How to Clean Your Room in 4 Simple Steps
How many times have you pushed aside cleaning your room only to be met with a stubbed toe from tripping on a randomly misplaced shoe? Or sat in bed, quietly minding your own business as you watched your tenth episode of Parks and Rec and accidentally spilled your 64-oounce soda with a splash of coconut syrup and fresh lime on your shirt and sheets?
The truth is, cleaning your room is good for the soul, your health, and, yes, your bedsheets. And we're going to teach you how to do it right.
Why it's important to clean your room
Before we get down to it, though, we want to give you a healthy dose of motivation by sharing some of the benefits of cleaning your room.
-
A clean room improves your health. A study published by the Society for Personal and Social Psychology showed that women who described their homes as cluttered were more stressed, tired, and depressed than counterparts who described their homes as restorative and restful.
- A clean room saves you money. For one thing, if you keep your furniture in good condition by regularly cleaning it (e.g., dusting and polishing), it will last longer and save you money. Plus, you won't have to repurchase things you've misplaced in the Bermuda Triangle, aka your messy bedroom.
- A clean room makes you more likely to exercise. This sounds too good to be true, but it's not. A study conducted by Indiana University "suggest[s] that something about the condition of someone's residence drives physical activity ... or that people are being physically active while they keep their homes tidy."
Additional reasons include that something as simple as making your bed helps you get a better night's sleep and an orderly room increases your productivity. The evidence is ample: Cleaning your room is beneficial to your well-being.
Cleaning your room checklist
Step 1: Inventory check
As organizational guru Marie Kondo teaches, the first step to achieving a clean room is performing a thorough and complete inventory check. This process is simple but extremely important. Gather together the loose items in your room, including clothing, and get them together in one space (e.g., your bed, desk, dresser, etc.) so you can see everything you have.
Step 2: Get rid of what you don't need, want, or use
Now that you can see everything you have, you can move on to the fun part: Deciding what you want to keep. Marie describes this method as figuring out what items "spark joy" or make you happy.
When examining each item, ask yourself the following questions: Do I use this? Do I need it? Does this make me happy? If you answer yes to any of those questions, the item is good to stay. But if you can't, it's probably time to part ways.
Remember, charities like Goodwill and the Salvation Army are always looking for gently used donations, and they go to a good cause. And if you have books to get rid of, try donating to your local library. If you find you're strapped for cash, you can even try selling your items online via eBay, Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, or any other number of online marketplaces.
Step 3: Find a home for everything
Once you know what you're getting rid of, the cleaning and organizational process becomes much simpler. When everything in your room has a designated home, it's easier to find things, stay organized, and maintain a sense of calm in your space.
Wondering where everything should go or feeling like you don't have enough space? We've got some tips.
- Optimize door space. Using Command hooks, you can hang things like bathrobes, scarves, or jackets right on your door.
- Bed storage. Store necessary but infrequently used items (winter boots or clothes, extra blankets) under your bed using rollaway storage or bins.
- Invest in a pegboard. Pegboards are great for displaying jewelry or pictures, hanging small shelves, and everything in between. They are flexible, customizable, and cute. You can even DIY your own by following this tutorial.
- Utilize your nightstand. Since your nightstands holds everything from books to tissues, it should have ample space. If your current nightstand isn't doing the trick, think about how you can add more space. Do you need a new nightstand? Could you add a small basket somewhere to hold items like rings, cords, etc.? Figure out what works for you!
Step 4: Disinfect all surfaces
After you've organized your room and have everything in its place, it's time for the last, and arguably most important, step: disinfecting.
But sometimes figuring out where to start can be so overwhelming that you just grab an all-purpose cleaner, spray everything in sight, and call it good. Luckily, we're here to make it a little easier for you by creating a game plan.
- Strip your bed and wash your sheets.
- Rake any leftover surface clutter into the trash and empty your trash receptacle while your sheets are washing.
- Vacuum or sweep.
- Dust the various surfaces in your room like your desk, drawers, standing mirror, and doorframe with a dry microfiber cloth.
- Spray down your furniture using a safe cleaner and a rag, let sit for the recommended time, and wipe it off.
- Do the same with any loose items that need to be cleaned. Using the HomeSoap makes this step an absolute breeze; it kills 99.99% of germs* on anything that fits inside, from laptops to water bottles. If it fits, it can be disinfect.
- Remake your bed with clean sheets and you're done!
How to keep your room clean
Now that your room is looking spick-and-span, you may worry about how you can keep it looking clean.
There are all kinds of tips out there, but the best advice we've come across is to take 10 minutes a day to tidy your room. Some days, there may not be as much to tidy, so you can focus on wiping things down. Other days, you may spend all 10 minutes hanging up errant clothes.
Cleaning your room—and keeping it clean—doesn't have to be complicated. By following a few steps, you'll sleep better, feel healthier, and find greater joy and happiness at home. It's a little effort for a huge payoff, and it's totally worth it.
What are your best room cleaning tips? Tell us in the comments.
Related articles
- How to clean a shower head
- How to clean your room
- How to clean Velcro
- 3 foolproof ways to clean Iphone speakers
- The complete bathroom cleaning guide
*HomeSoap has been tested by an independent, third-party laboratory to be 99.9% effective against Salmonella, E. coli, MRSA, Staphylococcus, Coronavirus 229Ein. It has been tested on headphones, jewelry and baby bottles. HomeSoap has also been tested to be 99.9% effective against salmonella using ASTM 3535 for efficacy of UV light on hard non-porous surfaces such as glass, metals, and plastics.
