into!
Implement a few of these small organizational tips into your closet or other rooms of your house where you're feeling the storage pinch. Before long it'll become second nature and you'll reach instinctively for something in the right spot AND GREAT GOD IN HEAVEN IT WILL BE THERE.
Now, that's livin'.
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